With so many people asking “what is it like” to sail this boat at this speed, we thought it was time to do a more ‘pure’ edit of our fastest, final incredible run.

This run shows Vestas Sailrocket 2 absolutely smashing the outright world speed sailing record and easily becoming the sports first true 60+ knot boat. She averaged 65.45 knots over the 500 meter course and hit a peak speed of 68.33 knots (78+ mph, 126+ kmh).

Beware, this contains the actual audio from the helmet of the Australian pilot… and there was swearing.

 Outright World Speed Sailing Record holder, VESTAS Sailrocket 2 © Helena Darvelid / VESTAS Sailrocket 2 had it covered from many angles and all those little cameras cost us a little bit of speed… so we might as well use all the footage that was captured. All the shots here are from the third run of the day and are edited to the actual voice recording of the pilot in real time.

video shows the full sequence of a full run from being released from the support RIB to burning down the 500 meter course in under 15 seconds… and of course the celebration that ensued.

Some of the details to look out for are when the leeward side of the boat buries underwater whilst trying to get started and when the big, low speed rudder drops down at speed on the back float (you can see it kick the boat sideways at the start of the high speed section).

by Paul Larsen