Yesterday evening we had our third session of tow testing of the bare platform.

It was a beautiful evening as we towed the wing-less platform up and down speed spot with the whole team taking turns in the boat and in the RIB in order to observe all aspects first hand.

We saw on our second session the day before that the addition of the first trial 'step' on the front float made a big difference to it's ability to release from the water and step up into planing mode.

The first days trials with the wing in a decent breeze went well.

We only set it up on land rather than take it out... but we saw what we needed to without the complications oh handling the package on the water as well. The wind was around 17-22 knots and we only raised the middle section of the wing which is the section that should be free to fully rotate through 360 degrees if necessary.

Walvis Bay is back to its windy best. Yesterday we got down to the boat early so we could get the jobs done and hit speed-spot on the kites and windsurfers before sunset. It was a classic Walvis day and the wind built to optimal conditions for record breaking. Now this is how I remember it. Sitting on that strip of land on a calm day is like sitting in a race car in the garage. yesterday it was alive with wind energy. A raw power just begging to be tapped into. 

Yesterday, a week after VESTAS Sailrocket 2 arrived in Namibia, we finally gave her a proper launch in Walvis Bay... and took our first real steps along what will be one very interesting road.

We arrived down at the Walvis Bay Yacht Club at 0630 hoping to catch the dead still morning water only to find a punchy little East wind that left the bay choppy. We proceeded to work through the priorities on the job list figuring that we would have to post-pone the towing trials until the following morning. As it turned out the winds began to subside mid afternoon so we went for it.