Fantastic day... the floodgates are open!

Hi all, well today everything sort of fell into place.

We have been sailing at every opportunity. We did another two runs yesterday but they were sluggish and unremarkable. I vented a bit at poor Malcolm afterwards.
Sometimes I do the mods before Malc has done the numbers and when he comes back with the numbers we find that the mods.... need mods!
Anyway, that's half down to my overenthusiasm and can be delved into more in the book.
We had big issues with the wing flap yesterday. I realised that the existing system had big flaws in that the arc that the flap bridle goes through is much greater than that of the mainsheet bridle which pulls at two points further forward on the main wing section. As I would sheet on the wing... the flap would pay out. It was a silly little thing that I spent ages trying to adjust but in the end... it was crap and a new system needed to be implemented. Thankfully the new system occured to me yesterday on the way to the pub/restaurant... and not on the way back. A local friend and Sailrocket helper, Des, had introduced me to a concoction called Stroh. Cheeeerist... 80% rum belongs in a different rocket program than ours!
I put the new system in this morning and... it's crazy enough... it just might work.
It should be mentioned that we have four sailing days left here in Walvis Bay.
Another local friend and helper, Terence, came out as our fifth man. The Walvis locals are proving to be a huge bonus to our program. Without them we simply can't go sailing. We are getting a pool of helpers that we call on from day to day. Some times we have loads and sometimes not. Whatever we get... we appreciate it immensely. A great day is great for all... but most days... your sitting on a windy beach for hours and nothing is happening... or likely to happen. That's how it works.
We headed across to Speed-spot on a good forecast. Conditions were good from the moment we dropped the camera gear off at the speed hut. We set up the tacktick wind station to check. Once this was done we headed up to the top of the course and rigged Sailrocket in gusts of well over 20 knots. This was stronger than we had ever attempted to sail the wing in before. Our stuff-up whilst rigging a few days earlier had prepped us for today and the wing went up without a hassle.
I dispatched the team to their stations down the course which left just Andreas and myself alone with the boat at the top of the course.
I was speaking via VHF to Terence and Helena down at the speed hut. The wind was hitting 20 to 22 knots. My mind was looking for ways to go... not to pull out. I tried to focus on the necessary areas and not get distracted by worries about scenarios which were out of our hands. We need to go back to the UK with some results. Sailrocket has to enter this windy arena if it is ever going to succeed and fuck it.... it was going to damned well do it today.
Helena had sensed that I was going to go for it.
Sailrocket is a different beast in this much wind. By the laws of squares, 20 knots is almoist double the strength of 15 knots. I climbed in the cockpit and went through the checks. My goal was to do a nice, fast and safe run in a safe mode for the boat in these potentially ideal, record-breaking conditions.
I would not pull on the wing-flap, kick up the draggy big rudder or sheet the wing in hard. I wanted to demonstrate to myself as much as anyone that we could rig-up, launch, sail in control close to the beach and stop in over 20 knots.
The launch went well and I slipped the anchor/tether once sailrocket had rotated to a suitable angle off the beach. I didn't want to get too far out into the chop so turned onto the course early. There was plenty of power there even without the flap on. Sailrocket lifted her skirts nicely with a soft wing setting and I focused on staying close into the beach. The spray off the front planing surface is still an issue in picking a line in close. I was past the speed-hut and noticed that for once I hadn't said a word yet. We were well over 30 knots and for once Sailrocket felt rock steady. The previous three times we had wiped out twice and luckily managed to survive with a new top speed once. I stuck to a nice course all the way down as I wanted to do at least a good 500meter run as well. I kept sheeting in all the way as I was aware that we were probably 20 % down on power due to the wing-flap not being activated. Once satisfied with the run I went into the slow down manouver. It took some time and as we ran away from the beach we hit the rough water. It got very bumpy from my perspective. This could be a real issue at 50 knots and something worth remembering as Sailrocket felt like she was shaking apart.

Parking was pretty straightforward and Hiskia's strong hands were there to catch Sailrockets bow. I got out of the cockpit pretty shaky. I felt a bit like a passenger on that run... but it quickly occured to me how well the boat had behaved at speed... for once. It made me eager to get back up the course and push her harder. I wanted 40 knots.
Helena parked us at the speed hut and we went and checked the wind strength out. The pod had been getting pushed well under water whilst coming up the course from the down force of the wing. Gusts as high as 26 knots indicated it was time to head home.
It was a slow and bumpy ride back across the lagoon to the Walvis Bay Yacht club.
I was stoked.
We had done a nice and stress free run in winds gusting well above what we need to break a record.
All the manouvers had worked well and felt safe.
Today we had come a long way and now the floodgates are open for sailing on these windy days.
The top speed was only 33.5 and our best 500 meter run was only 30.7 or something but that was not the point of the exercise. As I always new, speed will come with control and today we were in total control from start to finish.
This is a happy day.
I rang Malcolm with the news and as ever he was delighted... but eager to get his hands on the data.
All our systems worked, we caught video onboard as well as from shore. Wind data was collected from the Tacktick shore station and the B+G/pi Research onboard system.
Helena nailed some great pics as well which show the massive amount of spray coming off the large rudder. We'll worry abouit that on subsequent runs.

Helena and I are trawling through it all now and we will get it up on this very website asap.
Hallelujah... where's the Stroh?
Happy days,

Cheers, Paul.