Here is the letter wich we received from Jeffrey Brown:
Hello,
I am writing to inform you of some recent news which may be of interest to your publication and its readers.
We are a group of dedicated icesailors where we use windsurfing sails & boards designed to sail across ice. Our sport has been around for many years, this being my 25th season.
This current season in New England, we have been having a fantastic year of smooth ice and strong winds.
Two weeks ago, I set a new GPS World Speed Record, being able to surpass any formerly recorded events.
OFFICIALLY, here are the statistics of new speed record:
Sailing on a custom iceboard Freeskate, the new GPS Max. Speed is 64.6mph (103.96km)
I sailed a sustained 100m distance run of 63.6mph (102.36 km) which is another record in itself.I am now ranked #1 in the world for a “Freestanding rig ice-sled class” which covers all handheld windsurfer type craft on ice.
Location was Long Pond in Harwich/Brewster, MA., on Cape Cod, USA, on Feb 12, 2009.
Wind was 25-35knots southwest, temperature was 45 deg on slick hard spring ice.
I think I could have gone faster if I only had more room, which I had 1/2 mile to work with!
Rob Myles & Alex Wadson, both from Newport Rhode Island, were also present and sailing on Freeskates, hitting speeds runs into the mid 50mph ranges as well, now top the worlds GPS ranks in the same class.Historically speaking;
Two prior known official US speed records of 62mph had been set back in 1996 by Andy Berrgren cocked by radar, and again by myself in 2004 recorded on GPS.
European sailors have unofficially stated runs to near 100km, but nothing higher was known.
About GPS Icesailing;
The new GPS Icesailing website is a spin off from the highly successful GPS Windsurfing and GPS Kitesurfing sister sites. These websites will make it possible for all sailors to use the same GPS timing format and be ranked worldwide.
The world may now follow the results day by day and see who the fastest sailors are for each type of sport and craft sailed.
Visit for more info: http://www.gps-icesailing.com/
On Ice… Freeskate Iceboards on Long Pond from Dean Withrow on Vimeo.
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terrieri
March 7th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Congratulations, Jeff! Unfortunately our Finnish conditions are not that nice, so will have to try beating your record next Autumn
!
Phone jammer
November 30th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Nice blog you got here. It would be great to read something more about that matter.
Anders Ansar
May 9th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Congratulations!
We are skate sailing in wings in Sweden. Decreases air drag very much. We need only some 6 m/s, 12 knots, to reach 100 km/h. Building instructions available.
A special speed wing can probably reach 150 mph, 240 km/h
http://sites.google.com/site/wingskatesailpict/
With personal streamlining I think you can sail much faster. See: http://home.swipnet.se/ansar/sur.html
rgds