The Canal
windsurfing trench in France
The Saintes Maries de la Mer Speed Canal, known to windsurfers as The Canal, is a man-made canal or trench near the French Mediterranean coastal town Saintes Maries de la Mer, built especially for speed record-breaking sailing by windsurfers.
Background
The Canal, also called "The French Trench" by the English-speaking community of windsurfers, is 1,100 meters (3,600 ft) long and 30 meters (98 ft) wide, in a west-northwest/east-southeast orientation designed to take advantage of the Marin and Mistral winds that blow in that location.
In 1987, the idea of building a speed canal was thought up by British speed windsurfer Erik Beale and St Marie speed week organizer Michel Roussolet. The first version was 850 m long and it enabled Beale on 13 November 1988 to become the first sailor in history to officially break the 40-knot barrier, setting the Outright Speed Sailing Record of:
40.48 knots by British windsurfer Erik Beale in 1988.
Early in the 1990s, the canal was extended to its final length of 1,100 m, and windsurfers in 1990, 1991, and 1993 set four consecutive Outright Speed Sailing Records on The Canal, measured over a 500-meter course:
42.91 by French windsurfer Pascal Maka in 1990
43.06 by French windsurfer Thierry Bielak in 1991
44.66 by French windsurfer Thierry Bielak in 1991
45.34 by French windsurfer Thierry Bielak in 1993
Later the same year (1993), The Outright record fell to the Australian sail craft Yellow Pages at * 46.62 knots sailing in the sheltered waters of sandy point, Australia ending the 7-year reign of the windsurfers. That record would stand for 11 years until the next onslaught of the windsurfers in the early 2000s:
Three consecutive Outright Speed Sailing Records, measured on a 500-metre course, were set on The Canal by windsurfers in 2004, 2005 and 2008:
49.09 knots (90.91 km/h - 56.49 mph) by French windsurfer Antoine Albeau, in March 2008.
The previous two records were held by the Irish-born windsurfer Finian Maynard, who competes for the British Virgin Islands, also on The Canal:
A 48.70 knots record set on 10 April 2005,
A 46.82 knots record (24.08 m/s or 53.88 mph) set on 13 November 2004.
In October 2008, The Canal's leading position on the world sailing map was taken by the Lüderitz Speed Challenge in Namibia, when the "holy grail" 50-knot barrier of speed sailing was first broken by a kitesurfer.
The public source identifies “The Canal” as windsurfing trench in France. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Canal, windsurfing and trench.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Canal”, the useful work is to connect “windsurfing trench in France” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q7721154. Authority coordinates are 43.461, 4.464. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1991.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Canal”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Canal primary sources, The Canal archive and Canal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Canal”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Canal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.