Windsurf · Foil era
2012
Windsurfers pass 50 knots at Lüderitz
In the dug channel at Lüderitz, Anders Bringdal becomes the first windsurfer over 50 knots; Antoine Albeau ends the season at 52.05.
50knots
First windsurfer past 50 knots, Anders Bringdal, Lüderitz, November 2012
When kitesurfers took the outright sailing speed record in 2008, they did it at Lüderitz in Namibia, on a course dug for speed. Four years later the windsurfers came back to the same place and broke their own barrier.
In November 2012 the Swedish sailor Anders Bringdal became the first windsurfer to sail faster than 50 knots over 500 metres, about 93 kilometres an hour. Sources give his speed as 50.43 or 50.46 knots.
Antoine Albeau went further. He broke the windsurfing record again and again during the event, and on 21 November ended at 52.05 knots, ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. A few days earlier, on 17 November, Zara Davis of Great Britain had set a women’s windsurfing record of 45.83 knots, beating a mark that had stood since 2005.
From then on the 500-metre windsurfing records were set at Lüderitz.