Interview with Pascal Maka about Speedsailing world record attempts

After Christophe Simian, now it’s time for Pascal Maka, Masters of Speed coordinator and race director, to tell Windsurfjournal.com his side of the 5 months spent on the canal at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The net result, personal memories, regrets, his view of the future !

Windsurfjournal.com : The Masters of Speed has just closed down, what do you see as the result of these 5 months of record attempts ?
Pascal Maka : As the coordinator of the Masters of Speed, I think it was generally a good result on the pure sport side, we didn’t miss a single opportunity of good conditions and we ended with that exceptional run of 49.09 knots by Antoine Albeau, plus the other two records, Productions boards for Patrik Diethelm and British record for Farrel O’Shea. The big thing missing from the session would have been a new women’s record. The girls waited too long. On March 5th the run was open from 8.00am and I told them it would be a good idea to go early, but they lost too much time and didn’t get there ‘til conditions were really radical. On the organization side it’s a positive result too, the team of Christophe Simian and Fabrice David is experienced and gets the job done. Plus this year we had a chauffeur, David, who helped the riders get back to the start ; plus we had two trained life saving swimmers on duty, plus the local emergency services for big, radical days like March 5th. As for the press coverage, Tanguy Blondel did an excellent job, we’ve been working with Tanguy for media stuff for the last 3 years. He’s basically had them all on standby ever since and called them up again on 3rd January. And they came good when he called on the 5th March, without doubt it was all helped by Albeau’s nationality compared to Finian Maynard, a Frenchie breaking the record is much more interesting than a foreigner doing it, specially at an event in France. And Thierry from SEMIS also helped a lot with press relations on the MoS.
WJ : So, windsurfing gives way to the Hydroptere and the kitesurfers who are both about to kick off attempts, how do you feel about that ?
PM : To be perfectly honest, back in September I hoped to see a windsurfer break the 50 knot barrier, be it Finian, Antoine or anyone else, but definitely a windsurfer ! The Hydroptere isn’t exactly in the same category as us, but they’re making great progress and their performances will enable multi-coque boats to go much faster in open sea conditions. The kitesurfers, who are much closer to us, have the advantage of being able to ride in just 5cm of water. That gives them a bit of an advantage. The board pressure on the water gives them a kind of grip that reduces their drag. But the potential is obviously there ! Maybe they’ll beat the 50 knots, maybe the Hydroptere, we’ll see !

WJ : What’s your lasting memory of this MOS 2007 !2008 session ?
PM : I’ve got three main memories, all from the 5th March. The first is to have seen Antoine Albeau and the others battling to get up from water start at the top of the run, in a mega wind and having to get straight onto a fairly agitated run and ankle-snapping chop !!! You don’t often see competitors having to battle so hard against the elements in competition. The second is to have seen Albeau pushing himself and his equipment to the very limits ! The fact of sailing on the edge like that all through the day, that’s what helped him get the stability required to be able to make that run and beat the record. ! You can sail within yourself on a day like that but that won’t help you hit top speeds. The last is seeing David Garrel’s rig literally ripped out of his hands and flying off more than 2 kilometers, which will give you a very good idea of how radical conditions were on that March 5th day !

WJ : Do you feel the 50 knot mark is as close as people seem to think ?
PM : It’s close and far off all at once ! It won’t be easy but Albeau’s 49.09 knots and Maynard’s 48.70 give me confidence. We need all the elements to be ideal then we’ll get there !

WJ : After that new world speed sailing record on the 5th March is the canal more than ever the ultimate speed weapon for record breaking… ?
PM : Once again the canal has proved itself as THE place for breaking records, and there’s still room to improve it ! And it’s no coincidence that the big names come to ride here, that means they believe it too !

WJ : What are your future plans, can we hope to see another Masters of Speed in 2008/2009 ?
PM : It’s a bit soon just now to be announcing an MoS 2008/9, but I’m seriously thinking about it, I want to see that 50 knot mark beaten ! Even if the kitesurfers do manage to break 50 knots this year, that just means we’ll have to go and try for 54 knots, which is 100kph ! I’ll be having a meeting soon with Chrisophe Simian to discuss it all !

Interview by www.windsurfjournal.com

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