Sea Spider 101 at Speed Week 1999 where she achieved here highest speed to date of 26.44.

Sea Spider:
Single handed planing craft
Beam 5.9m
Length 6.9m
2 Sails 10m sq each
Weight 135 Kg

The following is copied from the AYRS Digest 2-14 October.

"Of particular note, I think, was Torix Bennett's Sea Spider, a planing triscaph (a triscaph is a 3-hulled boat, with all 3 hulls fairly short, often of the same length. Yellow Pages is a triscaph, though quite different from Sea Spider) Torix has made many appearances at Speedweek over the years. Sea Spider made a total of 31 runs during the week, an outstanding showing for an amateur-built and campaigned boat. His top 5 runs averaged 23.8 kts, with his fastest at 26.4.

This is an astonishing feat for an amateur and non-hydrofoil boat, making him faster, both on average and absolutely, than the multi-million dollar Rave project. In point of fact, taking *all* non-sailboard craft ever measured over 500 meters (according to the WSSRC), Torix' speed stands at 11th, for all time. (Behind YPE, at 46.5, Longshot, at 43.5, Techniques Advancees, at 42.5, Charente
Maritime, at 37.8, Crossbow II, at 36.0, Trifoiler (stock) at 30.5, Crossbow I, at 29.3, Icarus, at 28.1, O-PAF (kiteboat), at 27.6,and Loisirs 3000, at 26.9). Sea Spider is *ahead* of boats like Slingshot, at 25.0, NF2 (by Rave designer William Bradfield), at 23, and Mayfly, still residing at England's Victoria and Albert museum, at 23 kts. These figures ignore the Baker/US Navy hydrofoil, and California's Beauwulf, both reported at "over 30 mph" in the 1960's. Neither was ever clocked at 500 meters, and neither's speed is recognized by the WSSRC.

Considering only non-hydrofoil sailcraft, Sea Spider now stands 5th for all time, behind only YPE, the 2 Crossbows, and Charente Maritime.

Congratulations Torix!

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Amended 08/04/06