Weymouth Speedweek 2022

2022 will be the 50th anniversary of Weymouth Speedweek!    Although this is not an AYRS event as such, the AYRS has a long association with Speedweek and the AYRS will once again be holding a meeting on the Wednesday evening of Speedweek. For 2022 this will be October 19th and the meeting will be held at the Weymouth Sailing Club,  Nothe Parade,  DT4 8TX. I think the clubhouse will be open from 19:00.  These meetings are for discussing advances in sailing technology relating to all kinds of boat, not just kites and boards. Indeed, this year we are expecting at least a couple of rather special visitors to Speedweek and to our Wednesday meeting:

Benoit Gaudiot, a co-founder of the SP80 project plans to be at Speedweek – At our Wednesday evening meeting he will present his team’s project to challenge the unlimited world speed sailing record.   Like the current record holder Paul Larsen’s ‘SailRocket’, the SP80 concept balances the lateral and upwards force from an inclined aerofoil with the lateral and downward force from an inclined hydrofoil. The most obvious difference is that whereas SailRocket connects the aerofoil and hydrofoil with a ridgid streamlined pole, SP80 uses an advanced kite design as the aerofoil and connects this to the hydrofoil via kite strings.  For more detail see https://sp80.ch/

James Grogono, pioneer of Hydrofoil Sailing hopes to be at Speedweek and to give a presentation at the Wednesday evening meeting. James developed the Icarus hydrofoil catamaran that was the first sailing hydrofoil to sail in the UK and a new team is now working to restore this boat and get it sailing again.  If at all possible they will have it sailing at Weymouth this year but I hear that there is curently some uncertainty about finding a mast to complete the rig.  I would also mention that James has recently published his sailing autobiography titled ‘A Dozen Tots of Grog’.  This covers not only the early development of hydrofoil sailing but a wide variety of boating adventures in craft large and small. You can get a copy for £10 from Ebay.co.uk – just do a search in the Ebay search box for ‘A Dozen Tots of Grog’.

In recent years the great majority of  Weymouth Speedweek competitors have been kite and wind surfers, so if you would like to see what world class kite and wind surfers can do these days just come to Weymouth Speedweek – its a free event for spectators. Both kites and windsurf boards are now sailing on hydrofoils and the equipment has improved so much that high speeds are achievable in quite light winds.  At the 2021 event, around 30 knots was achieved with both kites and windsurf sails in something around Beaufort 3 – if you don’t think that is possible come to Portland in October and see for yourself!   Despite the majority of competors being on rather small boats (i.e. boards), Speedweek is about the development of performance sailing craft of all kinds. With hydrofoils now being applied to all sizes of sailing craft I expect we will see experimental boats back at Speedweek – I know that the AYRS does have members with appropriate projects underway.  Maybe this year, but if not before too long I hope!

chairman@ayrs.org