Well...it's great to be back.

The fact that VESTAS SAILROCKET now sits outside this here container 100% ready for another assault on the Walvis Bay Speed sailing course bears testimony to the effort put in by the team since the violent crash 13 days ago.

Nick and Alex hard at it...

I still shudder when I look at the video as it all happened in an instant. I will show you all the video one day... but first we will focus on the job at hand. Here's a sneak pic from the onboard camera at the instant when things went pear shaped.

You can just make out the slack back beam stay arcing out to the left of the roll-bar. This means the beam is coming back. I've already gone to full lock on the steering and the boat is skidding sideways. We are still doing 45 knots and are about to pull -3.5G's forward and 3.2G's sideways as the whole show comes to a thumping halt in less than a second. I remember this bit.

A week or so ago I committed the project to our third and final WSSRC ratified record period. As far as I can see... this will be it. We have until just after the middle of April to achieve our goal. It's the culmination of nearly 10 years work. This boat has done a brilliant job in getting this far. I can't think of another boat that has had a more tortured life and has still been capable of coming out number 1. She carries many scars from battle and what a battle it's been. I think that on the last run she felt it was time that I took some of the damage... just so I know what it feels like!

Despite getting knocked about pretty hard on the last run, I can't wait to get back into the cockpit. I feel I owe it to the boat. The last crash had nothing to do with the boat or the concept. It was more a case of using the wrong system in the wrong place and not changing it because... it worked before. This combined with good ol' chafe of the dormant back-up strop is what brought it all to a grinding halt. The blame for this lies squarely on my shoulders. I can clearly recall each instant where that crash unfolded in the month leading up to it. It was a culmination of a number of little things as all great things are. Well at least the right person paid the penalty.

This time when I go out I will be wearing a full-face helmet, a HANS (Head and neck support) brace and a harness to keep me back in the confines of the roll-bar. The harness won't let me go forward... but will allow me to fall out if inverted. Before the last two crashes I would have said this was all over the top for a sailing boat... but I've been over the top now!!!

Thankfully the wind has returned to the Skeleton Coast. It's the Walvis bay we remember again. Today looks great as does the rest of the week. We will go out and spend a day just doing check-out runs to make sure everything is as it should be. If things check out then we will put the hammers down shortly after. Every day is still full of possibility and I'm quitely amazed that we are still in shape to finish the job.

It's been one hell of a ride and the good news is that it it's only going to get faster.

Never give up.

Cheers, Paul.

Hi all... one slightly beaten up Sailrocket jockey here.

Firstly, thanks to all those near and far who have sent their regards. It's always appreciated.

Obviously the last couple of days have been pretty strange from my perspective. One moment I'm going 47+ knots with the glorious Walvis Bay 'speed-spot' stretched out before me and ready for the taking... the next I'm on a hospital Gurney sort of aware that I'm asking the same question over and over... "what happened"?

I won't go into too much detail here until we are certain of all the factors. I went straight back to the container once out of hospital and had a look at all the onboard and shore footage of the incident. It appears that a lashing on the stay that holds the main beam forward failed and the beam swung aft. The huge side loads on the main foil then levered the hull to beam frame out of the heavy carbon forks which they attach to on the beam and allowed the main hull to rotate as if it was attached to an industrial lathe. The free inboard end of the beam then shot back towards the cockpit. It was all over in milliseconds...

I do recall jamming the control full aft as she began to roundup... but that was it and now I know why.

Poor VESTAS SAILROCKET has been extensively damaged in altogether new and creative ways. Never mind... we've been here before. We probably have the best boat building team we have had on site and now it's their time to shine.

I have just spoken to Malcolm for the first time and he was noticably shaken. It's normal for the designer to feel a heavy burden when they know someone has been dealt a hard blow by one of their creations. I assured him that as far as I know it was a small component failure (always is) and that we should push on until we have all the information needed to make an honest and sound decision.

The team have been great as have the locals. It's such a pleasure to have good people around you when stuff like this goes down.

So there we are. Down but not out. We were just entering the mile course and were already hitting 47.4 knots without the main wing flap in. I wanted to bag two records in one. From the PI RESEARCH data we accelerated from 30-40 knots in 2 seconds even. But this isn't a game of 'nearlies'... we were obviously flatly denied and hence will have to try a bit harder.

It's all very annoying but then I guess I have to be thankful too. It could always be worse. We are entering a punishing stage of the game as can be seen by the outcomes of two of our top-end attempts. You have to expect some rough play in an endeavour like this but you can't just charge forward on bravado and witty remarks. It will be understanding and team work that push us forward. As long as the pieces add up then I will go on as determined as ever... this time with a bigger helmet!

I will, as always, let you all know exactly what we discover in the coming days... and how we plan to deal with it.

Cheers, Paul.

It appears that something failed structurally early on the record attempt today and the boat collapsed and turned over very quickly. Paul has some nasty cuts and was badly concussed. We will report in more detail tomorrow when we have looked at the boat and any available footage.

 Posted by Malcolm 

It appears that something failed structurally early on the record attempt today and the boat collapsed and turned over very quickly. Paul has some nasty cuts and was badly concussed. We will report in more detail tomorrow when we have looked at the boat and any available footage.