Vestas Sailrocket record attempt - And the answer is ...

by Paul Larsen - Vestas Sailrocket on 10 Apr 2009 Paul Larsen's email from Thursday 04/09/2009 - 18:06.

'As I sit here writing this and stuffing a basic chicken and cheese roll into my mouth, Helena sits down the other end of the container trying to work out if we just broke the nautical mile record or not. I know it was close...

We did a 45.68 knot 500 meter average and peaked at 47.6 something...

We sat out there on speed-spot all bloody day and only got one run in before sunset. We came home in the dark.

The wind is whistling through the scrubby palms outside and Vestas Sailrocket sits in her tent still dripping. Either way she did good... real good. She took an old school rough ride as the visibility was bad from the start due to a foggy visor. Just getting onto the course was stressful. The RIB was trying to get to the other end but I caught them up half way. It felt fast. the wing was all the way in but the flap wasn't. I was out in the rough stuff and she was bucking all over the place.... but felt solid.

Righto... Helena has the data now.... let's go...

****************!!!!

No good. The start up killed us. I struggled to make the point and feared a gybe. This all compromised our starting run up and looking at the data now... means that this run was pretty much done from a standing start. This course is extremely short for us as it is only 1.04 miles from tip to tip.

Well, we can't say we didn't try today. I'm tired of the mile now. It takes up too much time. Vestas Sailrocket sailed so well today that I'm happy to go back and focus on the outright. The mile has been great practice for us and doing 500 meter runs should now be a walk in the park.

Damn it... from my view it felt fast today. Well, maybe some other day. Beer is all I get tonight.

Cheers, Paul