Yesterday VESTAS SAILROCKET effortlessly posted the second fastest nautical mile run ever. Not bad for a boat that was in ruins 18 days earlier with the pilot flat-out in a hospital bed.

Whilst yesterday was a bit light to hit top speeds, conditions were pretty ideal to ramp up the check-out of VESTAS SAILROCKET in preparation for what is to come.

Once we realised that the conditions were peaking we set off for a shot at the nautical mile. Visibility was pretty average in the cockpit and all I could do was focus on a stack of containers in the distant Walvis Bay Port. It was like driving in heavy rain with no window wipers. VESTAS SAILROCKET felt rock solid. The front end was pegged down, the control was flawless and the course dead straight for the whole mile. The only way I could tell I had hit the end of the course was from the bumps. For the whole mile I was cycling through my senses in order to make decisions. Feeling the bumps and trying to make out the shore, the buoys, the objects in the distance, the accelerations, the rudder response, the level of spray... fast and safe steering options, the instruments, the noise. Over-riding all this was the determination just to hold-the-hell-on until the end. I figure that if I am closing on the shore that the chop and hence spray should reduce as I come into flatter water making me aware of the proximity. It turned out that we had peaked at 45.25 knots, done a 43.17 knot 500 meter run and averaged 41.26 knots over the entire mile. That beats Dunkerbecks course record and makes for the second fastest mile run ever. It was a pretty effortless run from the boats perspective as we had dropped off to 36.6 knots towards the end. Based on this, I am pretty confident that topping Hydroptere's mile record is only a matter of time. We did all this in an average wind of 19.49 knots (Top 22.1, bottom 16.2 knots).

We have gone through all the data from onboard and seem to have VESTAS SAILROCKET dialled in almost perfectly. All the rudders, wings, beams etc seem to be giving the numbers we not only require... but have predicted. Being able to predict how the boat will perform is a pretty critical aspect of going into the 'ughknown'! We know that this boat can still come out in front with what we have before us.

We went back and did a second run as Ian Du Toit from Trimble had come out and we wanted to show him exactly what we were doing with his expensive gear. It was a spectacular last sail as the glorious African sun set behind us. It was our first corporate sail:) Ian breathed life into our GPS gear which had been damaged so now we have three of these little bits of exotica!!!

So the forecast for today is 23 knots as our runs get later and later due to the tides. the team is really on the ball as we continue to nail the details. We have a little over two weeks left and all the ducks are lining up.

Happy birthday to team member Nick Bubb today(for those of you who haven't heard of Nick... you will!)... and welcome back to the Wotrocket team. We've missed you. Persistence pays.

Cheers, Paul.

Sitting here sweating like a hooded R***** in a musto drysuit as cameras, Trimble GPS units and lucky mascots get injected into VESTAS SAILROCKET. half the team is already out there and we will soon follow.

I won't tempt fate too much.... but it's looking good at the mo'!!!

We'll know soon.

Stay tuned,

Paul

We finally got in two runs yesterday in pretty mild conditions.

This still enabled us to hit just over 40 knots and average 38.8 for the 500 course. Whilst this doesn't set the world on fire... it did give us some idea of the current state of the boat after the last crash. With the data collected via the B+G instruments and PI RESEARCH logger-box we can dial VESTAS SAILROCKET in for speed.

From my perspective it was great to be back in the cockpit. 40 knots feels like a walk in the park now. The whole boat felt totally different and I can only put this down to the new full-face helmet which changes the whole sound of the boat from inside. I felt insulated and could hear things I didn't notice before. We did a second run but the average wind was somewhere around 15-16 knots so it didn't serve much purpose other than to give me some more time in the cockpit.

So last night we digested all the info and sent the condensed version back to the design team for a second opinion. Alex and I came down to do a double-check of the steering alignment and correct it based on yesterdays results. Everything looks pretty rock solid in which case I feel confident in giving the boat a good 'nudge' on the next run.

I'm pretty hungry for a big run now. I'm tired of living with the tension and uncertainty of what lies ahead of us. I know we can't just go out and hope it works but with each passing day the balance of forces in our decision making process changes. We have to be acutely aware of this.

I've had some ongoing dizziness after the crash which leads to bouts of vertigo when I swing my head around. I've done my homework on it. Yesterday I began to feel normal and carried out a few tests to double check. I couldn't instigate the vertigo so am happy that my own compass is getting re-aligned by itself.

Today is shaping up nicely. If the forecast pans out then we will focus once more on the nautical mile on our way up to the outright.

The high tides are now leaving us in the afternoon but we can't afford to miss good days. This means we will have to give the boat a hard time towing it out in the choppy water around the shallow spits and possible hitting the shallows at the end.

We are doing all we can. I know we WILL get our day... so I must stay on the case to make sure that we don't blow it when it comes.

(pure Africa... timing-huts as seen from back of container looking across lagoon and along 'speed-spot')

Cheers, Paul.

Firstly, congratulations are in order to two other speed sailing projects who have had success over the past couple of days. Firstly to Richard Jenkins for finally breaking the sailing land speed record on 'Greenbird'. Richard din't just sneak by the record but smashed it by 10 mph. You can check it out on www.greenbird.co.uk . Back when Richard launched his 'Windjet' water craft in Weymouth... we were just starting our first trials with Sailrocket. We had our containers side by side and have been friends ever since often offering congratulations or condolences where necessary. We understand each others joys and pains. Richard has done a brilliant job and has been a real jack of all trades in his project. England should be proud of his achievements and what he represents in this day and age.

Secondly... only by order of occurrence... the Macquarie Innovations team in Australia appear (still to be ratified) to have become the first boat to crack the 50 knot mark. Of course we wanted to be there first... but we weren't. These guys have been at it for 16 odd years now so once again, it's good to see the effort rewarded. It appears that they set the record in winds way above what they normally sail in i.e. 24 knots. They hit a peak speed of around 54.3 knots on their way to a 50.08 knot average over the 500 meters. Whilst this up's their previous 'C' class record it still leaves them just shy of the Outright record. One thing it does do is put the boats back ahead of the Windsurfers whilst also giving the new kids on the block, the kitesurfers, a real hurry up. The MI boys musn't have liked being beaten firstly by Hydroptere and then by us and have pulled out all the stops. It must have been a hell of a run. Well done to all of you from us... but be warned... we find this all very motivating!

We have been out on each of the last three days only to find the winds too strong. Today we sat out there on speed-spot all day as the wind gusted up to 30 knots. Only when the sun went down did we return.

We are on constant standby and desperately want to complete our 'check-out' runs to make sure that everything is OK before the big push. We don't want to do this in top-end conditions like we have been experienceing. Our day will come and in fact it looks like it might be sooner rather than later. The weeks forecast is looking pretty special. If things go well then we will push hard for some big runs ASAP. If we have a wipeout now then we will still have enough time to repair and come back for another shot in this record period. Of course the plan is not to have another wipeout but we need to plan for all eventuality.

We have been checking out all aspects of the boat and putting safeties on safeties. A couple of days ago, Nick Bubb spotted that the TRIMBLE timing gear on the boat wasn't recording the run data. We had a slight panic attempt as this is essential for our record attempts. These are expensive and hard to obtain pieces of kit. I'm happy to say that thanks to local support and support from OPTRON who supply our Trimble kit... within two days we now have not one but two systems ready to roll. We are actually better off than we were before!!! Ian Dutoit from OPTRON/TRIMBLE popped in today to help us configure the new units so we are ready once more for a ratified record run. Happy days.

Cheers, Paul