Even faster than the wind

Réponse publiée sur Quora

Encore plus vite que le vent is about the recent absolute speed record of a sailboat at 65.45 knots, which is 2.4 times faster than the wind, which was blowing sideways.

Earlier this year, Rick Cavallaro’s “Blackbird” landyacht reached 2.1 times the speed of the wind DUWFTTW : direct upwind faster than the wind without tackling. But in 2010, “Blackbird” did something unbelievable : it went 2.8 times DDWFTTW : direct downwind faster than the wind !