Hi all. Not much to report from the sailing side as we haven't had any decent weather to get out since the first run over the 'hump' nearly a week ago.

The weather is described locally as 'East' weather meaning that it is likely that the East winds will blow down out of the high desert plateau's inland and cance out the normal South West winds. There is a battle going on between the two winds and quite often Walvis Bay is in the middle. The upside is that the days are hot and gorgeous. The downside is that what makes them so gorgeous is the lack of wind. It's braii weather.

Nonetheless we work on the boat every day to get it as ready as can be for the one or two good days that may fall into our lap. We only really have 8 possible sailing days left after which we have to pack up. If one of these days is a good one then we have to be ready to get out there and tick as many boxes as we can.

I want to see VESTAS Sailrocket 2 do reliable start ups and get easily into the 40 + speed range using the conventional foil. We should be able to see how stable she is as she gets faster, get a feeling for the steering and see how well all the systems work. If we are happy then we will do a quick pit-stop and switch in the high speed foil section for the main foil. Whilst we have made it over the low-speed hump, the next 'hump' will involve the performance of the high speed foil and how well it performs in the low to middle speed ranges. It will be fascinating to see how much wind that needs to really get tracking. If we can get that over 40 knots in winds around 22 knots... well, that will be the day I know we will have cracked it.

I have no true idea of how hard,easy or realistic this will be. We have our theory and list of options to assist us... but some of those are costly on many fronts i.e. whole new main foils and we want to be pretty sure of ourselves before we start ordering new ones. They aren't lollipop sticks. If we head back to Europe now not really knowing if the foils are any good then it adds another element of risk to our return session later in the year. We desperately want to get VSR2 up to its record setting potential this year so we want to be chasing high speeds asap.

Time is running out now and we need some weather related luck to fall into our ever optimistic laps.

Half the team are working full-time through the complex COSWORTH wiring system. So far we have the basics of Wing and rudder angles working but the strain guage logging system is proving to be.... errr... stubborn. Fortunately Jonny and Helena have a lot more patience than me with boat electronics so I have left them with it. It's all a bit of an uncertain mess now but once they have it sorted then it should get tidier.

The cockpit is starting to look very business like. We have the two Cosworth displays sitting to my left just inside the rim of the cockpit. The small diameter, quick release steering wheel has a multi function PTT (push to talk) button on it which activates a really cool comms system which we are helping  MOTOCOMP develop. Basically it gives an absolute first rate wireless, noise cancellation system based on the Interphone F4 units used on motorbikes (which gives very clear voice transmissions even in open face helmets up to high speeds and is pretty much waterproof). The units allow a full two way conversation between the crew which is clear as a bell... and for the pilot to link wirelessly with a VHF radio to transmit off the boat. The fact is that you are often in a windy environment when using marine VHF's and most noise/wind cancellation systems are crap, let alone wireless. This system works brilliantly and is crystal clear. We are just getting started with this. The fact is that this project is a great place to test these electronic products. If they can not only survive but excel in our environment... then I will happily recommend them to anyone. I look forward to having great comms on and off the boat at last.

Outside now, I can hear the small Dremel grinder gnawing away at carbon as Ben fits the front seat. All the control lines are now run forward into organisers either side of the steering wheel. It does look a bit weird. It looks like a racing car cockpit and yet it has all these ropes hanging out of it. Yacht, plane, race car.... what's not for a guy to like about this toy?

So tomorrow is forecast to be better, as is Tuesday. Fingers crossed  the good winds from the south west will triumph over the evil winds from the East;)

We're ready.

Cheers, Paul.

Hi all, just a short one to say that we just came back from speed-spot where VSR2 cruised effortlessly over the 8 knot speed hump in mild 16-19 knot conditions. The addition of the back skeg transformed the low speed handling and made VSR2 track true from start-up. A heap of mushy dra was lost and away she went. The boys were following in the RIB and we were all 'whooping and hollering'. I left the wing fully eased and just enjoyed a sedate run. The point we were looking for had been proven. What a great day. We hit just over 20 knots so that means two bottle of Pol Roger champagne are history (the 10 and 20 knot bottles).

The videos and photo's will follow. I just wanted to let you know asap. We are very excited by this. The boat felt great, the rudder was steering, the back float was lifting on the foil... it was simply working.

The champagne is warm as we didn't pre-empt this one. Maybe that's the secret.

What a great thing to witness. I am pretty happy at the moment. I reckon that 20 knot wave that came off the bow of VSR2 today will ripple right through the speed sailing world.

More to come.

Cheers, Paul

We made our way out yesterday around 4 p.m. at low tide and through some good wave action which was rolling into the bay. The water clearance of VSR2 is pretty good so she rides nicely over the swells. Walvis Bay is a pretty open bay and there is quite often a lot of swell rolling in around the distant point. It's not uncommon to have breaking waves on the launch ramp. These swells can also be rolling into the end of speed spot and you have to approach this end of the course with caution when sailing. I have hit a wave in VSR1 at around 15 knots which buried the main beam and brought everything to a mushy stop.

Yesterday we set out to see if we could get VESTAS Sailrocket 2 to bear away down the course on her own from a standing start. We wanted to see if we could do it with the beam in the aft high speed configuration. If we could then it would greatly simplify the boat and the whole startup procedure.

We are still getting used to just the basic handling of the boat so every minute on the water is highly revealing.

SPEED SPOT IS A GORGEOUS PLACE AT THIS TIME OF THE DAY. A PERFECT CANVAS FOR A SUNSET.

What we say yesterday, in mild 14-16 knot winds was that by heavy oversheeting of the wing, we could force VSR2 to bear away onto a downwind course in a safe manner. From there I could ease the wing out to around a 30 degree angle and the boat would start sailing down the course... and hold a course. This was great. She pushed along at around 5-6 knots. We reckon that in a few knots more wind with the full wing in place that she would have made it over the 'hump' and up onto the plane. Like I said before, if she can get to 10 knots, she can get to 40.

We practiced this starting/sailing procedure a couple of times and were out on speed-spot until well after dark.

There are still lots of little systems that need improving and each of these will make overall boat handling much better but... we all really liked what we saw.

I think that yesterday I saw that the boat will work... and maybe quite quickly.

SO HERE IS THE FIRST SAILING PICTURE OF VSR2. SHE IS SAILING DOWN THE COURSE UNDER HER OWN STEAM. TO DO THIS SHE HAS MADE IT THROUGH A FEW KEY TRANSITIONS THAT WERE SOME OF THE BIG ISSUES RELATING TO THE GENERAL PRACTICALITIES RELATING TO THIS WHOLE CONCEPT. THIS MIGHTN'T LOOK VERY SPECTACULAR... YET... BUT WE ARE ON THE WAY.

It's all so conceptual and unproven that you don't always believe it's going to work until you actually see it.

I think that with a boat this ambitious that you can have two types of fear. One is that it mightn't work... and the next one is that it will work and that means you will have to strap yourself to it one day and take it to the limit! I came away yesterday feeling like we had perhaps just witnessed the transition.

It will take some more testing where the ultimate proof will be when we start from a standstill and get over the 'hump' and off under full control down the course. If we don't need to go swinging the beam and rig around through the start up sequence then that will make life so much easier.

I a still not happy about the general stability of the wing throughout all the handling procedure but we will start working on that. If we no longer have to pull the shrouds in and out around pulleys to swing the rig fore and aft then we can go to fixed standing rigging which is pre-stretched. There is still a lot to do... but maybe alote less to do than we thought before yesterday.

We will try and get out again today. The swell is bigger and the tides are wrong... but this is starting to get interesting.

Cheers, Paul

p.s. I will do Blogs when anything interesting has happened... and when we know enough about what we saw to share it. For short updates I will use Twitter which also comes up on the front page of the site.

In the greyest of days, VESTAS sailrocket 2 headed across to 'speed-spot' with her wing sail in place.

All the little systems, struts and pulleys were in place to get her to the 'arena'. These were all the details I have been thinking about behind the scenes since the boat was first envisaged. When we talk of the design and look at the big issues, in my mind I also have all of these little, real world issues that I know are can carry equal priority in the big picture. I love to see this prior attention to small details pay off. Now they are in place and I know they will work. The boat looks good. It feels good. It's already getting slick.

VSR2 sits at a strange angle when we tow it. Nothing that worrying as she is so high out of the water. She doesn't tow 'true'. By this I mean that she doesn't tow in the direction of her hulls. This is because she is 50-50 plane and boat and when you tow her backwards across the course.. she just finds a place to sit somewhere in the middle... and that is sort of a big, 'grey' nowhere zone. No problem... just weird.

We got across to speed-spot and headed for the shore next to the two timing huts. Everything has to be evaluated. Do we pull her up on the shore or just stick the forward rudder in the sand and let the rest pivot around it?

Damn... I could just go on and on about all these aspects as they fascinate me. Every day you get to see all this great stuff come together... and come alive. It's pretty cool and I love it all.

We had so much to learn today. It was grey, the Walvis Bay fog bank had come to town... but the wind was steady and perfect for what we wanted to see.

Overall the boat handled exactly as I expected it to. There was no magic where we escaped any of our weaknesses, but equally, the systems we had in place to deal with them were effective.

We could easily hold the boat on station either on the shore or behind the RIB and could spin her around as we pleased.

She sat stubbornly head to wind with the beam raked in her aft-high speed configuration... but began to sail down the course when we raked the rig forward.

The foil went up and down and the lock engaged. The different sections of the wing did their jobs and showed us where they needed greater control.

Yes, we got sailing under our own steam from a standing start... albeit only in a mucshy manner at around 4 knots. The fact is that she probably won't be able to unstick from the water until we have much higher winds so this is no worry.

She looked bloody fantastic and gave me confidence. I know that in these mild conditions that this sense of confidence can be false... but once again, we learnt a lot, will improve the boat and come back out again.

So we put her away in one piece and all felt great about it. We appreciate these milestones and consider them Champagne worthy. VESTAS Sailrocket 2 got her second bottle of Pol Roger champagne poured across her funky bow.

We will make some changes and try and head out again tomorrow.

She sails... WOOHOO!

Thanks to everyone who has helped. I take time on days like this to appreciate what I am fortunate enough to be in the middle of. I am highly aware of the help our project has relied on and there are times when in my mind, you are all there. You know who you are.

Today was a good day.

The 10-knot bottle of champagne awaits.

Cheers, Paul.