Francisco Lufinha

Francisco Lufinha (born 9 August 1983, in Lisbon, Portugal), achieved several world records, namely the Fastest Atlantic Kiteboat Crossing (solo) in 2021 and the Longest Journey Kitesurfing (without stops) in 2015. He is a completely passioned by nautical sportsman. Taken aboard a boat by his parents only 15 days after he was born, he was never able nor wanted to let go of the sea again.

At age eleven, he started to compete in the Optimist dinghy class, where he won several regional and national races and ended representing his country at the ’98 Europeans in Split, Croatia. At age 15 he upgraded to the 420 (dinghy) (boats of two persons) where he raced until he was eighteen and won the national overall ranking.

While developing his sailing skills, he was always looking for the most recent extreme sport to try to learn how to do it. Water skiing and wakeboarding were his first choices, then windsurfing and the latest, in 2002, was kitesurfing.

Francisco found in kitesurfing the most complete sport he has ever tried, because it is a mix of his favorite sports. In 2005 he was national champion and in 2006 vice-champion.

Studies and career
In parallel with his sportive life, Francisco graduated from a master's degree in engineering and industrial management at Instituto Superior Técnico in 2007, which lead to jobs as auditing at Deloitte, strategy marketing analyst at BES bank, co-manager of the Portuguese offshore sailor ’s project, CTO at ConsultaClick.com (co-founder), general manager at Dakhla Attitude resort in Morocco, private yacht skipper and manager and in 2014 was co-founder of +Mar (Portuguese association for promoting the nautical tourism and sports) in which he is President, nautical events organizer and speaker at conferences and company private events.

Transat 650
From 2009 to 2011, Francisco was co-manager of the solo sailor Francisco Lobato's campaign, in which they have won the extreme Transat 6.50 race from France to Brazil in 2009 and several other races in the Figaro solo sailing class.

Kitesurf Odyssey, 4 extreme challenges between 2013 and 2017
This challenge consisted of kitesurfing from the city of Porto to Lagos, Portugal, covering more than 500 km of the Portuguese coast non-stop. This had never been done before and was an idea that Francisco had in his mind for some years, after sailing the Portuguese coast several times in his family boat or with his sailing expert friend Francisco Lobato. In 2013 he dedicated his time and effort to make this adventure happen and he understood that it could be possible to do it kitesurfing without stops, with a good wind forecast for the entire course. Francisco trained for this highly demanding challenge that has taken his limits to an extreme test, both physical and mentally. He made it till the end and kitesurfed 564 km in 28 hours and 53 minutes, always on the board, setting a new world record for longest distance kiteboarding without stops.

EDP Atlantic Mission - Kiteboat world record
In November 2021, Lufinha started his boldest challenge aboard a kiteboat developed by himself, to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon to Martinica, solo, without any support boat. He reused a fast sailing trimaran with 7,25m by 5,6m wide, removed the sailing rig, built a cabin to live in and adapted kite control technology to be able to go as fast as possible to the other side. He had to stop in La Palma / Canary islands to repair Kites and wait for good wind conditions. He set sail from La Palma on the 30th November 2021 and arrived to Martinica / Caribbean on the 20th December 2021, setting a new world record of 20 days for the fastest atlantic kiteboat crossing solo.

Optimist Class
Sailing Schools Regional Champion (solo + team)
 * 1994

Sailing Schools National Champion (solo)

Nr 1 National Ranking class B
 * 1995

13th national championship, Cascais
 * 1996

4th “Trofeu Martin Barrero” – Vigo, Spain

7th overall national Championship
 * 1998

36th European Camp. – Split, Croatia

(Achieved High Level Competition athlete status)

420 Class
3rd Júnior national Championship – Azores Islands
 * 1999

7th Júnior overall national Championship
 * 2000

24th Júnior European Championship - Germany

1st overall national Championship/Ranking
 * 2001

2nd Old Spice Regatta

11th European Championship – Geneva, Switzerland)

Mistral Class
3rd Portuguese júnior Championship – Azores Islands
 * 2000

5th Vilamoura Sailing Week - Portugal

Kitesurfing
Started kitesurfing
 * 2002

11th Overall Ranking National Kiteboard Tour
 * 2003

13th KPWT event at Matosinhos/Portugal
 * 2004

1st Corona European Champion at Caparica/Portugal

3rd Corona European Champion at Alacati/Turkey

Portuguese National Kiteboard Tour Champion
 * 2005

Portuguese National Kiteboard Tour Vice-Champion
 * 2006

7th KPWT event at Paros/Greece

6th at PKRA Racing, in Portugal
 * 2007

III Feira Náutica do Tejo
Head of the organization of the 3rd edition of the "Feira Náutica do Tejo", the biggest nautical show in Portugal in 2014. Head of the organization of "WaterKings", the ultimate watersports challenge in Lagos/Portugal, mixing kitesurf+windsurf+SUP+sailing in the same course.

Movies
Francisco directed the first Portuguese kitesurf movie "KitePróTuga", in 2006.

Francisco directed the documentary "Ocean Adventures", about the Transat 650 sailing race and Francisco Lobato's journey in 2009.

Francisco directed the 3 documentaries of the several "Kitesurf Odyssey" challenges around the Portuguese Sea.