1 week to go...chasing knots and bugs.

Greetings all,

One week from now we will be starting our first WSSRC ratified record period. We have been spending the last couple of weeks preparing for it. This includes making all the preperations for the WSSRC official, the timing systems, the people to document it all... and the specific detailing of the boat itself. So far I think it's all working out OK.

We will be using a TRIMBLE GPS system to time all our runs. It has a number of advantages for our particular program the main one being that we can simply pluck out the best 500 meter section from each run. This means we will get the fastest averages of the day... and not just the best time between two fixed points. The system needs to be extremely accurate and it's not a simple handheld system that we will have in place. We will still have a simple hand held gps to give us a rough estimate between runs as it takes a bit longer to post-process the TRIMBLE data to get the exact times with the accuracy required by the WSSRC.

VESTAS SAILROCKET has been getting tidied up aerodynamically and we figure we can make some pretty serious gains here... more than any other boat except maybe Macquarrie Innovations who operate in similar apparent wind speeds/angles. We have fully faired the strut that supports the lower section of the wing, re-skinned the whole wing and made a moulded fairing to fair in the end of the beam to hull area. The cockpit windscreen may make a reappearance to break up the wind before it hits my body. All the rigging is getting cleaned up and we will trial some new MARLOW products which will reduce the diameters and hence drag by over 40% of all the standing rigging. The wind instruments and onboard camera will be removed to further clean up the transom and save weight. Yes... I'm losing weight too. I think I can get down to around 78 without too much suffering. Every aspect of the boat will be considered. It all counts as it will all affect the final outcome. The TRIMBLE system is accurate enough to count the milliseconds so all will be judged.

We tried to get out to speed-spot for two of the last three days and twice were denied... by a dodgy outboard engine on the support RIB. It is normallt very reliable but something has corrupted it. We reluctantly pushed VESTAS SAILROCKET back up the ramp and pulled the RIB out behind it. the next morning we had all the carbuerettors and fuel system stripped down. It appeared some water got in there so we flushed it all, changed the plugs and the gearbox oil and voila... she sounded fine. Today the wind came up again so we got all set to go. Helena drove over to speed spot in the RIB... and on the way back she began to play up again... so we repeated the process. We pushed VESTAS SAILROCKET back out of the water... and the Rib followed closely. BOOOOORING!!!!!!! If it's not one thing then it's another. I suppose it warns us to have a plan 'B' in preperation for similar events befalling us during the record attempt. So we will make provisions.

The wind has lost some of its 'oomph' as the seasons change. I know we will still get some banging days within the 28 day period. We have to make sure that we are totally ready for when they come because we are going to push harder than we ever have before. My prediction is that the days around the next full-moon will be the big ones. That will be around December the 12th. I don't know why the lunar cycle affects the winds... must be something to do with the tides. I thought it was a local myth but it seems to be consistent from our records.

We have been folllowing Hydroptere's progress with great interest. They are doing an amazing job with an incredible boat. Some of their peak speeds are spectacular. We will be interested to see if they are capable of ever hanging onto the big 5-0 for long enough to average it over 500 meters. I imagine that one of their problems is an unsteady response to gusts where they have to either bear away or sheet out. A bear away will give them a high peak... but put a 'kink' in their point-to-point course and sheeting out needs to be an incredibly precise process in order to maintain the knife edge balance neccesary to really 'max-out'. If VESTAS SAILROCKET gets hit by a gust... it just accelerates in a straight line. This strenght might really begin to feature in the upcoming weeks. Still they might get their magic gust and ride it just right. Good luck to them I say, nothing we can do but focus on our own issues.

Righto, that's enough for one blog.

Cheers, Paul.