It was just a matter of time. Yellow Pages landed its record really quickly, but the specialty-built craft have proven unworthy of the task since then. Sailboards, on the other hand, have been chipping away at the 500-meter record ever since and have almost certainly broken it, but outside of the strict record-breaking format that the sanctioning body requires. The true grail of speed, 50 knots, is well within reach of the current crew of boardsailors. In fact, with the conditions they had, I'm surprised that it didn't fall.

I hate to generalize, but a catamaran will never go that fast, not with a crew in control of it.