Greetings all,

well those of you following the live blog would have been in on yesterdays action. The conditions were A1 perfect and if we had of held it all together we could have done something pretty special. But another bloody 'if' creeps in.

The first run went really well. We had wind gusting to 24 knots but averaging 21.5. I did a shallow dip along the beach to hook up the apparent wind and start up. No more big dips and turns out to sea. It's one of the advantages of being able to sail in stronger conditions... you just power over the 'hump' and up onto the plane. VESTAS SAILROCKET took off down the course whilst I hurried to pull get everything sorted so I could pull the main flap on. The control was once again brilliant. I got the flap in and was tracking as straight as you like. I was loving it. We flew past the timing hut and I gave a big 'Yeeee Haaa' for those listening in on the VHF. Here we were charging along in perfect balance on a world record attempt and we were in full control. All the work was paying us back.

LOOKING TIDY WITH BEAM FAIRING, SMALL WINDSHIELD, NO WIND INSTRUMENTS OR ONBOARD CAMERAS... AND NO EXTRA STRINGS.

YEEEHAAAA!!! POD FLYING AND GREAT CONTROL... TIDY. NOTICE HOW LIGHT THE FRONT END IS IN THE WATER. STANDING THE RIG UP A DEGREE SHOULD REDUCE THE 'UP' COMPONENT AND HOLD BOTH THE POD AND THE FRONT END DOWN A BIT. IT SHOULD ALSO INCREASE THE DRIVE COMPONENT AND HELP US GO FASTER.

I did a sharp slow down procedure with hard turns still around 25 knots and blasted up to the beach. That was a great run. I was a little disappointed by the speed though as we only peaked at 44.78 and averaged 43.38 over the 500. It does show just how rock solid this boat is with averages close to its peak speed. We knew that we had enough to go for the mile record. I had the wing a little too eased on that run and when we looked at the PI RESEARCH data afterwards we realised it was out around 18 degrees instead of 10-12... so we were losing around 5 knots of boat speed.

The team gathered down the bottom of the course in preperation to lower the wing and head back up for another bash. We were thinking of going for the mile record. Then all hell broke loose. Venassius who was holding the bow of the boat slipped and the bow fell away from the wind. It was a critical stage just as we were getting ready to lower the rig. The wing angle was locked off and VESTAS SAILROCKET normally just feathers around the guy holding the bow. Hiskia ran to help him... but it was too late. The rig began to back and an old foe had entered the arena. George grabbed onto the bow and I jumped on the pod, ran along the beam, down the hull and into the cockpit. Brad was dragging off the back. The bow continued to back around... just like a fully backed headsail still sheeted on the wrong side. Shit, shit shit... It was a windy day so all the safety's were maxed out. The wing backed into the rigging and the lower flap tore off. George was still clinging onto the bow and Brad was still body dragging off the back. It was a bloody circus. Hiskia had gone for the RIB to come after us. As soon as I saw this I told George to drop off the bow. If the situation didn't have so much consequence involved... if we weren't currently sailing this twisted mess away from a potential world record... if it wasn't all so F*****g close... it would have been hilarious. My humour escaped me.

ALL CROSSED UP. THE BOTTOM FLAP IS BARELY HANGING ON, THE WING IS BACKED HARD IN TO THE RIGGING (LOOK FAMILIAR DOM? DO YOU STILL GET NIGHTMARES?). GEORGE HAS DROPPED OFF AND IS SWIMMING JUST TO THE UPPER RIGHT OF THE BUOY. THE FOLLOWING GYBE WASN'T PRETTY.

I quickly weighed up the situation. Trying to sail across to the Yacht Club like this was just too dangerous. If I Missed it I would be screwed with only a couple of miles of Industrial harbour ahead. I had to tell Brad to let go and try and sail it across the Lagoon. As soon as he let go I swung the bow up into the wind... It was now that I realised the forward bridle had torn free. This is the line I use to pull the nose of the wing to windward with as this makes the wing feather and allows me to stop the boat. Magnifying this problem was the fact that the lower flap had now torn completely free so the wing was now sheeting itself on thanks to the large main flap being deployed. Simply put... even with the main rudder hard over... I couldn't stop. I was charging across the lagoon at 15 knots smacking into waves and slowly sinking. I had no helmet, no comms and could barely see the bow due to the heavy spray.... and I was swearing like a trooper!

We eventually ground my lovely detailed foils into the mud at the far end of the lagoon and begun to sort the mess out. I was pretty furious... but that can be explained later on. We had blown our big day and beaten the hell out of our beautiful boat.

Whilst we are determined to hit 50 knots... right now we just want to get some world records... start filling the bag... and today it was all within our grasp. The next run would have been the one of dreams. Conditions had already built a little more and speed-spot beckoned. It might as well have been 1000 miles away now. We just managed to get the boat back to the Yacht Club before she sunk a second time in the choppy Lagoon.

We got it all ashore and on close inspection saw that we had in fact gotten off lightly with relatively minor damage. In fact, as I sit here now around 23 hours later... we are all rigged, repaired, modified and improved! Ready to roll once more. But the wind seems reluctant to come. There must be more rain inland as it can be the only reason.

We have raised the rig around 1.4 degrees as we noticed that the front of the boat was riding a little light. That last run was simple speed sailing porn. The pod was gliding along, the course sailed was as straight as you like (but I could still be a fair bit closer in)... rudder loads and response were all spot on.

So that's how it goes in this gig. Close is in fact still miles away. Parrallels with mountain climbing come to mind but you can make your own.

We had a long debrief.

Oh well, can't even have a beer as I'm on a strict diet (down from 83 to a scrawny 79kg and dropping)

Today was forecast to be another epic... actually it's just building now. My feeling is that it's too late but we will go anyway.

WE WILL GET THERE!

Cheers, Paul.