PD World Peak Speed Record



March 2004 -- 6.1 MPH -- set by David "Shorty" Routh
I was sailing around The Woodlands Lake on a very gusty day. The lake is a very small one, and it is rather long and skinny. This day, the wind was blowing length wise which enabled the wind to be un-obstructed by the trees and houses that line the shore. I had just created a spinnaker for BucketEars from an old ripped sunfish lateen and was testing it out on a beam reach. I reset the GPS to see what kind of peak speed I could get. I had been hanging on for a few gusts, and then suddenly this really big gust came along. It blew and blew, and I had to climb over the stern to keep the hull from pitch poling. The water was squirting out the side of the hull at a point further back than it normally was, pretty sure that I was up on a plane. After the gust died, I looked at the GPS and to my surprise, I had peaked out at 6.1 mph.