La Palme Speed Challenge

Les Salins, La Palme, France was the location this spring for a world speed sailing record attempt from March 12 - April 30. Sanctioned as a private record attempt by the WSSRC (world speed sailing record council). World and national speed sailing record holders and a select band of invited sailors made the journey to the South of France to try out a new canal by its designer, UK speed sailing legend, Erik Beale. We caught up with Erik and fellow Brits, Zara Davis and Farrel O’Shea to learn more about the new addition to the speed event calendar.

- Zara Davis, Erik Beale & Farrel O'Shea

ZARA DAVIS

There had been rumours for a couple of years about a speed spot and a WSSRC world record attempt in the south of France. The area is well recognised by the GPS speed boys and girls at a spot known as La Franqui. But nothing had ever come of it. So it was a big surprise when I got a message from Erik Beale saying I was invited to take part in a world record attempt at a new speed spot called La Palme in the South of France. It was very last minute to say the least, I had one week to make my mind up and the event started 3 weeks later!

Logistically it was a bit of a nightmare too, as we were in Tenerife at the TWS slalom training camp with all my Slalom gear, our van and our dog, Ziggy. All my speed kit was tucked away in our garage at home in the UK, so the only answer was a call to ‘FAZTERNATIONAL RESCUE’, a.k.a. my friend and sponsor, Farrel O’Shea.

After numerous Skype calls and lots of cups of tea we hatched a plan for me to fly home and get our speed kit to Farrel via Jim Brooks in South Wales so Faz could bring it down to La Palme in his van. We had to shorten our time in Medano and book a new ferry to get there in time for the start. Easy!

For me the motivation for doing this challenge was the buzz of somewhere new to speed sail. I had been to Namibia 6 times in the quest for my fastest speed and been amply rewarded with two world records, but this was a new spot with a reputation for nuclear winds, so I paid my money and set off for La Palme.