Righto, here is the follow up to yesterdays Run 53... with a real photo album covering the last few weeks.

Malcolm has looked over the Run 53 data and thinks it is pretty fine indicating our best wind-to-boat speed ratio yet at around 2.43:1. I think the photos from yesterday back this up as they look very clean and with a lot less spray than normal. here are a few pics and bits of run data.

This is what we want to see. Doing around 38 knots in 16-17 knots of wind and looking tidy.

VESTAS SAILROCKET has come a long way to get to this stage of development. We hope it translates well to stronger winds.

A nice path was sailed along the Walvis Bay speed-spot. I have changed some of the wing control systems and this allows me to stall the wing rapidly at the end of the course and thus slow down quicker. The run average was 35.8 or thereabouts.

Righto... let's have a look at some pics from the darker days just gone.

This is Run 50. The rudder has departed and we are going hard into a round-up. We went form doing 35 knots at a true-wind angle of 120 to facing backwards and stopped in a little over four seconds. that has to be a world tacking record in it's own right!

The run data from Run 50 shows the course I sailed. The lee-helm was overpowering me and I couldn't run parallel to the beach. It was getting rough out there.

The aftermath. This is how we towed our poor, wounded bird back into the shore. the rudder and aft plaing surface were both torn off. What a mess! We left all the parts over at speed-spot for the night. It was the first time we had to do this.

The next day we went and brought her back piece by piece. You can see the broken platform up on the beach over the top of the wing.

Getting amongst it! cutting out all the broken bits and getting my head around the repair.

A great local friend offered to help with the rebuild. Fi-fi is seen here making the new skeg steering brackets so as to much improve some of the systems. He says 'it's nothing', to us it is everything and much appreciated. cheers to Alan Louw for letting us use the big tools!

First re-assembly of the new transom. note that the stainless rod that fixes the aft end of the skeg (on the left) is now attached to the transom rather that the rudder(on right) bracket as before. this means the systems are completely independent. the rudder brackets are also beefed up. The new, milled-alloy steering arm can be seen on the left. All the ball joints have been custom machined by Fi-fi and the trigger system for unlocking the skeg flap has now been removed. It's in the cockpit to remove any chance of it being accidentally activated whilst sailing. The B and G sensor is now recording the skeg flap angle.

A quick and basic strength test was carried out on the repaired beam...

...And splash. We're back... and about to blow off the dust in the best possible way.

Hope you enjoy the pics... now for the video.

Cheers, Paul.