Gone with the wind: Tracking the world’s fastest land sailing craft
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Emirates Team New Zealand
What would you do for a chance at glory?
It’s a question Emirates Team New Zealand obsesses over. They're one of the most successful sailing groups in the world — cunning and efficient, always finding a way to do more with less.
They won the last two America’s Cups, the sport’s most prestigious competition, held every four years. In between, the team seeks to push boundaries, stay competitive and as always — go faster.
After winning the 2021 Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand sought a new challenge. They found it not at sea, but on land.
Glenn Ashby, a world-champion sailor with Emirates Team New Zealand for over a decade, has served as a wing trimmer, skipper and mainsail trimmer. The Olympic medallist also won three America’s Cups and 17 World Championships. “What spins my wheels,” he says, “is just going fast.”
As his America’s Cup career reached its conclusion, the 45-year-old didn’t want to slow down. Instead, he and the team set their sights on designing and sailing the world’s fastest land sailing vehicle.
Land sailing is a vehicular sport that relies on wind and a sail to reach high speeds. The speed record to beat: 202.9 km/h.
It took the previous record-holder 10 years to reach that speed. Emirates Team New Zealand would attempt it in a year.
“My mission is a really simple one,” Ashby says. “It’s just to be the fastest human on the planet powered by the wind.”
Building the team
Ashby knew his friend and neighbour, Tim Daddo, had to join the attempt. A sailing legend in his own right, Daddo held the world record for sailing speed on water between 1993 and 2004. During that time, his team developed a system for using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology to track world records. It was the first time that surveying equipment had been used for timing records of this type.
Daddo grins sheepishly as he recalls the land sailing preparation. “It was very new territory,” he says. “This was a hybrid of everything we knew about high-performance yachting, but with the addition of tyres.”
While there were some obvious similarities between the wing and construction technologies used in both the Cup boats and the new land yachting world record contender, there were many unknowns.
“There was no manual on how to do this,” Daddo explains.
The Leica AS11 tracked the Horonuku's positioning at all times while trying for the record on the Lake Gairdner salt flats.
The Leica Viva GS10 received the positions at base station, allowing the crew to pinpoint the craft down to 1/100 km/hr.
Precision tracking worth of world-records
Writing the manual
For its record attempt, Emirates Team New Zealand chose the Lake Gairdner salt flats in Australia due to their expansive and level surface, as well as relatively high prevailing wind speeds. The team designed the structure of the craft — dubbed ‘Horonuku,’ meaning ‘gliding swiftly across the land’ in Māori. There are no engines on the craft — only a rigid wing for a sail about 11 metres long and a long counterweight arm that helps prevent the craft from overturning.
What the team needed was a way to measure and prove they broke the speed record. Daddo said that the reputation of Hexagon’s Leica Geosystems, as a world-renowned brand of precision technology, gave the team confidence that they could record accurate speeds to the required 1/100th of a km/hr. The technology also allowed the team to process the data error-free in the Australian outback — 150 km from the nearest town — eliminating the need to process it elsewhere.
A test of patience
After months of preparation, a small team travelled to the salt flats in September 2022 to be ready for October, the region’s windiest month.
But they quickly ran into a problem. The salt flats were saturated from recent record rain, which would slow the craft and cause it to slide. For the next couple of months, the team endured one of Australia’s wettest years on record.
Another big challenge was managing all the salt. “It really was everywhere,” Daddo says, “but all the equipment, including the multi-frequency GNSS antenna and high-precision receiver on the craft, were more than robust enough to withstand the salt.”
Once the craft was ready, the team had to wait for the perfect weather conditions. The difference in a few knots of wind could spell success or failure for the record.
The attempt
In late November, Ashby piloted the craft on its first official attempt. A small crew huddled in one of the team’s support vehicles, ready to drive to Ashby the moment he needed them. They had mere hours to reach the record before the wind died down.
After months of preparation and waiting, Emirates Team New Zealand broke the record on 11 December 2022. The speed recorded with the AS11 antenna and GS10 receiver: 222.43 km/h.
With the record awarded, the team took a break for the holidays and returned in February 2023 to pack up their gear. Until they realised they were getting a late Christmas gift.
“We were seeing a burst of perfect weather in late February,” Daddo says. The team tried for the record again — and broke it a second time. Horonuku achieved a speed of 225.58 km/h from only 23 knots (around 43 km/h) of wind.
Breaking future records
Despite breaking the record twice, Emirates Team New Zealand believes they can push themselves to go even faster. The team is looking to set records in other areas, including a title Daddo yearns to reclaim: the sailing speed record on water. “We’re planning now and aiming to attempt that record in mid-2025,” Daddo says. “The good news is, we can use this same kind of technology to pursue the world sailing speed record.”
It’s clear other teams are looking to Emirates Team New Zealand as the world’s leading sailors and trying to replicate their success. The team has no intention of stopping and will continue to set its sights on brand-new horizons. As Daddo says, “Hexagon is really helping us reach the next level of performance and precision.”