I looked up on the internet about max speed with a foil. It seems to be around 45 knots.
Here is a clip of Nicolas Parlier (Formula kite world champion) and you can see his top speed is 44 knots (with 30 knots gust). For example, his top speed at the San Francisco event was 39 knots.
It's fast, but there is still a huge gap with 57.98 knots. And Nico Parlier is a speed foil expert. So there is definitely something holding the foil back. I think Dave made a good assumption with issue/challenge controlling the foil at such high speed.
It is hard to design foils that are effective over 50 knots.
Normal foils will get cavitation problems in those speeds.
Supercavitation ( controlled cavitation ) foils works in higher speed but are really bad in slower speed.
Maybe if you get a super gust that can get you up to 50 knots and then the resistance will get a lot less and you can continue accelerating.
Sailrocket the fastest sailing craft in the world with 65 knots used supercavitating foils but not for lifting the vessel (boat).
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I am no fool expert but have seen this done with bicycle speed records using a tow. Maybe someone can tow a specialist high speed foil until it hits its operational stable speed then let the wind/rider do the rest. Easy for a jet ski to do it.
Alex Caizergues has a new project and has set the bar to take back the ultimate speed record on the water (hold by sail rocket). https://syro.co/speed-record/
They want to set the bar at 150 km/h.
But it won't be a rider on a board. According to Alex Caizergues, if you want to reach an average of 150 km/h, you'll probably reach a top speed at 165-170 km/h or more. And at that speed, if anything goes wrong, you could injure yourself badly or even die. At this speed, the rider has to be protected in a cockpit.
Here's a view of the project, it's a "boat" using a kite to generate power and hydrofoil.
Well, it seems that windsurfer are also chasing speed record : "Pierre Mortefon breaks the World Speed Record with the tridem windsurfing team at a record breaking speed of 67.17 knots!" https://www.windsurf.co.uk/tridem-smash ... -17-knots/
But we don't know if it's top speed or an average speed on 500 m.
Calling 39,11 kn a "world record" is pure nonsense. I was way faster on Chrismas day 2013. I can proof it with the files of 3 GPS and 2 videos. 2 people can witness it.
The reason why I was faster is: No rolling chop can build up on a flooded beach with a water depth of only 5 cm. Very important over a long distance !
Calling 39,11 kn a "world record" is pure nonsense. I was way faster on Chrismas day 2013. I can proof it with the files of 3 GPS and 2 videos. 2 people can witness it.
Not to undervalue your great performance, but unfortunately that's not what the WSSRC needs to classify it as a record.
Also there's a significant difference between doing a run on a set course with fixed start and ending gates and doing a free 2nm run, and selecting afterwards the fastest 1nm part out of that GPS track.
If GPS tracks were to be valid for WSSRC, this would make record attempts much more open to anyone, much more open to unplanned attempts, exotic spots, and that would likely breathe some fresh air into the world of speed attempts. I guess there's a bit more lobbying required before this changes.