Let’s face it, powerboats can outrun sailboats in flat seas.  That much is a given.  However, you might be surprised to learn that they can’t do this in round the world voyages – the sailboat is the master of the seas, as the jet is the master of the skies.

Let’s quantify this.  Earthrace, using ony biofuels, attempted the powerboat record in 2007 and finally did it in 2008 but you have to be clear what circumnavigation means.

For sailboats, the rule is that you have to start and end at the same place, you have to cross the equator twice and round the two capes.

Earthrace was subject to powerboat rules, which state that you must go through both Suez and Panama Canals.  This is good and bad.  The main problem for powerboats is range before refuelling and so they tend to “island hop”, whereas a sailboat can go where it wants – except for the two canals.

Earthrace took 60 days 23 hours and 49 minutes to go 22401 nautical miles, at an average of 15.3 knots [nautical miles per hour].

The current saiboat holder is Orange II skippered by Bruno Peyron.  It took  50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds, over 21760 nautical miles, at 17.89 knots.

The solo round the world record is hed for the second time by Francis Joyon who did it in 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds, at an average speed of 15.84 knots.  This is very, very fast for sailboat – my A Class would do over 20 knots in bursts but would average way below that.  A Tornado can do 30 knots in bursts.

The world speed record over 500 metres [previously held by a saiboard but now by a hydrofoil] is:

That’s on dead flat water where a powerboat would go past.  The world record for any craft on water is:

… also on dead flat water.  Converting that speed to knots, we get 275.983 knots.  A commercia aircraft usually flies, in terms of True Airspeed, in the neighborhood of 460 kts. The groundspeed will vary depending on the winds, the winds will add or subtract from that speed.

So it’s a considerably more difficult thing to negotiate big seas.  Put your average runabout next to an A Class catamaran and there’d be no contest – the powerboat would win but give us big or choppy seas which the sailboat cuts through while the runabout bounces and crashes and it would be a different story.

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