Walvis Bay is back to its windy best. Yesterday we got down to the boat early so we could get the jobs done and hit speed-spot on the kites and windsurfers before sunset. It was a classic Walvis day and the wind built to optimal conditions for record breaking. Now this is how I remember it. Sitting on that strip of land on a calm day is like sitting in a race car in the garage. yesterday it was alive with wind energy. A raw power just begging to be tapped into. 

It was good to take the uninitiated team members out there to give them an idea of what our pampered craft is going to have to endure. It has to be at home out there when it's 'honking'!

We put the wing up in Africa for the first time on Sunday. There are a few little things that need sorting out but we are already onto them.

Once we have a couple of other small details sorted, hopefully today, we will take the boat with the wing onto the water and start exposing the wing to some wind.

For the first trials I will remove all the elements which are not necessary and try and test one at a time, adding a new element for each test. We won't need the lower horizontal wing extension for a while as we work through the boats low speed performance... so that will stay in the container.

The lower 'wing fillet' that is the highly curved lower corner element of the wing is always necessary as that is where the wing hitches onto the beam and is also the junction for most of the upper and lower components. It always has to be on to join the wing to the boat.

For the first test we will only go out with the large main/middle wing section which is designed to be fully 360 degree feathering. This means we will remove the upper tip section and the lower 2 meters below the VESTAS logo. We should be able to raise the rig in the yacht club and launch the boat with this raised as it should develop very little power when not sheeted in.

That's the plan.

Yesterday, we fitted the foil raising and lowering system that will allow us to do this operation from the cockpit and even when underway at low speed. We are very happy with how well this functions.

Today is going to be a very windy day. Way more than we need. I'm dead keen now to try this wing out. How well it rotates/feathers may well determine just how fast this whole program progresses.

Hopefully this program will begin tomorrow.

Cheers, Paul.