Hiya Phil. Nothing wrong with health mode ol' Bean... but that did deserve rum I agree!

Say hello to the gang. I hope all is well.

Cheers, Paul 

 Hmmmm... where to start with this one. Firstly, I agree that we can improve the quality... but I must say that it is not from lack of trying. The new GoPro 2's have totally let us down. You only ever see the good stuff because obviously you can't see what they failed to capture. Brilliant eh? It is not a proper Sailrocket run if it doesn't involveme standing at the top of the course swearing at another expensive failed piece of gadgetry. Comms off the boat should be easy right? They aren't. GoPro's should be bomb proof right? They aren't. It's almost harder to get all the electronics to work than the bloody foil. We try... time and time again... all the while trying to not miss a trick with what really counts. the boat itself. We will keep trying. I agree that sound is very important and often overlooked.

Sure, a part of Seb may have hit 61 knots... as may have a part of Hydroptere. I have never seen the data or under what circumstances. This was just our second run in decent wind. The recorded average over the run was 24.5 knots. I expect I hit the peak at the high end that generated that 'average'. You probably struggle to understand the signifigance of a proper foiled craft going that quick. It blows your previous theories apart for starters. Think about it. A big boat can go that fast in a lot less wind on an open water course. That was our first day where we saw our theories become reality. There is plenty more to come. I was still accelerating hard at the end and it only stopped because I sheeted out. There was a 47 knot speed in that average.

Cheers, Paul

I was talking about "sailing" craft, not "slingshotting" craft ;-)

 Hiya Bretto, Whoop woop. You like that one. Mate, I am right here now exactly because that Kombi blew up in Marg's. I sat there in that camp-site that night and said to Teen "OK, this is so bad that it has to be good. Our path has now changed and it might lead to something". Sure did... about four days later I was signing on for my first 'revving' by Jack Freeman at Funcats! That was it... I got back into sailing... and here we are. Happy days mate.

Say g'day to the ol' legend if you see him.

Cheers, Paul.

 Hi Koen,

Hmmm, on one hand yes it was obvious that fences should stop ventilation. How it affects cavitation is another thing. It affects cavitation by preventing ventilation and hence changing the loading on the cavitating area.

The thing is that we haven't done many runs. We wanted to try the foil bare first so that we could compare. This way we get a better understanding for what is happening, where to put the fences and exactly how they affect things. One variable at a time right? We always knew we could add things afterwards. It doesn't stop at fences either.

We often think about what may have been happening with the other foils. We did add fences to the first sub-cav foil i.e. the more conventional shape. They didn't make much difference. The first wedge foil was a different beast altogether and hence had different issues described in a blog earlier. It was just too big and too cambered. It was actually cavitating on the wrong side... although... we will revisit that one once this is all over. It's a fascinating new world we have entered here. Much more interesting than normal wetted flows over normal foils.

Hydroptere once said they hit 61 knots before that almighty crash... but I never saw proof of it. I got the impression that they tried to distance themselves from that claim. I know they had the same gps equipment we have onboard. The trouble is that once you even hint at it... the media run with it. They may have done it. I can show you ours in a number of forms. the great thing is that we landed it... and will go out and better it again soon.

Cheers, Paul

 Hiya thenuskot,

there does seem to be some issues with mobile devices. We are struggling to get to the bottom of it. It might have something to do with the music. It's odd though as some of the videos work and some don't. Bloody nightmare actually. It's hard enough just getting the content and editing it. we are onto it and we are trying.

Thanks for the congrats.

Cheers, Paul.

 Hi Florian,

Yeah the fence did make all the difference... but on other levels it isn't quite as simple as that. The fence just allowed every other aspect of the foil work as designed. The foil with all its twists, cambers, changing profiles and thicknesses is actually a very complex shape. Everything is designed to delay cavitation. We now know how much of a limiting effect it has. This boat has always been screaming to do over 60 knots. It just needed sweet, sweet release from cavitation.

Cheers, Paul

p.s. you have been following us for a looong time Florian. You must be enjoying this. These last few runs must be like you watching your team win the cup:) Nice one.

 Hi Kuhilani...I have often thought of what a tacking one would look like and what compromises we would make. There are many ways of doing it. You could add another 'mirror image' to the existing boat. The wings vertical components of the wing would be cancelling out so the central foil would only need to be vertical. The fuselage would point straight ahead. Sort of like a Ketterman tri-foiler but with a swinging beam. It might get messy:)

The other option is for a proa with a swinging beam. This would be my preferred method. For now we are just worried about no-compromises-speed. We simply want to push the hydrodynamic limits as far as we can. I'll worry about that later. I have no real plans to make money out of it. By the time this one is being copied we will be taking our knowledge to the next one. You can see how far we have come from the mk1. I kind of feel that our minds should be obsessed with what's next rather than getting bogged down with the business of cashing in on what's now. That's what I find most interesting. My attention span is pretty damned short if I'm not interested.

For the record... I do like proa's. Their day will come.

Cheers, Paul.

p.s. I look forward to seeing what other peoples interpretation of this concept may be.