Good morning...

The sun is shining brightly and the wind is forecast to blow at around 25-6 knots. As long as there isn't any significant rain inland it should be fine.... well better than fine actually.

Yesterday was shaping up well too but then it just didn't come. We went over to the course optimistically to try the nautical mile course and put the previous days fumblings behind us. The wind did build to 18 knots in gusts but was way too west and hence downwind. After we put VESTAS SAILROCKET safely away I rigged up my windsurfer and went back out. It was the right call not to sail as I couldn't even sail up and down the speed strip due to the wind angle.

This morning when I checked into our local weather sites it appeared that this weeks wind has had a serious upgrade. It now looks windy right through to Friday. We will see.

After Saturday I am more determined than ever to start the record haul. We are going to change a few procedures. Helena will now be a little busier on the course as we require her services again for the de-rigging procedure. The boat comes first here. We made up a heavier bag to put over the main foil at the end of the runs so now we can shove the foil into the sand to peg the boat if necessary. I will lock the rig further out at around 35 degrees and two people will be holding the bow. We can't afford to make old mistakes twice. Raising and lowering the rig on these windier days is almost more treacherous than the sailing!!!

So let's see what the first day of December brings us.

Cheers, Paul

Greetings all,

well those of you following the live blog would have been in on yesterdays action. The conditions were A1 perfect and if we had of held it all together we could have done something pretty special. But another bloody 'if' creeps in.

The first run went really well. We had wind gusting to 24 knots but averaging 21.5. I did a shallow dip along the beach to hook up the apparent wind and start up. No more big dips and turns out to sea. It's one of the advantages of being able to sail in stronger conditions... you just power over the 'hump' and up onto the plane. VESTAS SAILROCKET took off down the course whilst I hurried to pull get everything sorted so I could pull the main flap on. The control was once again brilliant. I got the flap in and was tracking as straight as you like. I was loving it. We flew past the timing hut and I gave a big 'Yeeee Haaa' for those listening in on the VHF. Here we were charging along in perfect balance on a world record attempt and we were in full control. All the work was paying us back.

LOOKING TIDY WITH BEAM FAIRING, SMALL WINDSHIELD, NO WIND INSTRUMENTS OR ONBOARD CAMERAS... AND NO EXTRA STRINGS.

YEEEHAAAA!!! POD FLYING AND GREAT CONTROL... TIDY. NOTICE HOW LIGHT THE FRONT END IS IN THE WATER. STANDING THE RIG UP A DEGREE SHOULD REDUCE THE 'UP' COMPONENT AND HOLD BOTH THE POD AND THE FRONT END DOWN A BIT. IT SHOULD ALSO INCREASE THE DRIVE COMPONENT AND HELP US GO FASTER.

I did a sharp slow down procedure with hard turns still around 25 knots and blasted up to the beach. That was a great run. I was a little disappointed by the speed though as we only peaked at 44.78 and averaged 43.38 over the 500. It does show just how rock solid this boat is with averages close to its peak speed. We knew that we had enough to go for the mile record. I had the wing a little too eased on that run and when we looked at the PI RESEARCH data afterwards we realised it was out around 18 degrees instead of 10-12... so we were losing around 5 knots of boat speed.

The team gathered down the bottom of the course in preperation to lower the wing and head back up for another bash. We were thinking of going for the mile record. Then all hell broke loose. Venassius who was holding the bow of the boat slipped and the bow fell away from the wind. It was a critical stage just as we were getting ready to lower the rig. The wing angle was locked off and VESTAS SAILROCKET normally just feathers around the guy holding the bow. Hiskia ran to help him... but it was too late. The rig began to back and an old foe had entered the arena. George grabbed onto the bow and I jumped on the pod, ran along the beam, down the hull and into the cockpit. Brad was dragging off the back. The bow continued to back around... just like a fully backed headsail still sheeted on the wrong side. Shit, shit shit... It was a windy day so all the safety's were maxed out. The wing backed into the rigging and the lower flap tore off. George was still clinging onto the bow and Brad was still body dragging off the back. It was a bloody circus. Hiskia had gone for the RIB to come after us. As soon as I saw this I told George to drop off the bow. If the situation didn't have so much consequence involved... if we weren't currently sailing this twisted mess away from a potential world record... if it wasn't all so F*****g close... it would have been hilarious. My humour escaped me.

ALL CROSSED UP. THE BOTTOM FLAP IS BARELY HANGING ON, THE WING IS BACKED HARD IN TO THE RIGGING (LOOK FAMILIAR DOM? DO YOU STILL GET NIGHTMARES?). GEORGE HAS DROPPED OFF AND IS SWIMMING JUST TO THE UPPER RIGHT OF THE BUOY. THE FOLLOWING GYBE WASN'T PRETTY.

I quickly weighed up the situation. Trying to sail across to the Yacht Club like this was just too dangerous. If I Missed it I would be screwed with only a couple of miles of Industrial harbour ahead. I had to tell Brad to let go and try and sail it across the Lagoon. As soon as he let go I swung the bow up into the wind... It was now that I realised the forward bridle had torn free. This is the line I use to pull the nose of the wing to windward with as this makes the wing feather and allows me to stop the boat. Magnifying this problem was the fact that the lower flap had now torn completely free so the wing was now sheeting itself on thanks to the large main flap being deployed. Simply put... even with the main rudder hard over... I couldn't stop. I was charging across the lagoon at 15 knots smacking into waves and slowly sinking. I had no helmet, no comms and could barely see the bow due to the heavy spray.... and I was swearing like a trooper!

We eventually ground my lovely detailed foils into the mud at the far end of the lagoon and begun to sort the mess out. I was pretty furious... but that can be explained later on. We had blown our big day and beaten the hell out of our beautiful boat.

Whilst we are determined to hit 50 knots... right now we just want to get some world records... start filling the bag... and today it was all within our grasp. The next run would have been the one of dreams. Conditions had already built a little more and speed-spot beckoned. It might as well have been 1000 miles away now. We just managed to get the boat back to the Yacht Club before she sunk a second time in the choppy Lagoon.

We got it all ashore and on close inspection saw that we had in fact gotten off lightly with relatively minor damage. In fact, as I sit here now around 23 hours later... we are all rigged, repaired, modified and improved! Ready to roll once more. But the wind seems reluctant to come. There must be more rain inland as it can be the only reason.

We have raised the rig around 1.4 degrees as we noticed that the front of the boat was riding a little light. That last run was simple speed sailing porn. The pod was gliding along, the course sailed was as straight as you like (but I could still be a fair bit closer in)... rudder loads and response were all spot on.

So that's how it goes in this gig. Close is in fact still miles away. Parrallels with mountain climbing come to mind but you can make your own.

We had a long debrief.

Oh well, can't even have a beer as I'm on a strict diet (down from 83 to a scrawny 79kg and dropping)

Today was forecast to be another epic... actually it's just building now. My feeling is that it's too late but we will go anyway.

WE WILL GET THERE!

Cheers, Paul.

Hi all,

Yesterday turned into a great day for our full dress-rehearsal for what is to come. We equipped VESTAS SAILROCKET in close enough to full speed mode. The only thing really missing was the new MARLOW rigging which still hasn't arrived... oh and the onboard camera.

It looks like the inland rains have finally eased enough to allow the windy Walvis Bay we know and love to return. It only takes a day or two here for it to go from 'It's never going to blow'... to 'It's never going to stop blowing'.

It was only predicted to reach 15 knots yesterday and it seemed that it was only going to struggle up to that at best. We got the boat fully prepped as I wanted to do a full dress rehearsal on the course to make sure that the TRIMBLE GPS was working as it should from its position on the boat... and to get all the team familiar with the new procedures associated with all the new 'add-ons' and 'take-offs'. The wind was building nicely as we made for the water. Helena took WSSRC commissioner Mike Ellison over to 'speed-spot' so he could take some tide measurements. It was going to be good for him to get an idea of exactly where we are sailing and where the fast bits of the run might be. Mike has seen them all. He has been commissioner for Yellow Pages, Long-shot, Hydroptere, the windsurfers in the trench and recently the first 50 knot sailors on kiteboards earlier this year. There isn't much that Mike doesn't know about speed sailing and it's a pleasure to have him here to watch over us.

Helena was going to be off RIB driving duties and in charge of still photography and manning the new 'live-update' section on the website. from where she sits in the timing hut half way down the course she can see and hear (via VHF) everything that goes on during a run. Directly after the run I can relay my top speed and best 20 second average as this should give a good idea of my 500 meter run. The beauty of VESTAS SAILROCKET is that it tracks incredibly straight even when hit by substantial gusts. This means that typically my peaks... and GPS 500 m results... should be relatively close to the final projected (500m point to point) results.

It was with great joy that we crossed the lagoon with VESTAS SAILROCKET on this fine day. It was a couple of days and one year ago that we battled our way over here and pulled off that amazing run 24... our first 40 knot run. That was the run that turned the project around. It was that run that meant this day could be. That was a special day, the equal of any to come. Although we were just crossing the lagoon with our boat as we had so many times before, I felt a new sense of arrival. Up ahead in the distance the WSSRC commissioner was walking up the remote beach after taking tide measurements, in a new little clear canopy on the bow of VESTAS SAILROCKET sat a complex GPS timing system and beside me in the support RIB were the well practiced team. Helena who has been through it all with me, George who has worked like a champ and been a real strength over the past three months... he even gave up the 'kings cup' to stay for this. Brad, a great mate of mine from years back who came out with us originally... and had to come back to watch us make the final push, Hiskia, a true Namibian from Ruundu in the north. We grabbed Hiskia from a £1.60 per day ATM security job 22 months ago and he has been with us for every run ever since... and new for today was Les. Formally a Swakopmund local whom we know from the Yacht club, he has moved to Walvis... like today... so we grabbed him to help with the launching seeing Helena was going to have her hands full.

We dropped Helena off at the timing hut to begin the live-feed whilst the rest of us made for the top of the course. We started right at the top today to make the most of every meter. The wind was looking lovely and far exceeding our expectations. We were getting gusts over 20 knots which made it perfect for a good shakedown. It took quite a while to 'clean the bird'  but we will quickly get faster. VESTAS SAILROCKET looked brilliant and I was itching to sail her. The team departed to leave Les and I up the top of the course. Les was struggling a bit to hold the boat as she surged around. Height and mass is an advantage when holding this boat and whilst Les has all the strength, he's not a big guy. The boat can be pretty intimidating the first time and sometimes I forget this. We were standing out a little deeper to make sure that the main foil wasn't scratching on the bottom so this wasn't helping.

Les managed to get me off safely and we were off for our first run of the attempt. the wind was good... but not brilliant. I estimated around an 18-18.5 knot average. This means gusts over 20 and lulls to 16. I made an early turn onto the course so as to get in flat water. VESTAS SAILROCKET picked up nicely and we were off. She quickly accelerated up to 40 knots and everything felt fine. I started with the wing at 15 degrees and pulled the main flap in to match. I then pulled the wing into around 12-13 degrees and once again, the flap came in to match. The steering was nice and light, very gentle and progresive. The new control system was working brilliantly. This was the breakthrough design of the project. It was an effortless run and everything worked great. We peaked at around 42.8 knots and averaged an easy 40.8. The wind was 17-19 knots throughout the run.

It was great to know that the 'live-feed' was going out and that other members of the team, friends, family and supporters from all over the world could be with us on this isolated beach in Africa. We will aim to improve on this. Who knows... maybe even live audio direct off the boat!

We only needed to do one run to test the systems so we took the whole show back to the Yacht Club.

No records today but that wasn't the point... that's for tomorrow. The forecast for the next three days is looking pretty epic. I think we are going to start filling the record swag in the next few days. Mike seemed impressed how easily we doubled wind speed. Realistically, todays run was still near on 10 knots off the outright record but that isn't a big concern. We're in great fighting shape and giving it our absolute best shot. It's a real pleasure to be here now.

Cheers, Paul.

We have had some 'out of character' weather here in Walvis bay which has resulted in very light winds. We've even had rain! Of course there is nothing we can do about it so we just figure that each day allows us another one of preperation. I spent another day on the foil package working down through the different grades of sandpaper. I filled and faired all the planing surfaces and sharpened their trailling edges. I can only assume that it helps.

We have set up a base station over at the speed-hut and will endeavour to send a live feed off the course on big days. You should be able to get feedback almost direct off the boat as I go down the course. Helena will be doing this from the timing hut using a generator, laptop and 3G modem... as well as taking photo's... and sorting through GPS data between runs as we tow VESTAS SAILROCKET back up the course.

At this stage it is looking like the weekend is going to be windy... but that depends on the rain in land. I have faith in this spot. It does this. It sometimes feels like it is never going to be windy again... and then it comes... and feels like it is never going to stop. This is why we have to appreciate the windless days. Preperation time is a bonus.

Cheers, Paul.