The world's fastest man

We talk to Finian Maynard about the new world sailing speed record he set on Saturday

Although awaiting formal ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, Finian Maynard is now the world's fastest man under sail.

On Saturday Maynard set a new world record averaging 46.82 knots over a World Sailing Speed Record Council standard 500m course, beating the previous record of 46.52 knots set by the Australian C-Class speed sailor Yellow Pages that had stood for 11 years. Today Maynard again managed to break Yellow Pages' record with a run averaging 46.6 knots.

Although of Irish origin, Maynard heralds from the British Virgin Islands where his family moved when he was six years old and in the heavily water-orientated environment of this Caribbean hotspot took up sailing when he was seven. Aged 18 he graduated as far as the World Cup windsurfing circuit initially as a racer and became interested in speed sailing seven years ago when one of his sponsors, the French board company Ace, enticed him to take part in a speed sailing event. "I got a fourth place or fifth place and then I went to my second speed event I came second to Thierry Bielak, who at the time was still strong," says Maynard. "Then I decided to get into it a bit more and started winning events and it just went from there."

Since then Maynard has been the Professional Windsurfing Association's Speed World Champion four years in a row from 1998-2001.

Speed sailing for windsurfers was at its zenith in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At this time the likes of Pascal Maka, Eric Beale and Thierry Bielak were continually breaking the ultimate world record for speed under sail until this returned to the world of sailboats with Yellow Pages' 46.52 knot run in 1993. Maynard admits that since then speed sailing among windsurfers has waned.

However 'speedsurfing' is now on the up again and in January this year the International Speedsurfing Association was set up to revitalise the specialised aspect of the sport. Next year the Association will be holding specialist speed sailing events for windsurfers in France, the Canary Islands, Namibia and Taiwan over 100m, 250m and 500m courses. The International Speedsurfing Association is the official body that will handle windsurfer records, with the exception of the ultimate speed record which remains in the hands of the WSSRC.

In addition to the ISA events there are private events such as the Masters of Speed. This is currently taking place for the second consecutive year on the French trenches at Saintes Maries de la Mer in the south of France and it was during this three month long event that Maynard set his record this weekend.

"There has been a big movement coming back over the last two years so it is great that we have got this world record now - it is good timing," says Maynard.

Conditions this weekend in the trenches have been good but not ideal he says. Although the site has a network of trenches to cater for different wind directions, the main 1km long trench used for record breaking is orientated WSW-ENE and is usable in the northerly Mistral and in the southwesterly Marin winds. This weekend it was the Mistral's turn to blow.

"It was hard conditions," says Maynard. "The north wind is really tough compared to the southeast wind. So it has been a really rough two days for everybody." The optimum conditions on the main trench are in the Marin wind. "It is much faster because it is more regular. Right now, the Mistral wind is not so regular, it is very gusty. When the wind is on the other side you get much more regular wind down the run and it is much more comfortable and with comfort comes speed."



Because the Marin wind is less gusty Maynard says it doesn't need to be as strong, maybe 35-40 knots and as a result the water is also flatter - another crucial ingredient for going fast. His ultimate record breaking scenario would be 45 knots from the southwest. "Then we would have a good chance of a very very high speed."

On Saturday when Maynard set the record it was blowing 35-50 knots during the day, peaking at 60 knots by dusk at which time it was too windy to sail. For his record it was blowing a solid 45, conditions that repeated today allowing him to pull out another 46.6 knot run this morning. "That was cool - I broke it twice. Now the conditions are pretty good but I am pretty tired and I’m just trying to wait and see what’s happening later this afternoon. I am finished energy-wise and I’ve had a couple of crashes, because the wind has clocked around a little bit today. We thought it was going to be faster, but you get a bit of chop on the run when the wind clocks around it is a lot more difficult."

Speedsurfing differs from conventional windsurfing in many ways. Firstly all the record holders tend to be big guys. Maynard is 6ft 3in tall and weighs in at 117kg. In theory someone lighter might go equally quick with a smaller sail or in less wind, but Maynard says this is not the case.

"When you are windsurfing you have a lot of righting moment and with that righting moment it is very difficult when you are lighter to stop it and when your rig starts moving to leeward a lot you start losing a lot of your power and speed. That’s why the heavier guys can sit on it more, they can sit down and stop losing righting moment."



Equally all the gear Maynard uses is not off the shelf and he has spent considerable time developing specialist speed gear with his backers. His rig is set up with an asymmetric boom instead of a wishbone, thus reducing drag from the leeward side of the sail. While his sails are asymmetric (designed to be used on one tack) and made by Naish Sails in Hawaii, his boards are from F2 and his mast from Maverx. His foils have been especially developed by French company Deboichet to minimise cavitation at high speed - a common problem with speed sailing vessels. Development has even extended to his clothing - his 'speed suit' is made by ProLimit from a special low-drag material as used by the Dutch national speed skating team.

For Maynard and the International Speedsurfing Association the goal is to make it above 50 knots, the equivalent in sailing terms of the breaking the sound barrier.

The question remains with so many people gunning for this - not just the sailboarders but Yellow Pages in Australia, Paul Larsen and SailRocket and the Swedish team - who will be the first to 50 knots?

For Maynard and the 12 other windsurfers taking part in the Masters of Speed event they will be continuing to make attempts through until December and possibly into January if conditions are right. Our money is on them or Yellow Pages.