Antoine Albeau sails 53.27 knots in the Lüderitz channel

Lüderitz is a small harbour town on the Namibian coast where the wind blows hard and steady across a lagoon. For the Lüderitz Speed Challenge a narrow, shallow channel has been dug there, angled so that the wind crosses it at the ideal angle for pure speed: flat water, a great deal of wind, and a 500-metre course timed by video.

In November 2015 Antoine Albeau, the French sailor who has collected more than twenty world titles in slalom, racing and other disciplines since 1994, ran the channel at 53.27 knots, just under 99 km/h, a new outright windsurfing record over 500 metres.

The number stood for nine years. At the 2024 edition of the same event Albeau raised it to 53.49 knots, and the World Sailing Speed Record Council ratified that run, together with Jenna Gibson’s 48.02-knot women’s record, in February 2025. The channel remains the fastest place in windsurfing, and the distance between the records of the early 1980s and today’s is well over ten knots.