Monday greetings hot from the VESTAS SAILROCKET container at the Walvis Bay YC in Namibia.

It's looking like Namibia is the place to be for speed-sailing at the moment.

A few days ago we had a big blow come through. A fine mica dust fills the air and gets everywhere. even the container shakes around and the skins on the wingsail which hangs inside along one wall 'pant' as the gusts swirl through. We keep the door open just enough so that we still get a signal for our internet system. the internet was on so that we could monitor what was happening with the speed record attempt further down the coast in Luderitz. If it was windy here... it was going to be at least 10 knots windier down there.

I was braced for the news that they had done 50 knots. In fact I was pretty much resigned to it. When the news came through that Sebastian Cattalan had done 50.1 it didn't affect me very much. It is actually very motivating. Helena was confident that the time would be knocked down whilst I didn't mind either way. 50 knots will just be another number that comes and goes. If we were the first to 50 tomorrow and another craft went faster a couple of weeks later... I wouldn't be too happy about it. My own personal appetite would not be satisfied. This aspect is one of the main reasons we settled on the concept behind VESTAS SAILROCKET. It has the potential to go a lot faster. The Mk II will be designed for a whole new era of speed sailing and aspects of the current boat are now being built with this in mind.

It was only later that night as we lay in bed that Brad read that the mythical 50 knot 'Barrier' hadn't been broken and that the official speed was a shade under at 49.85. It was obviously an incredible day in Luderitz where the kites finally moved to the top rungs of the speed sailing ladder. A very impressive achievement which I'm sure they will top. It's great that they have done it in 'deep' water and not in a puddle as I personally think it makes it all the more valid. It was a very windy day however where the tide was right. They have three weeks or so left to raise the bar some more... but... those days are still a luxurious commodity. I would not be surprised if they didn't get another one where it all comes together. We'll see. If they do then good luck to them all. They are doing a great job and as a fan of all speed sailing I'm really enjoying following their antics.

Righto, back here we are making great progress. The moulds have arrived from Capetown and we have already made the new rudder skins and carbon stock. I will bond them all together today. We have made a laser alignment jig for the main foil so that we can accurately align the new steering system to within small fractions of a degree. We had Lathes spinning throughout the weekend At BRUMAR TURNING SERVICES so as to get parts made to quite exacting tolerances. Jose and Dan are giving it their all to get this right. I wanted to have it done by today and am keeping the pressure on the whole team... but I won't compromise the quality purely for a deadline. This one has to be right. If it is... then the rest of our project goes into 'fast forward'.

Cheers, Paul

p.s. I know... I know... pictures. Just been very busy!

Hi all,

We've been very busy down here at Walvis Bay putting together the new control package. We have done all we can to keep to our timescale. I said I wanted to be ready to hit the water next Monday. We may miss this by a day or two but that will only be due to the level of static and tow testing we will endeavour to do before sailing. The back end of the boat has been completely modified. There will not be one single component from any of the previous systems onboard. New foils, bearings, planing surfaces, brackets, control rods... everything!

This system has been thoroughly engineered from start to finish and modelled extensively in Malcolms calculations for a number of realistic and extreme scenarios.

It is however a new and unique method of steering so we will tread cautiously at first. There will be very little 'feel' or force feedback when we are operating at high speed. This is due to the gearing that is necessary to give me fractions-of-a-degree control inputs.

New team member, George Dadd, has been putting in an enormous amount of work down here to model and spec the system. He works until three in the morning and then I get him up at breakfast to go through what he has done and begin correcting or implementing it. We are pushing him pretty hard but I think he is really enjoying it. Coming straight from Southampton University... this is one hell of an assignment he has to hand in. Speed-spot can be a tough teacher!

We have been supported by some real champions through this process. Uwe Jasperson at JAZ MARINE in Capetown has once again sorted us out with the special bits we can't source locally. Uwe has had new rudder moulds and some key metalwork components CNC'd up to the tolerances we require. He did it all in record time and it will be with us tomorrow. I love it when I deal with that level of efficiency and response. In these parts it's a real luxury. Next is Jose at BRUMAR TURNING SERVICES in Walvis Bay who has taken on all the machining of key parts. George has taken up residence in his office to feed him drawings and specs. The tolerances are going to be fine and there are quite a few pieces. Finished pieces are already emerging and once again it's a pleasure to work with pleasant, efficient proffesionals. Jose has built parts of previous systems and even opened up on weekends to do so... he's been one of our best local supporters.

Meanwhile...the kite/wind surfers are tearing up the speed course in Luderitz a few hundred kilometers south. It was a super windy day here two days ago which means it was windier down there. They have made a speed course that satisfies the minimum depth requirements (50cm) for a ratified course and are already posting some pretty rapid runs. They had winds of 40 knots from the perfect angle and managed some 45+ knot runs. It takes a lot of energy to get these guys up to these speeds. Once again they will be banking everything on that 'perfect' day and if it comes... well, I think we all know that they have the skills and balls to do the job. From our perspective... I can honestly say that I wish them well and that they deserve every success. We can only work as hard and fast as we can on our own project.

I'll post some photo's later today.

Cheers, Paul.

Hi all, just a quick one... if it is possible for me to do that!

Malcolm has just returned to the UK after an extremely productive week down here in Namibia. It may well turn out that the timing of the last failure was perfect. With a destroyed steering system and without the distraction of going Sailing, Malcolm, George and myself sat down with a clean sheet of peper to fully redesign VESTAS SAILROCKET's control systems. It was brilliant week full of late night brain-stroming sessions.

VESTAS SAILROCKET is now fully rebuilt. what is left to do is the final design and implementation of the new control package. We believe it will be a major improvement which will tick all the boxes for all scenarios. The process by which we came about our final solution was very methodical.

Ten days ago the teams morale was at a low... now we are riding a wave again.

A full report will follow.

Never give up.

Cheers, Paul. 

Hi all,

well as I sit here in a wind-embraced container on the coast of Africa, the vac pumps and hair dryers are whirring away in the background doing their magic on various pieces of composite. We can do these repairs now with our eyes shut. i actually don't want to make the repairs too strong as I would like to keep the damage contained... as this was. The beam is already mostly repaired as is the wing. We could be sailing within one week of the damage... but we won't be.

We will take this opportunity to do a full revision of the back of the boat. We would dearly love to get away from the complex and confusing system currently in place and move to something much simpler. We are looking ata variety of systems where we can use one rudder, slung under the rear planing surface to reduce ventilation, that can swing through 20 degrees for low speed work (foot steering) and then go to a 4 degree range (hand steering) for high speed work. That is a very brief summation of the variety of tasks it needs to perform. We are also considering having a temporary fixed skeg in place a safety system whilst we trial the new steering.

The fact is that we have never had a high speed round-up as long as we have had a fixed skeg in place. We have had reduced steerage through ventilation... but that has not resulted in smashed up boat. On Run 50 we had the Low-speed rudder tear off and take the skeg 'fixing' point with it... so we made the two systems fully independent. This time the aft planing surface tore off and took both systems out. Despite making 99% of the planing surface stronger... a weakness at the very leading edge lead to water getting between the hull and the planing surface and this tore it down. Normally this would ride higher and cleaner over 30 knots but due to the new shape... this wasn't the case... and here we are listening to vac pumps and hair dryers!!!

the good news is that our new team member 'Gorgeous' George has taken three months time out from Southampton University. He is here with us and right on the case of designing the new back end...and... malcolm is currently on a bus and only a few hours away from Walvis Bay. We are going to throw everything we have at getiing this boat to work. the back end is now a clean sheet of paper. firstly we will focus on reliable control. forget 50 for the moment... let's do 45 knot average runs with ease. Then 50 will come.

Cheers, Paul.