Speed Freak Season

It it's October, it must be time for the speed junkies to start assembling in southern Africa.

Paul Larsen and his Vestas SailRocket team, along with yet another version of SailRocket, have arrived in Walvis Bay, for about 7 weeks of sailing, hoping that this time, finally, they have cracked the code on all the weird things that boats and foils do at 60 miles per hour have been sorted.

Here's a teaser, which gives you a sense of just how persistent this team has been:

Larsen and SailRocket are still gunning for the 55.65 knots (64 mph) outright speed record set by kitesailor Rob Douglas.

Douglas set that mark at the 2010 Luderitz Speed Challenge. Luderitz is the custom seed-sailing ditch in Namibia, that has been further modified for the upcoming November-December 2012 Speed Challenge. Already the kiters are gathering and doing their thing, and Seb Cattalan just put up a top speed of 55.5 and averaged 52 over 500 meters (which is the world record course distance).

Here's a wrap-up of last year's Luderitz action:

So how are you going to bet on? Larsen or the kiters?

You get the feeling that Larsen will have a hard tme chasing down the kiters, who have so much less equipment and gear to deal with. But you never know, and that's why this speed season will be exciting to watch.

So buckle in and stay tuned.