Finian Maynard who sailed his 38cm wide Hybrid board with 5.5 asymmetrical Dan Kaseler-designed sail at 46.24kts last December, breaking the world windsurfing speed record, has had his feat ratified by the World Speed Record Council.

On the canal in St Marie de la Mer, France, in 40kts of easterly wind on 3 December 2003, Maynard, who’s from the British Virgin Islands, clocked his top 46.24kt speed (averaged over the 500m course) and came astonishingly close to the outright world speed record of 46.52kts, currently held by the Australian Simon McKeon on Yellow Pages Endeavour.

To break McKeon’s 11-year uncontested outright world speed record Maynard has to increase his average velocity by 0.3kts or take 0.14 seconds off the total elapsed time over the course.

Interestingly though, Maynard is not the only one champing at the bit ready to go for the big one; he has a bit of company which could see him re-assessing his strategy. Paul Larsen’s sailrocket project (see previous news story here) is nearing completion and should be in the water by the end of February. This craft is definitely going to be fast but it will be interesting to see how it handles in 40kts of wind!