Kite-Powered Sailboat Aims to Conquer World Sailing Speed Record

This kite-powered sailboat is out to smash the world's sailing speed record

We talked to SP-80, the company behind the boat, to find out what it's like to sail this thing and design a vessel for such high speeds

The record that the SP-80 team is aiming at has three rules set by the World Sailing Speed Record Council

The record holder must reach the highest average speed over 500 meters, have at least one person on board, and use only the wind as their source of energy

With those rules in mind, the SP80 team came up with this design that some might say looks more like a spaceship than a sailboat

There are always two pilots on the boat. Benoit is managing the kite, I'm steering the boat

And we need to have a really good coordination. You're sitting in these cockpits, protected from the wind, from the water

We don't hear that much the environment. It's changing a lot from conventional sailing when you're feeling the gust and the wind

them The team opted to make their boat a trimar has three has three hulls Two hulls on the side add stability while the gaps between them reduce the amount of hull contact with the surface of the water

Less hull touching the water means less area for the water to exert drag on the boat, which

would slow it down. Hydrofoil sailboats have taken this lack of drag to the extreme, but they aren't always

as stable. There is still a foil element to the SP-80 boat though

A superventilating foil helps keep the boat in the water and prevent it from being carried away by its giant kite-like sail, which I'll get to in a second

Superventilating isn't like hyperventilating, it just means that the bubbles of evaporated water that form on a normal hydrofoil and make it unstable and hard to accelerate beyond 100 kilometers an hour are prevented because of the special shape of this hydrofoil

Something really similar to the sound barrier for airplanes. And the foil is the main drag element on the boat

Some still have limits a little bit higher than 55 knots. And so we try to push it even further

as long as we keep the boat stable and have enough power to push it further Now let talk about that sail or should I say kite When it that far from the boat it becomes a little unclear

It's still built like a conventional kite. It's also inspired a lot from paragliding

The fabrics are coming from paragliders, skit surfing, also sails. It's a mix of all these worlds

SP80 says the kite was chosen for its speed, safety, and control

And changing the kite's size can help the team adjust to various wind conditions

Speaking of conditions... Speed sailing is really a particular thing in sailing

We are doing a straight line and going as fast as possible. It's a bit of a drag race

We need a wind coming from the shore, so we can sail really close to the shore and have really flat water

We are sailing in south of France, I think one of the best in Europe for speed sailing

The current world sailing speed record holder is Paul Larson who piloted the Vesta SailRocket 2 to a top speed of 65 knots which is more than 75 miles an hour for all you landlubbers out there

Unbelievable! The last speed record was in Namibia, in Africa. I think one of the best places on Earth

But we think it's possible to break the record in Legat. SP80 says it's aiming to break the world record and its own goal of 80 knots by the end of this year

There is nothing to earn at the end, except that you're proud to have achieved it

After that, the team will be working on finding new applications for the technologies they developed

in industries like hydroelectric power, maritime shipping, and of course, boat racing

You are looking at your screen, at the data and everything, and sometimes you look outside

and you see the water passing super fast. Okay, yeah, we'll focus on the data

To see more fast-flying sailboats, check out our coverage of last year's SailGP races in San Francisco

and subscribe to CNET so you don't miss the latest and greatest tech news

As always, thanks so much for watching. I'm your host, Jesse Oral. See you next time with the fam