The kite-powered SP80 has achieved a new top speed of 51 knots in Leucate, France, taking them one step closer to their stated aim of beating the world speed record before summer 2025. The current sailing speed record stands at 65.45 knots and was set in 2012 by Paul Larsen aboard Vestas Sailrocket II. 

To achieve the record, the SP80 team is pinning their hopes on the engineering behind the boat. It has a custom-designed foil, which the team says is built to propel it past 1500 kpm/h.

Celebrating aboard SP80. Photo: Guillaume Fischer

‘This run above 50 knots allowed us to finally observe the behaviour of our foil in a speed range that remains largely unexplored in the world of sailing,’ explains Benoît Gaudiot, the kite pilot aboard SP80.

‘We deliberately slowed the boat down just before reaching 52 knots as a precaution, but our analysis of the data indicates that it did not encounter any major barriers. This is extremely promising for the future!’

‘The boat is now close to its full technical potential,’ explained SP80 pilot Mayeul van den Broek. ‘The challenge for Benoît and I now is to sail as much as possible to master the boatʼs behaviour from 0 to over 70 knots. We need to fine-tune our trajectories, improve our synchronisation, and push the machine even further.’

SP80 in 2025. Photo: Guillaume Fischer

The team launched the latest version of the boat in January 2025, and five days later, in February, SP80 set an average speed of 41.35 knot over the record distance of 500 meters.

‘Since the boatʼs relaunch at the start of 2025, the weather has not always been favourable, with winds often too light to accumulate significant sailing hours. But with each outing, we can feel it the logistics are running smoothly, the boat wants to go faster… all we need now is more time on the water to unleash its full potential!’

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The SP80 journey

The team behind SP80 started in 2017 when one of the three founders Benoît Gaudiot, built super-ventilated fins for a kiteboard. As an experienced kiteboard sailor, Gaudiot quickly reached 41 knots. However, he realised then that ‘The body cannot handle the power that is required to reach more than 60 knots.’

Another founder, Xavier Lepercq, built a simulation tool and began developing designs. The creators created a trimaran concept powered by a kite with an aligned force balanced by a water surface-piercing foil.

One of SP80‘s first high-speed runs in 2025. Photo: Guillaume Fischer

In 2020, they tested a prototype on Lake Geneva and, in June 2021, began building the entire boat at Persico Marine.

By 2022, the SP80 team planned to challenge the record in the south of France early in 2023, and Paul Larsen was looking forward to it. At the time, Larsen commented, ‘I think the SP80 is a practical solution… I think SP80 is probably closer to getting results. And I want to see how a kite’s going to go against the [Sailrocket] wing because historically wings are faster.’

Hitting 50 knots is undoubtedly an impressive feat for the SP80 team. Indeed, some considered this an absolute upper limit for wind-powered, waterborne craft at the turn of the century.

SP80 from the beach in the south of France. Photo: Guillaume Fischer

However, there are 25 knots of average speed before bettering Larsen’s record and becoming the world’s fastest boat. Every knot thereafter becomes more challenging to achieve.

The SP80 team hopes their first official record attempts will take place this spring at their base in Leucate, Occitanie. Their latest speeds mean the speed sailing world will be eyeing their progress with renewed interest.

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