Good progress... if not speed!

Well we did eventually get on the water.

After 7 hours spent doing a couple of so called "10 minute jobs"! Now we've all done this so don't sit there shaking your heads. Over the past week or so of 'container bound' rough weather we have made alot of adjustments and today we had to make sure they were all right. Now that we have the wing there is real potential for explosive performance in all senses of the word. Things have to be right. All we had to do was set the shroud lengths so that the rig would sit at an exact point when under sailing loads with the forces shared as they should be. Trouble is that the rigging stretches. Over the past few windy days we have been making good use of a calibrated load cell to do such things as stretch tests on rope so armed with this we made todays quick adjustments. yeah right. Now remember that we also have to raise and lower the rig from onboard the boat during sailing activities so we have quite a unique system. Shrouds have to go around turn blocks and work through pulley systems as the wing goes up and down and it all has to be done with tthe pull of one string inside the cramped cockpit. This is what turned a 10 minute job into a 6 hour one as the only place the adjustment could be made... get this... was at the top of the rig! To cut a long story short, we had to raise and lower the rig seven times in a windy boat park to get it spot on.

The up side of this is that we got quite good at it and gained alot of confidence handling the rig. It can be pretty intimidating as it doesn't just float around in a stalled state like a soft sail. It 'hunts', it turns on and off with a few degrees change in angle. It doesn't care if it destroys itself in an instant.

By 3 p.m. we were ready to hit the water. As we had taken so long, Malcolm had to return to Southampton so I grabbed a local 49'r sailor who assured me he would return in an hour to help us on the water. That was the last we saw of him. It's one of the problems with being located in a 'gold rush' town. This place is all about the Olympics and we are the fringe dwellers. The Olympics simply aren't about innovation I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong, it's a great venue... but it amazes me that more of the old boys come over and ask about the boat than the young ones.

So we went out with just three of us... like we did with the soft rig. A small front had passed overhead and left us with lightish winds which had moved SSW. Thankfully Mark Lloyd was our third hand who helped Helena on the RIB and in the raising and lowering of the rig...for the eighth time and also taking some cracking photos. He's a good bloke and a great help.

We had the onboard camera along for the ride this time. The wing went up without a hitch and off we went. The course was now way too down wind and the wind was only 10-14 knots maybe. I never saw 14 knots on the instruments but it felt like there might have been a 14 out there. I had to hunt around to get up and going but eventually got a gust just as I passed the RIB. SAILROCKET hit 20.8 knots whilst bearing away to avoid the shallows. She constantly surprises all of us with her light winds performance as she manages to get over the 'hump' drag quicker and in less wind than the 6 sqm bigger and 20kg lighter soft sail ever did. Especialy surprising is the fact that we hardly have any flap deployment at the moment.

So we lowered the rig and headed back in as there was nothing else to be gained.

In one sense it was a little frustrating not punching out the big numbers we are after... and you are all waiting for but by the end of the day I felt happy. The rig was finally right and it felt like it. The new uphaul system worked a treat. We were in control from start to finish. We managed to sail the boat as efficiently as we had with the soft sail with only 3 people.

All in all, that's good progress. The wing is now back in the container and it looks like the platform will join it tomorrow unless we get something unexpected.

I am confident now that she is ready for a blow.

I wouldn't have said that this morning.

Cheers, Paul.

Todays video will be posted asap as will Marks pics as soon as they are processed.