Firstly, thanks for the comments on our come-back runs. It's nice to know that people are listening. I'll try and answer them all a bit later.

Today we were fortunate enough to have conditions almost identical to yesterday. This is a rare occurrence and allows us to accurately assess the small changes we make between runs. Yesterday I found that I was going down the course using nearly all the range of the skeg-flap steering to stay straight at speed... but there was next to no load on it. according to 'Malcs Calcs' and my Mk 1 'eyeball', this indicated that I had biased the fixed part of the skeg a little too much to make VESTAS SAILROCKET bear away i.e. the trailing edge was too far to leeward. Now we are not talking big figures here as we have to remember that we are still doing near on 40 knots and a degree really matters. The main foil itself works at around a 2 degree angle of attack at high speed!

The data we recieved of the PI RESEARCH logger and B and G sensors showed skeg-flap steering angles of up to 11 degrees. Today I dialled the fixed part of the skeg back two turns on the adjuster and left everything else on the boat identical. today at speed I saw angles of around 2-3 degrees, a top speed of 38.5 knots and a wind speed averaging around 17 knots at best. It was the best steering that the boat has ever had. the large rudder was up, the spray was down and the wing flap was mostly in. It was a very clean run all in all.

I called malc to let him know. Ideally this is how speed sailing would go... in an ideal world... One variable at a time, but as the great philosopher 'Ice-T' once said..."S**t aint like that". Sometimes the 'suck it and see' approach has to take precedent over the scientific method if any progress is to made in a realistic time-scale.

Now let's see, a quick whip through the comments...

yep Adrian, we are looking at all aspects of the wing... but we have to see what options we have left to make the existing one more benign first... or even if we really can just sail around its weaknesses. The only time it came unstuck recently was when we had a significant and totally unpredictable blow out. Of course it might happen again. Chris and the guys at AEROTROPE who did such a brilliant job of engineering the current wing are looking hard at our options. If we make a MK2 wing... it will be made with a view to a Mk 2 boat... and hence higher speeds.

There has been a lot of blah blah and not enough pics/video etc. I totally agree... but our team down here at the moment consists of Helena and I. When we bring a video/media guy down here... we need a boat builder. When we bring a boat builder... guess what? the good news is that everything has been photographed and video'd (ask the guy who stole my laptop from beside my bed whilst I sleapt the other night) and is backed up on a hard drive. Every run has a huge amount of data and it is all archived. This alone is a job for one person. Now that the boat is fixed, I'll get back onto it... and even show you the crash footage!

For the record, I think that WotRocket is great and I'm stoked that they are out there and going for it. Rivalry is a great motivator. I wonder about their concept alot... because I simply don't understand how they are going to back up the claims. I figure there simply must be more to it than meets the eye. We shall soon see.

VESTAS SAILROCKET is a peak at where we feel the future of the speed sailing will be. We still have full faith in the concept. If we ultimately need a Mk2 boat then so be it. I don't think we are at that stage yet as this little beauty still has a lot to offer. Every day we learn more and the project moves a little closer. MI, Hydroptere and WR all have limits of one sort or another... and no doubt theories on how to overcome them... we watch and learn from all of them. Aspects of one design can be incorporated into another. If WR can make super cavitating foils work on a boat with a limited righting moment... then sure as hell we can too ( of course we are looking into it irrespective of who else is doing what). It's not a new topic to anyone looking at going over 50 knots.

We haven't put out a lot of press releases recently... but this blog has always been open and honest about what we are doing, feeling and thinking. If anyone wants to take the content and use it then feel free to. we like to spread the love. We are at a stage where we like to speak with results rather than press releases. It is funny how the publics mind works though. I remember the interest we drew in Weymouth... after we had been on TV the night before! Before that moment people would just walk by as if we weren't there. Two minutes on the box and all of a sudden voila... we must be serious! When we make a significant gain... there will be a press release. I actually really enjoy writing them...but I have seen so many that turn into nothing... that I don't read them that much anymore. Anyone can make a big claim and get some easy press... and because it's on the front page with a glossy pic, a lot of the readers think it must be real and virtually a done deal. this is a very humbling past-time.

Cheers, Paul

p.s. I know, I know... more pics. I promise you ten by lunchtime tomorrow... how's that?