There’s a new team challenging the world sailing speed record, and it’s using a kite-powered sailboat to do it.

The SP80 aims not only to surpass the current record of 68.3 knots, but it also plans to reach a surprising 80 knots, which is approximately 92 mph.

The team has already tested the one-of-a-kind sailboat at faster speeds off the coast of Leucate in southern France. It originally planned to break the record there in 2025, but worsening weather conditions forced it to change course.

The SP80 team was able to reach a top speed of 58 knots, making it the second fastest boat ever built.

In 2026, the team is working on the boat and fundraising for the upcoming trip to Namibia, which offers some of the best speed-sailing conditions in the world: flat water and strong winds.

It is in Namibia that Paul Larsen set the current sailing speed record, and where the SP80 team hopes to set a new one.

The SP80 boat looks more like a spaceship than a sailboat, with a trimaran design, a kite-inspired sail, two cockpits, two pilots, and two steering wheels (one for the rudder and one for the rudder).

The boat is specially designed for the sailing equivalent of drag racing: speeding in a straight line. The team underwent special safety training in a facility used by helicopter pilots to practice escaping from tight spaces and a closed cockpit, even when submerged and upside down.

The team plans to go to Namibia this summer, where it will stay until the end of the year, hoping to ride in full wind to a new world sailing speed record.

To see our hands-on look at the SP80 boat, and interviews with co-pilots about what it’s like to sail (and escape back and forth), watch the video in this article.