Two British visionaries are on the verge of breaking the world land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. Using a hi-tech composite machine named "Greenbird," the two will try to beat the record of 116mph at Lake LeFroy in Western Australia in the next few days.

The name "Greenbird" is a reference to early speed pioneer Donald Campbell who used several cars and boats named Bluebird to break speed records.

"Campbell did it with the prevalent fuel of the day - we're doing it with the prevalent fuel of tomorrow," said Eco-entrepreneur, Dale Vince. Campbell utilized massive cubic capacity fossil-fueled engines for his speed records. "We have just the wind," Vince said.

Greenbird uses a vertical rigid sail which enables the craft to travel between four to six times the real wind speed, depending on the surface traction. After the dry lake record attempt, the "sailors" plan to fit the ship with skates and achieve speeds in excess of 150 mph.

Read more here (BBC News) and at the Greenbird website.

Photo: Courtesy of Greenbird.

The Dutch Tornado team has decided not to use the controversial "upwind spinnaker" which they unveiled several weeks ago. In a big gamble (perhaps brought on by a Dutch bluff?), the US team decided to go with the sail. In the first Tornado class racing yesterday, the gamble paid off -- at first. But when the breeze freshened, the sail was too much for upwind work and not enough off-the-wind sailing. The US team finished 14th, nearly eight minutes behind the lead boat, beating only one boat.

Writing on their Olympic Blog, US Tornado team member Charlie Ogletree said: "With the sail measured in and officially accepted, the only remaining decision was whether to employ it or stick with a standard gennaker during the series. We can’t have both. It was a tough and risky call..." In a telling statement, they also say: "We know for sure that our Dutch training partners Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis have elected to go with a similar sail. We don’t know about others." Only problem is that the Dutch team elected not to go with the sail, saying, "'the risk is too big," on their website.

All teams are allowed to measure in two gennakers, including a spare one. The Dutchmen got a normal and small gennaker stamped while Americans Lovell and Ogletree measured in two Code Zero's, leaving no choice but to carry the controversial sail.

Read more about the race, and other Day 7 action here.

Tornado class sailors have been given the "all clear" to use a controversial new sail in Olympic racing. The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) said Tornado teams could use the upwind spinnaker, developed by Dutch sailors Pim Nieuwenhuis and Mitch Booth, after deciding that it did not break any class rules.

The sail is expected to give a performance gain in the predicted light winds of the Quingdao venue. However, in wind above11 knots, upwind gains may be offset by downwind losses.

Read more here and here.

U.S. Olympic Laser sailor Andrew Campbell recently updated his blog with a post describing the atmosphere at the Olympic sailing venue in the last few days leading up to the start of racing:

"The surreal nature of the Olympic venue is that we’re finally at the Big Show. (A few) days from now I’ll sail out to the race course without sail numbers. Only fifty stars, thirteen stripes, and my name under the title USA will luff over my head on the starting line of that race. Every regatta I’ve ever sailed in my life, every day that I went out sailing after school, every fork and spoon tactic talk I had with Dad at the dinner table will culminate with this Olympic regatta this week. I can think of a thousand instances where I thought to myself, I’m doing this because I know some day I will need to use this tactic, or this strategy, or this technique. This is that time."

Read the whole post here. Nice stuff, Andrew.

Oh, and while we're on that topic, the sailing journalism powerhouse Cosmopolitan agrees with the "nice-stuff-Andrew" sentiment. He was named one of the "Top 10 Sexiest 2008 Olympians."