Greetings all,

 well I reckon we are about 60% of the way to launch at the moment.

Despite the new boat looking increasingly more like an aircraft, she is still hanging onto her roots as a sailing craft by taking longer than expected and costing more.

Our biggest hold up at the moment is design. From a boat building perspective we are having to slow down as we can only go as fast as the drawings come out of the design offices. It is very frustrating as we are keen to see the finished pieces come out.

I watch over every aspect of the build to make sure that things are as they should be. This is the boat that will finish the dream for me and I don't want it to fail for a silly oversight. In order to make the sailing easier, the new boat itself has become more complicated. This means that crashes themselves will be harder to repair. We are doing our best to make sure that crashes won't happen... but this is a voyage of even greater discovery perhaps than the last.

I am hoping that we can drop her in the water in mid August so that she can be ready and waiting when we come back from competing in the next Little Americas Cup in Newport, Rhode Island. We have a busy few months coming up.

One thing is for sure, this boat is going to be tough. I haven't been silly about saving weight in key areas. It has been built with big safety margins as overall it isn't very weight sensitive... and I know she will have a punishing life.

In a week or so, Hydroptere will be in our backyard and today I received an e-mail offering me a sail. I have been joking that it is like being asked to a BBQ at the guys house who ran off with your wife... but I can't help it, I love a BBQ! I have a good friend onboard in Jacques Vincent who was my watch leader in my last circumnavigation during the Oryx Quest... although I have known him longer than that. It will be great to see Jacques and swap war stories from our two competing projects. The boat itself is so different than ours that I doubt that there will be much to learn that will relate. I just hope the wind blows.

The kiteboarders have booked another world record attempt this October in Namibia as they will be keen to get the record back off Hydroptere... the only issue facing them all is... our next boat will be in the water by then... and from then on, whoever holds the record will only be keeping the seat warm for us;)

Heh, heh. Well if I didn't honestly believe that, I wouldn't be doing this would I?

In the big picture, the whole challenge is made better if there is more competition and I hold nothing but respect for anyone who has reached the stage where they stand at the top of a speed course, look down that run and then commit themselves and their craft to go faster than anyone has ever gone before. It's a thrilling experience and I can't wait to do it again.

So hurry up with those bloody designs before I go free-style!

Cheers, Paul.