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

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.

Yesterday we did manage to get a run in... our third for this record attempt.

VESTAS SAILROCKET performed flawlessly and executed a very smooth 42.5 knot 500 meter run with a peak around 44.7 knots. The average wind was 19.5 knots.

A few things were noted from the PI RESEARCH data afterwards... one in particular was mainsheet stretch under full load. I had consciously sheeted in to the optimal angle of 10 degrees as VESTAS SAILROCKET accelerated and the cleated off the rope so I could operate the flap controls on the wingsail. When we looked at the data afterwards it showed the wing easing out to 14-15 degrees at peak speed. As the rope was sheeted off in a cleat... this could only come about through stretch. We went back through our previous high speed runs and saw a similar trend when the wing was fully loaded. The ropes are as thin as can be in order to reduce weight and more importantly, windage. Although their breaking strength is way above what is necessary... it is the initial stretch from no load up to partial load which is the issue. I don't think it's a big one as long as we know about it and can trim accordingly. In some cases it might be advantageous as our craft/wing doesn't really flex or heel to unload during a gust.

The water is nice and flat during low tides... but I would prefer to operate a little above low tide to have the benefit of a long run out at the end. Having said that... this was one of the best slow-downs I have ever done. I made a few tweaks on the wing flap so that the wing feathers a bit better when I let go of the mainsheet to turn off the power. This time I was able to bring the whole show fully off the boil in a straight line and simply turn it in towards the beach. The shallow bank waiting at the end of the course proved a good incentive!

So all was good and it was great to get a run in just to keep us all on our toes.

We have built a 'crows nest' above the timing hut so that Helena can take photos from an elevated angle. This now puts her some 30' up in the air and allows her to look down on the boat. No helicopters out here you see!!! We have used the original COMPOTECH spar off the old soft sail and mounted a barrell on top of it. Helena climbs up a rope ladder and through the bottom of the barrell. It's quite a piece of kit.

One of the issues here is that it makes it impossible for her to be able to do the 'live-feed' as well... so we will have to come up with a plan 'B' for that one.

So the wind is already blowing today and we hope to be on the water earlier rather than later. In fact... it's looking pretty flash at the moment. One of these days.... one of these days.

 Cheers, Paul.