Righto, we've had enough of the wonderful British weather and it's time to head back to Africa and fire VESTAS SAILROCKET up for another record attempt.

Whilst it's been kind of the Macquarie Innovation boys to be keeping the seat warm for us, the constant media bombardment from their overactive PR machine is too much so we will have to get back out there and set things straight;)

Those guys were a huge inspiration to me through some pretty formulative years. Way back around 1985-86 when I was racing around Port Philip Bay In Victoria, Australia, we would cross paths with their incredible and awe inspiring C-class cats. I'll never forget during one of the VYC OAKS (One of a kind) races where we were representing the Hobie 18's and Victoria 150 joined in. It was a four triangle course and they started five minutes behind us... and lapped us twice. The grace, the whistling, the hull flying an trapezing on the very broad downwind leg... it blew me away. Years later and way North in Airlie Beach, I chanced across a copy of Bernard Smiths 'The 40-knot sail boat' whilst working in a yacht chandlery. It was a chance encounter that would ultimately change my life. One of the other things I remember of that job was that there was a poster promoting deckgear on the wall showing Yellow Pages Endeavour in full flight. I ended up laminating that picture and still have it to this day.

I think its great that they are still hard at it. I must say it amuses me that after 15 odd years of concerted effort that they waited a mere 16 days after we finally topped them... to finally beat their old time on YPE. Well, you get that. I am confident that we can wring a few more knots out of VESTAS SAILROCKET and hope that mother nature is kind to us down there. Whilst it was fun and a great relief to pop out on top of the boats with our first record... we must remain focused on the real goal... the Outright Record. we haven't made the summit yet. It looks like the Hydroptere team will be out of action until April some time but like us, they will have learnt from their crashes and will probably come back better for it.

The whole challenge has been one of control and I still believe we have the most stable craft. Sure, that flip might indicate otherwise but we believe we can approach that problem from a point of understanding and safety. A new main foil is currently being built at DESIGNCRAFT and will be fitted for future runs. It has a few detail changes but is slightly curved as well. PI RESEARCH are servicing all the electronics as we work together to make the perfect system which is ruggedised for the harsh environment it experiences. The TRIMBLE GPS system is back in Sth Africa at OPTRON also getting a service. It's amazingly tough stuff and we are grateful for this as it was submerged in salt water for almost an hour after the flip and survived unscathed. If it hadn't... we would have lost the run.

Malcolm and I went over to the Isle of Wight recently and did a few presentations to VESTAS. It was really nice to see familiar faces and the genuine interest from within the company. There are people there who have followed us from the very beginning as they were building blades downstairs... and we were building VESTAS SAILROCKET in the same shed upstairs. I was looking through some old back-up hard drives the other day and went down that ol' memory Lane. So it's great that they are sharing the journey with us.

OK, that's enough... back to sorting out the logistics.

We will, as always, keep you posted.

Cheers, Paul.