Kitesurfing pioneer and natural inventor Don Montague spoke about his experiences, and the SP80 team introduced him to our project to break the world speed sailing record: it was an inspiring and instructive exchange!

When speaking about SP80, Don Montague quickly identified one of its design strengths: “Placing stock in the human factor and having safety at the heart of your project is very sensible!”. This decision echoes his mentality during the development of his various kiteboats: to go fast, you need to be confident and trust your equipment completely. Contrary to his boats however, SP80 has a closed cockpit, an additional safety measure for the pilot.

Regarding the kite, Don identified one key factor: “In my experience,  it’s important to feel the kite to be in control. Of course kites have evolved, conditions for the record will be different from the San Francisco bay, but I’ve learned that to gain the confidence to really floor it, we had to sense the kite. The learning curve was huge and we tried different configurations, which you might go through as well to find the one that best suits your project. But what you should do is come to San Francisco and try out the kite boat, you will learn so much”. We will be booking flights as soon as possible! Concerning the type of kite, Don Montague has tried everything on his boats: all sizes of inflatable, ram-air and even rigid kites! According to him, each model has its own advantages and disadvantages which must be clearly weighed according to the project factors. What about take-off? “Launching a kite, even big, is not a problem. It might make it harder to launch in every condition but if you have some motorboats to assist you, whatever, just try until it works!”