VESTAS SAILROCKET is back in action (or is it to a state of chaos)?

Well, we are back in action. Rigged and ready for sailing!
Aye yi yi... what a hectic couple of weeks.
We said we would be back in two weeks and we are.
The fact is that although the main breakages were repaired relatively quickly, it was the detail work that brought our enthusiasm to a crawl. This brought it home just how sophisticated our once humble little speed-sailor has become. Once we just had one simple rudder hanging off the back with a line from either side to steer it. Now the back of VESTAS SAILROCKET looks like it should be probing the surface of a foreign planet!!! There are sensors, skegs, rudders, flaps, fences, pull ups/pull downs... and even a good ol' bung in there to remind us it is actually a boat.

Every aspect of the boat has gone up a level. Everything is custom made and then evolved to better serve its purpose. Everything is more complicated. It actually blows me away what we have created. We have had a lot of time during the repair to reflect on many aspects of the project. I personally love this boat and know it more intimately than anything I have ever known in my life... but it must be fit for purpose.

We must share the same dream.

That means that the creature at the core of this boat must be as willing and capable of achieving the end goal as we believe ourselves to be. If it is not, then our paths are destined to part. We must remain impartial to the boat and attached to the goal. I know that the concept underlying VESTAS SAILROCKET is the future. I know it's right. I totally believe that this boat is a brilliant Mk 1 interpretation of that concept. It is the first version to live out 'Bernard Smiths' vision of a '40-knot sailboat'. In fact it is already probably the fastest boat ever to come out of the UK (perhaps unfairly excluding wind and kite surfers in this context... but for the sake of the point I'm referring to a boat and not a board).
But we are yet to see if this version is going to take us all the way to the goal. WE NEED TO FIND SOLID, RELIABLE AND CONSISTENT CONTROL! We shouldn't be punished for every little indiscretion we make either. The wing has been a handful from day 1. It is an unruly beast. One that is in it's element when blasting down the course but a handful everywhere else.
We have not exhausted the design solutions for many of our problems and continue to research them, experiment and modify as best we can. We always dreamed of getting to this stage of the program where our problems were high speed related. Well, we are here... and every windy ride is absolutely thrilling for all the team on-site. The video from our last days sailing have kept all the locals talking. I will share it all soon.

I apologise for not posting a lot of content about the repairs and decision making process but any time not spent here has been spent on re-building the boat. The fact is that we have been incredibly busy getting the boat back into the shape it now is. It has occupied my time and thoughts every conscious moment.

She has a few knocks and bruises now but she is still our pride and joy. We will give her the best shot humanly possible of being the fastest sailing boat in the world. With every scratch and modification we infuse more of our own souls into her.

The title of this post??? A great little chap from the island of St Helena came by today to help out in case we got onto the water. He has spent a great deal of time out on working fishing boats and despite being pretty young, he has already done two circumnavigations. He has a quick eye and knowledgeable understanding of what our problems are. As we finished the last intimate little details of our repairs he commented on a philosophy he once heard from one of the engineers onboard a boat he spent a lot of time aboard. Jonathon said how the engineer believed that the natural state of anything mechanical or electrical is not a functioning one. Working smoothly, as we humans desire these things to be, is not the state that they aspire to. Hence the engineer went on to say that those rare moments when everything is indeed working perfectly are actually moments of chaos and disorder that require constant outside attention to maintain. I can't argue with this logic.

So it is today... that VESTAS SAILROCKET has returned to a state of chaos and disorder... and is sitting outside once again. She is fully rigged and ready for battle. Significant improvements have been made to the skeg-flap steering system thanks to 'Fi-fi' and Alan Louwe he leant there skills and equipment to machine up some fantastic new pieces which are both beautiful and fuctional. All the play in the previous system has been removed and this has allowed us to remove certain problematic systems and incorporate simpler designs that will makemy life in the cockpit much easier.

So the last crash is never behind us until the next run vindicates our decisions and solutions.

Hopefully that day will be tomorrow. Hydroptere has begun its world record assault in earnest so the game is afoot.
I can't wait to get back out there.

Stay tuned, tomorrow looks a bit light... but we will be ready.

Cheers, Paul.