A group of students from landlocked Switzerland are helping a 50-strong team in their aim to break the world sailing speed record next year. The students, from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), make up almost half of the SP80 team who aim to use a boat with a kite attachment to smash the existing record of 65.45 knots (121.21 km/h). SP80’s sailors, who are headquartered in the scenic coastal town of Leucate in southern France, aim to achieve an incredible speed of 80 knots (150 km/h) when they take to the waves off Rouet beach next year. After years of hard work, the SP80 team has attached their innovative kite to their boat for the first time. The SP80 boat is 10 meters long and 7.5 meters wide and has an incredibly sleek design with superventilating hydrofoils and parts that had never been created before. The SP80 boat was built by Persico Marine, an Italian yacht-building company. The boat’s two pilots will be team co-founders Mayeul van den Broek, who operates the main controls, and Benoît Gaudiot, who handles the kite. The pilots must wear helmets and oxygen masks when they sail, and they’ve both completed safety training developed specifically for their boat. All in all, that’s a hell of a lot of work for both students and pilots before they plan to hit the water next year!