Baptism of fire I'm afraid!!!

Well I was hoping that we would at least get some fast runs in here before our first wipeout. We had spent a week or so getting Sailrocket configured on Starboard tack. This involved 'end for ending' the rig, putting in the new planing surface for the new assymetric foil and a host of other things that basically made Sailrocket a mirror image of herself. The African sun was proving to be a big problem as our lovely black boat baked away. We had brought over a white spinnaker to drape over her as shade but for some reason it made absolutely no difference. The wing itself didn't seem to have any problems staying coll but then we lay it on the green grass one day and all the new lower skins pulled off! It appears that the wing made a bush oven of itself and the heat shrink coverings...shrunk. We are fortunat that the wing is strong and didn't implode. The answer is simply to keep it off the ground so that the heat can radiate away. The boat itself also seems to keep cool as soon as the wind blows... But the minute it stops the surface temp quickly climbs to 70 and above. Whilst the carbon itself should be good up to 100, the areas with a foam core could have a problem as the foam goes soft at lower temps.

We worked hard as we were being filmed for a documentary and the film crew were only going to be around for so long. Iwas determined that we would meet our time frame. It was with great pleasure that we added the HOMETRACK logo to the wing. VESTAS BLADES, EKSPAN and COMPLETE FREIGHT had actually funded the research trip and relocation of the project to Walvis Bay. It was only when I returned from my site inspection full of enthusiasm that HOMETRACK joined the fray. We needed financial support to make the next stage happen. This could only come from someone who understood our challenge and believed in us and the motives that underlie our endeavour. Many company's talk about innovation and challenge but few join in the chase when the risks are still high. I applaud HOMETRACK for this and am sure that they will strengthen the work that all of us have done so far by supporting us through this developmental period.

By the way, I never said it was going to be easy!

Conditions since we arrived have been unusual. I was told that it never rains... And it rained. Strong Norhterlies are uncommon... And yet it blew Northerlies! N onetheless in the week long period it took us to get ready we still saw two blistering good days better than anything we could ever hope for back in the UK. We worked harder to get ready. All the while we looked for houses to live in and means of transport. I bought a three wheeled chinese bike called a Wuyang that came with factory installed rust and a back axle rated to 350 KG. It's the Sailrocket ANTONOV... Or it would be if it didn't keep spitting chains out the back.

We worked past midnight on a regular basis whilst getting ready then one fine, still evening we launched Sailrocket in front of the Walvis Bay Yacht Club and pushed her over to the amazing speed strip.

We had made it. We had arrived.

It was a beautiful evening and we took a heap of pictures. We sat Sailrocket on the beach and I soaked it all in. This is a day I dreamed of. I always knew we needed to find a special spot and here we were with our crazy boat on a deserted African shore enjoying a moment of quiet before the wind gets added.

The sun set was spectacular. We came home in glassy conditions in the dark.

Two days later the SW wind came and we got ready to go sailing. A lot of work had been done since our last sail and we all felt that we were about to see something special. The passage between the yacht club and the speedstrip was a little lumpy but we decided to go for it anyway. We planned a zig zag path in order to dodge the chop and then got across into the 'glass'. The speed strip was looking magnificent. It's a long push to the top of the 1 mile long course. We now launch Sailrocket from the beach instead of tethered to a RIB. The rig uphaul went smoothly except for one thing. We use a 6:1 Harken pulley in the beam to pull the strut up which raises the rig. The pulley comes block to block when the rig is fully raised and a small strop is dropped over a bolt which takes the strain when the Harken pulley is backed off a small amount. This way the pulley can be removed in order to reduce weight, windage and clutter. This time the splice on the small strop got caught in the pulley and pulled out... So I simply tied a bowline in the strop and dropped it over the bolt. When the rig is sailing this strop has no load on it so I didn't figure it was a problem.

Everyone got into position for a run. The Garmin GPS was turned on and the camera men ran down the beach. The onboard cameras were switched on but I noticed water in my case which signalled the sad demise of the Sailrocket onboard camera. Very sad considering what it was about to miss.

The wind was measured at 16.5 knots at around 110 degrees to the course. Perfect for our first run.

A group of locals had come to help and watch. Helena and Brad went half way down the course in the RIB to watch. All our new ICOM radios were malfunctioning and the replacement voice activated microphones were proving once again to be totally useless. After months of hasseling ICOM they have let us down badly when we needed them most. We didn't ask for much...Ho-hum.

I made a note of the GPS time to reference the data logger which was recording all the TACKTICK wind instruments. I had four strong guys to hang onto the a rope of the back of Sailrocket whilst I sheeted on. I wanted the bow to swing away from the beach before I was released. Malcolm was sure that in our last filmed run in Weymouth that I was oversheeted all the time which explained why we only hit 30 knots. The wing was stalled. From my perspective it felt like we were undersheeted but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and eased the sheet a lot more. I sailed downwind away from the beach for about 40 meters and then came up parallel to the beach. The wing didn't pick up the wind so I swung more in towards the beach. Sailrocket then quickly picked up the wind and rapidly began generating apparent wind. She took off like never before. I made a point not to sheet in too much. The acceleration was pretty damned impressive even by previous standards.

Sailrocket then began to turn in towards the beach. I had given the rudder a little more aft rake in order to give it more feel after the 'round-up' that occurred at the end of our last run in Weymouth. It now proved to be too much and I couldn't correct the turn to windward. I was doing over 30 knots and the beach was coming up fast so I elected to abort. I eased the wing a little to depower and WHAM... It was all over. The wing slemmed down across the beam and into the water in an instant. Sailrocket slewed to leeward and stopped quickly.

It was all over so quick. I was still buzzing from the boats performance but this was now mixed with the thought that that could be it. This was our worst scenario and I thought it was all over. I couldn't bear to think of this possibility. We got the boat ashore and I checked the damage. There were holes all through the wings leading edge and the lower section was mush. The beam was split and cracked where the wing hed fallen across it. The top wishbone was broken in pieces and the strut was snapped. By the look of the leading edge I thought that the main spar was also broken.

We cobbled the wing onto the boat and towed it all back to our base at the yacht club. Behind us was a glorious African sunset. Our boat was battered and dishevelled. I struggled to come to grips with what had just happened. I felt sorry for Helena as she has worked every hour with me on this project and knows what this sort of crash represents. The locals were blown away by the rate at which Sailrocket had accelerated. So was I. I felt we had finally seen this thing ignite, of only for a few seconds.

I drank doubles and triples that night.

The GPS had turned itself off just into the run despite being new with new batteries. The second hi-definition camera mounted onboard had recorded up until seconds before the incident, stopped for about five to eight seconds during the incident and then come back on. Weird stuff. We later estimated our speed from the wind data we had logged off the TACKTICK instruments. We think we hit somewhere over 33 knots. This is not what impressed me at all as we expect to go faster, it was the sense of acceleration and the added sense that it wasn't about to stop.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

Paul Larsen
Mobile: + 44 (0) 794 684 1929
E-mail: paularsen1@aol.com
www.sailrocket.com