AN IRISH Coast Guard volunteer has recorded the fastest speed by any female windsurfer in the world this year over a 500m distance.
Noelle Doran (42) also recorded a new Irish female record with a peak speed of 38.17 knots, or 71km an hour, over a 500m course off Dungarvan in Co Waterford.
Fellow speedsurfer Oisín van Gelderen set a new Irish GPS record for peak speed by any sailor, travelling at 47.88 knots on the same waterway.
Doran, a Kildare-born Irish Sailing Association (ISA) coach tutor and champion windsurfer, is a voluntary helm with the Irish Coast Guard’s Westport unit in Co Mayo.
She trained in Mayo’s Clew Bay for her record attempt on December 8th, but it took three round trips to Co Waterford before she and van Gelderen got the right conditions.
Weighing 58kg and standing at a height of just under 163cm (5ft 4in), she says she is “not the build of your typical speed sailor”.
Doran holds 11 national ladies windsurfing titles in three different disciplines: wave sailing, freestyle and speed sailing. She took up speed sailing when injuries forced her to retire from wave and freestyle competition in 2008.
That year, she became sixth fastest female in the International Speed World Cup.
Dungarvan is regarded as the best coastal location in Ireland for setting speeds, with a course across a 1km sandbank.
“The angle of wind to the shore and the type of board and sail one has are also factors,” she says, paying tribute to van Gelderen for coaching her.
Global positioning systems clock the speeds, which have to be witnessed.
During her attempts, wind was southwesterly, and van Gelderen urged her to be “lit like a banshee” as she took to the water. The speed she set, at an average of 36.68 knots over 500m, is faster than that recorded over the same distance this year by British speedsurfer Zara Davis, who recorded 35.31 knots.
Davis holds the world GPS ranking for fastest average speed over five 10-second runs this year, at 38.74 knots, followed by Belgian Marie-Paule Geldhof at 36.05 knots.
Doran is overall third in the world for five 10-second runs, with an average speed of 35.45 knots.
You can watch the speed record at vimeo.com/33433565
