Now that was encouraging...
Sat, 1 Oct 11 18:55
Just back in and still downloading data and videos.
today was very encouraging. In quite moderate winds we managed to get going with the ventilated/cavitating foil. VESTAS Sailrocket 2 got her skates on to the point where I actually physically had to look back and check which foil I had on. She just felt damned slippery. She accelerated up to an effortless 36.79 knots and held over 35 knots for 10 seconds.
I am still absorbing what this represents. It really wasn't windy at all and the run was very short. I was pretty amazed at how smoothly she accelerated.
Whilst the speed isn't anything amazing, what it represents may well be. We have been concerned about the mid range acceleration being our biggest hurdle with this foil but I certainly didn't feel like anything was holding it back today.
We have just been watching the camera which we positioned over the foil and it's fascinating watching the ventilated cavities form and expand dowen the foil.
So yes, we are very excited by this. It is the clearest indication we have had that we are on the right path with this boat and this concept. If you had invested in VESTAS Sailrocket 2 shares, I would say that their value has just jumped.
Real proof will come in subsequent runs. Right now we need to consolidate what we have. The data logger let us down again today so we are missing some key bits of information relating to how the boat was balanced. I don't want to jeopardise things by just going for it without all the info.
Today was good. We are on the way alright.
More to come.
Cheers, Paul.
Where's The Video?
Submitted by NissanConvert on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 12:39.Well! Where is it?
Sorry Paul I know you've got better things to do but can't you con someone to take a bit of video, maybe from the RIB? I just never get tired of watching this bird in flight so anything that you can provide will make me a happy man. Very happy to hear that things seem to be progressing so well and that you're happy with the results so far, I'm just praying that you get perfect conditions for some good runs(& of course that someone will be there to film it LOL).
Regards
Ray
Brisbane QLD.
video...
Submitted by Paul on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 13:02.Hi Ray, of course we have video, we always have video. We just have to knock it into shape first. Right now we are focusing on getting ship shape to get out again today (people are climbing into drysuits behind me right now). We hope to film something really worthwhile... although yesterday was pretty interesting. As soon as we think we have something that can tell a story, we'll get it your way.
Cheers, Paul.
wind speed
Submitted by monomuncher on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 01:07.Hi Paul, can you tell how fast the wind speed was to achieve 36.79knots? Good luck..
Guesstimate of wind speed...
Submitted by Paul on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 06:54.Hi Monomuncher...
At this stage I can only guess at the wind-speed... but I'm getting prett good at it out there. I would estimate it was around 16-22 knots. The reason why we are guessing is that one of our weather data logging boxes packed it in (a new one is on its way through the extremely random Namibian courier service) and the old faithful one has been fitted to the wing to measure wind angle and strength. This reading is only apparent angle and strength though and I would have to post calculate true wind strength. Yesterday morning we headed out into the desert to calibrate these instruments in the car but there was around 6-8 knots blowing so we will try on a dead calm morning i.e. now.
Helena has one of those small hand held instruments which we use as a reference but until we can reference it to a calibrated instrument, I don't like to quote the figures as fact. When everything is up and running we should have calibrated instruments logging on a shore station and on the boat. We have all the gear but the electronics are proving incredibly stubborn at the moment.
For what it's worth, when we got out there, Helena was getting gusts to 26 knots on the hand held instrument. That felt about right. By the time we got rigged it had oddly dropped, so much so that I didn't expect to get going at all. My first attempt at a starting sequence failed to get VSR2 over her low speed 'hump' so I stalled the wing, sailed away from the beach and tried again using only half of speed-spot i.e. 800 meters. I noted apparent wind speeds of 13 knots half way up the wing. The wind was lightish but obviously I got enough of a gust to get going. Wearing a helmet it is impossible to accurately guess. I am assuming that it must have been around 22 knots. I will be surprised if it was more. Either way, for this foil it was great. I'm sure if I had have had more of the course to play with that we would have had a new top speed over 40. If we do the same in 25 knots... well, we'll see soon.
Cheers, Paul.
Nice
Submitted by winksaville on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 00:58.Looks like great progress, but I for one would like to see daily posts, please :)
-- Wink
Daily reports...
Submitted by Paul on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 06:38.Hi Wink, I will update the sailing status at the top right of the front page every day. We still have a couple of months to go down here so if not much is happening and we are in standby-to-standby mode then I'll probably try not to write something for the sake of it. When things are kicking off, you will get it as soon as I get in and understand the data. We finally have a much better internet connection and am trying to work out how to do live streaming of the big runs. I was hoping we could simply plug a laptop into the actual video recorder that records every run and the audio... but of course, it's not that easy. We are onto it.
I'm glad you're into it, it may well be about to get real interesting.
Cheers, Paul.
GGGGGRRRReat
Submitted by chewieb on Sat, 10/01/2011 - 20:24.Wow you sound pumped UP.
Hope the careful progress pays off and that bottle of bubbly get drunk.
Good Luck
Matt
progress
Submitted by Mike Ewart on Sat, 10/01/2011 - 20:22.keep it going Paul it is sounding very promising, at least some shares are rising shame they are hypothetical
Yippee-Ki - Yay
Submitted by luvmyboat on Sat, 10/01/2011 - 19:54.Great news - Best of luck - looking forward to hearing that another bottle (or two) of warm champagne has been drunk!