PRINCE OF SPEED

La Palme in the South of France recently hosted the latest speed sailing world championships, which saw the world's fastest sailors going head-to-head in the battle for glory, while trying to tame the ferocious Tramontana winds. We hear from event champions, Vincent Valkenaers and Heidi Ulrich, as well as the UK's Scotty Stallman.

- Peter Davis, Vincent Valkenaers, Heidi Ulrich & Scotty Stallman

The International Speed Windsurfing Class (ISWC) World Championships recently finished on the beautiful La Palme beach in Cöte du Midi, South of France. The area is renowned for strong winds, known as the Tramontana, and this beach is perfectly set up for this direction with the wind blowing offshore at a long straight sandy beach. It's a speed sailing Nirvana.

This famous beach of La Palme is the location of multiple official national and world records for the nautical mile, which it is best known for. It is the best natural high wind straight beach in the world and even rivals Lüderitz in Namibia, which has a purpose built canal, for some 500m records. It regularly has winds in excess of 50 knots, so it really is the perfect place to stage the ISWC World Championships for the second consecutive year.

And it didn't disappoint... it was on fire from day one with speeds of over 45 knots being recorded over the 500m course. The conditions were brutal with a lot of chop on the course and it suited the very experienced racer and current world speed record holder - Antoine Albeau - who won last year's event, so it's safe to say he knows the spot well and he was the early leader after posting a 45.47 knot run.