One of the oldest "races" on planet earth is the Winduro in Seattle. It is an annual event to round Mercer Island on Lake Washington. Since the wind varies a lot due to islands, bridges, peninsulas, narrow channels, wide channels, bridge chop, you name it, it is a grueling test of stamina and strategy (what gear to ride and what size sail). It is held in October when the autumn south winds are dominant. Over the years the longboards have done the best. However, in more recent years, formula boards have done ok as long as they could keep planing. Even then the longboards still had the most consistent performance in the wildly variable conditions and did the best. In the past 2-3 years, however, winDfoils and winGfoils have gotten into the act and are now setting new records for the shortest times. (My best time ten years ago was 5:30 on a formula board when I had to slog about half the course--yuck.) This time the best windfoiler finished in 1:27. There were three winGfoilers who finished 1:38, 1:51, and 1:51. Amazing.
This year everyone carried some kind of gps device and submitted their tracks to Alan, who compiled all their tracks into a fantastic video. This is great viewing. Thanks, Alan.
Really cool. I knew it would possible to sail around Mercer when I lived there but didn't have the skills to try at the time. That's quite a long trip. I would poke around the corner of my cove and check out the 520 span there from one of those pieces of land that has the ridiculously nice houses and then turn around and slog back home.
Incredible you did the 5+ hour trip though. I would've cramped up like crazy.
