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.

There is so much to be seen and learnt about this new wing. We started by seeing how it handled during the wing raising process. Normally we had to pull the old wing up with a 6:1 purchase via the strut and a Harken track. This time we just let go of the wing completely and as it is tail heavy, it hung with its back down and in this position the wing generated substantial lift. The mass imbalance wasn't enough to allow the wing to rotate so tail down that it stalled. So by generating lift, instead of having to haul the wing up, we simply eased it up by releasing the shrouds in a nice controlled manner. As the wing goes vertical, the mass imbalance becomes less pronounced and the wing naturally feathers more.

This my friends... is a revelation albeit calculated.

Once the wing was up we could just let it go. It would sit in the gusty breeze in the rigging yard perfectly happy with relatively little residual force.

We spun the boat around underneath it to simulate a few angles of the rig to the platform. We are aware of a few 'no-go' areas where we simply can't power the rig up as it will put forces well outside the shroud base which will lead to massive loads in the wing strut. As long as we respect these then we should be OK.

I would be lying if I told you that I was now totally confident in the wing. It takes a long time for these things to make you totally confident. Every now and then she would power up a bit unexpectedly or pitch forward or aft with a slight stretch in the rigging and we would all jump... but we will get used to this.

JEFF SHOWS WHAT LITTLE LOAD IS NEEDED ON THE WING TO MAKE IT FULLY FEATHER.

WING IN THE 'BACK-WINDED' STATE AS IT WILL BE AS WE TOW THE BOAT BACK UP THE COURSE.

So that all went very well. When it came time to drop it we actually had to pull it down. The mass imbalance is something we are well aware of as the wing in its current form is tail heavy. We can counter this by putting a pole out the front with counter weights on it. We might have to do this to help make the wing feather more. We will see how it behaves as we begin adding further elements. So far it doesn't seem immediately necessary.

On another note we are looking at decreasing the 'hump' drag in the floats. We want them to release from the water and plane/skid on the surface with less effort. I suspect that as much as the front of the float is lifting as the water flows over it, the back section is sucking down. It is only when the air gets to the 'step' in the bottom that the hull releases and the suction is broken. At low speed, this 'step' is too deep and the air can't get to it. We are going to try adding a simple and light second step on the aft surface to try and break this suction cycle. It is an easy experiment that may have a big effect on how well the boat accelerates from stand still. Ben is on the case today.

YOU CAN SEE THE SECOND STEP AS RECOMMENDED BY MALCOLM DRAWN HERE. IT WILL BE CLEAR OF THE WATER OVER 10 KNOTS. WE WILL MAKE IT OVERSIZE FOR STARTERS SO IT CAN EASILY BE CUT DOWN ON THE BOAT.

Other improvements were to the system that allows us to raise and lower the foil from the cockpit. I must admit that this has worked a lot better than I expected. It's a beauty and surely one that saves the foil tips on numerous occasions. Jeff is on the case of making it all neat and tidy... hmmm... perhaps not the best person for this;)

Yesterday we also tried swinging the beam fore and aft with the rig up. Overall it went pretty well although we need to increase the range to around 2.5 meters from the current 1.5. This will be how we steer the boat from standstill when the little rudder is ineffective. It will be very important to get this whole system safe and reliable. We have to be in full control of this beast at all times as we do expect to be sailing her in winds up to 30 knots. Whilst this is nothing by wind or kitesurfer standards... it's pretty punchy for larger craft.

Yesterday will mark two weeks since the container doors first opened on Namibia. I hope we can hit the water again for some trials with the wing up this time.

Good progress is being made every day.

Cheers, Paul.