Lüderitz Speed Challenge: Björn Dunkerbeck reports from Lüderitz - Albeau scores first top result

After a few test sessions on the open sea at Diaz Point near Lüderitz, the specially dredged channel opened for the first time on Wednesday. A total of 50 runs were completed, with Antoine Albeau achieving the best value by far with 46.3 knots. He was therefore faster straight away than in La Palme. Gunnar Asmussen is currently right behind him, but at 42.62 knots the gap is very clear so far.

Speed surfers hope for the perfect South Easter

Björn Dunkerbeck's best value on Wednesday was 41.35 knots. He reports: "First day on the canal, the wind was between 20 and 30 knots, so unfortunately not as strong as it could have been. The wind came from a direction of around 200 to 210 degrees, which is roughly south-south-west. On the canal, you sail very much on a downwind course, which is of course not ideal. Perfect is between 170 and 180 degrees, that's exactly south, with a slight easterly touch, then you can surf right along the edge at full throttle," describes Dunki.

But the prospects are good: "The next wind window will be on Monday and Tuesday, so we hope that the wind direction will be a bit better," says Björn. The mood among the speed surfers who have come to Namibia is certainly good: "The channel is full, everyone had their training runs on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun, even if it wasn't quite as fast as we would have liked. But it was very good for familiarisation, the speed is great and we're hoping for a really good South Easter for the next round. Now it's back to training at Diaz Point!"

• Preliminary report: Lüderitz Speed Challenge underway - Dunkerbeck and Albeau on the hunt for records

How the Lüderitz Speed Challenge is measured

Manfred Fuchs has described exactly how measurements are taken on the canal in Lüderitz: "You don't even need to set off in the 150 metre long start box in winds of less than 30 knots, otherwise you will fall out of the glide again after the 35-degree bend towards the start line. The start and finish line at a distance of 501 metres are permanently monitored with special 50 fps cameras (frames per second). At a speed of 50 knots, you cover around 25 metres per second, which means you get an image every 50 cm. The images of the start and finish contain GPS time stamps, allowing an accuracy of around 2 ms to be achieved by linear interpolation of successive images at intervals of 20 ms (thousandths of a second). The same system is also used in the French speed area La Palme and is recognised by the WSSRC for the verification of records.

In Lüderitz, specially developed GPS devices are also used for live ranking, which measure the position and speed of the participants up to 20 times per second (20 Hz). Their sail numbers and the start and finish gates are programmed in so that the average speed can be determined after crossing the lines. Using small transmitters, the sail number, finish time and speed are then transmitted 20 metres after the finish line to a receiver, which then forwards these results to the start area and the internet. Those waiting in the start box can also see on a display how fast the last run was and try to beat this result!"

Some of the top drivers of the Lüderitz Speed Challenge 2024

• You can follow the speeds at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge live here

More about speed surfing:

• These are the speed records in windsurfing
• Melek Toraman - Germany's fastest female windsurfer
• Speed surfing - the best tips from Andy Laufer
• From building contractor to speed surfer: how Andrea "Principe" Baldini became the "Prince of Speed"