Objective: To create the fastest sailboat in the world and break the record of 120 km/h while sailing the seas

The SP80 and Syroco teams have launched their extraordinary boats. With the appearance of a couple of alien spaceships and propelled by ultra-fast kites instead of sails on masts, both machines are built to reach terrifying and unprecedented speeds.

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The current world speed sailing record has been held for just over a decade at 65.37 knots (121.06 km/h), set by Paul Larsen on the Vestas Sailrocket II back in 2012. The maritime industry is in a revolution.

There’s a reason why no one has gone faster: rigid masts provide excellent leverage, so when attempting to harness wind force seriously, they tend to tip the boat over.

Two completely different designs

But records are meant to be broken, and both the SP80 team and Syroco are taking radically different approaches from Larsen’s. Both teams have set a target speed of 81 knots (150 km/h), hoping to shatter the current record.

And both are using massive kites to prevent tipping, and both have come a long way since their journey began in 2021.

If it were a beauty contest, SP80 would take the crown. This elegant trimaran could be 3D modeled, coated in silver, set against the backdrop of Naboo, and have Natalie Portman stepping out of the cabin for a Star Wars movie.

This 10.5 meters (34.4 feet) design has the capacity for two people tandem: one in the rear seat to handle the kite attached to a control arm located behind the cabin, and another to steer it. The design focuses on keeping all three hulls in contact with the water, so that the high-speed airflow doesn’t tip it over.

In August, the SP80 team took it to Lake Geneva, where it reached speeds of 30 knots being towed by a boat, to compare the aerodynamic resistance measurements with the computer predictions. Check it out:

The team is now fine-tuning the sail part, starting small and gradually increasing the size, power, and speed over time.

One is a spaceship, the other is… we don’t know

As for Syroco, it’s foolish to call it a boat. The team calls it a “weightless yacht,” but it’s essentially a kite with a line that descends more or less straight down to the water, where it connects to a hydrofoil wing. When the hydrofoil and the kite pull against each other, the line becomes taut.

In the middle of the line, there’s a kind of shark-shaped hull and cabin that rises out of the water, hanging several meters in the air while the “boat” sails.

It must be the first hydrofoil design we’ve seen where the hull and foil are connected by a flexible high-tension line rather than a solid support.

The speed of hydrofoilers is naturally limited to around 100 km/h due to a process called cavitation, where the hydrofoil wing creates a high-pressure area on one side and a low-pressure area on the other, and the low-pressure area drops so much that the water begins to vaporize, creating enormous resistance.

This team has had prototypes flying since late 2021. Initially, the kite was replaced by a crane arm attached to a support boat, but now it’s up and flying solely on wind power, with a small attached kite.

Possibly due to the low wind speeds they’re testing with, but my goodness, this thing looks incredibly unstable. Take a look:

I suspect the folks at Air Syroco might need to stock up on a few airsickness bags when they start putting real people on board. And if you don’t believe me, watch the video above.

Both teams will continue refining, tweaking, testing, and speeding up, and we’re eager to see how far these strange designs can go. It’s certainly fun to have two innovative and resourceful teams chasing the record simultaneously.

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