54 knot plus rocket rides....50+ 500meter run!

 Hi all, just a quick one to say that we have punched through 54 knots, 62 mph and 100 kmh. The fun part is that we did it two up and VESTAS Sailrocket 2 was far from optimally trimmed. It was a wild ride. The day was quite unsettled but I decided to make the most of it and take Adam from WIRED USA for a shot in the back seat. We have never sailed two up before. VSR2 struggled to get started but once she found her feet... WHOOSKA!  It was a crazy ride that took me...well... I'll do the full update tomorrow. I just saw the photos and they are wild. Adam had the ride of his life. In 1 ride he's been as fast as I've ever been.

This boat will do the business. It WILL beat the current world record. I know that now. The question is how much we can get out of it. 

Triple rum and cokes in a pint glass are the drinks for a new best speed.

So where are we with the new foil? I don't know... all I know is that it's fast. There is so much to tell about that last full-on run.

Update to follow... everyone is sitting here madly downloading data, HD video footage and photo's... and slurping on rum. We are still sailors remember.

Cheers, Paul.

Comments

Forces

Wow thats soo cool!

Paul, with all your spare time between your very short sails ;) do you have some time to give us some more detailed info?

A few calculations and assuming a Cl of 0.7 (big assumtion) I have your wing making 1900 lbs of force when you get over 50 Knots. Is this the kind of range you are in? with an all up weight of 900lbs or so that means an acceleration G of.....?? hard to prdict as things are changing so quickly and your wing angle keeps changing with speed.

Are you able to let some raw data out for us tech junkies to look at?

Thanks a bunch for all the posts.

Leigh

Speed Spot location??

Hi Folks -

Can anybody confirm the Speet Spot location?

On google earth I'm guessing it's the the east-west bar of low sand that defines the southern boundary of Walvis bay?

22°57'36.68"S
14°27'46.26"E

Terribly happy to read of the continued progress of the VSR2 team. GODSPEED!

Tim, Vermont

100kph Submitted by Mike

100kph
Submitted by Mike Ewart on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 13:44.

Well done to you and the whole team, its great to see you can get the foil working, or we assume it was working fully, at that speed it would be very difficult to be unventilated.
Out of curiousity do you measure the apparent wind speed and angle on a run and if so what is it?
There has been some comments on the run being 2 up could the extra load on the foil have pushed it over the last hump?

Yeah!

Well done Paul and the team. With you all the way to 60+

AWSUM

Looks like I've had too many already.
Great news, 100kph down & out, definitely not long now till you set a few more records, ones that boys playing with kites will never see.

Almost there...

Awesome! I hope Adam knows how lucky is he is! Can't be long now!!!!

Balance

Do you think having the second person on board altered the fore aft balance of VSR2, and therefore the angle of attack of the foil?

He he, so it works, nothing

He he, so it works, nothing fundamentally wrong with the foil then!

Oiyoi!!

Here we go!

Let the fun begin

Pounding out a better concept into a boat is step 1.

Pushing it to, well almost, is a really hard step 2.

Step 3, starting over with what you learned in step 2, is tough call that takes skill, smarts, and determination.

Finding out in step 4 that it looks like "you made it" has to be an absolute highpoint.

Now the fun is moving to step 5, put it into the books.

Go SR2 go

Terrific news!

This is great news. You and your team must be thrilled and proud of your steady progress, and your boat. Very exciting! Can't wait to read more detailed thoughts and see the pics/video of the fast action. All the best!

Tim, Vermont

Fantastic news and thanks for

Fantastic news and thanks for the photos of the foil!

I think back to school for me to figure out how the foil works.

Good luck, 60 can't be far away now.

Great guys,

it's really great to hear VSR2 is straight on her feet towards new unexplored territories! We all need people aiming for those kind of things

50+

Great Paul, she is obviously a bitof a show off only likes to do it in company, keep up the good work

Nice work...

Can't wait to hear more about that run, and what you learned today sailing two-up. You sound confident there's more to be tapped. My guess is you learned something important. I had been wondering how the trim/foil angle would change with someone in the rear seat.

VSR1 seemed to have some bad habits at these speeds... Just glad this boat continues to be good to you, and you continue to march methodically forward. Can't wait till you get it all fine tuned, and can dial it up on demand.

Fab!

If only your were based in South America, I would be heading your way now with my passenger ticket!!!

Your sure to get a good write up with a story like that - Nice one.

Get that last bottle of pop in the chiller, the big one is not far away now.

Bear

Best so far

Paul, Helena, and Team,
Congrats on your rapid development of VSR2 into a record killing machine. Especially nice to do it with a passenger on board! Keep up the great work!
Jay

Cheers!

We'll drink to that - well done and keep up the good work - exciting times!
Cathy & Geoff

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