Wot Wind for Wot Rocket - aiming for 50 knots

by Lisa Ratcliff on 15 May 2008 On the vast expanse of Sydney's Botany Bay, Wot Rocket‘s final day of sea trials for this first testing period attracted a couple of curious seagulls and equally inquisitive recreational boaters who were scratching their heads at the half boat half plane with the crew sitting in a two-seater pod modelled on a glider.

With a huge high pressure system blanketing the NSW coast this week, Wot Rocket creator and pilot Sean Langman and co-pilot Martin Thompson and their support crew haven’t seen much over eight knots across flat water, perfect conditions for easing into the testing program but frustrating nonetheless for the two adrenalin junkies.

“I know I’m supposed to be cautious...but I’d love 30 knots of breeze,” admitted Langman this afternoon at the end of the second day of light air testing off Kurnell in Sydney’s south as the jets screamed overhead on their way to and from Sydney Airport.

“Wot Rocket was designed for 20-25 knots so this week we’ve been well outside our design space. It’s been a good opportunity to learn to drive it and recover it.

“I’m surprised it’s going as well as it is in this breeze. It’s akin to getting a formula one race car and putting it on a rally track,” he added.

The crew has for the past two days practised the basics including steering, sheeting the carbon fibre wing sail on and off and recovering and towing Wot Rocket using a support vessel.

While the design and building materials are super high tech, some old fashioned practicalities had to be deployed by the crew today. As the breeze slowly filled in across the bay this afternoon, Langman and Thompson had to swim from the hull to the pod and clamber into their seats, and when Wot Rocket began sailing backwards after stalling in the light air, it was all arms out of the pod paddling.

Reaching along at 5.5 knots of boat speed in a 6 knot ENE sea breeze with steering proving tricky and the wing sail constantly falling inwards due to the lack of wind, a hint of the design’s speed potential was showcased today.

When the entire craft lifts up out of the water on its foils, supercavitation is expected to propel Wot Rocket forward at awesome speeds giving Langman, Thompson and project partner Graeme Wood a serious chance at bettering the current world speed sailing record of 49.09 knots with less than half the wind strength French sail boarder Antoine Albeau capitalised on when he established the current record back in March 2008 .

Wot Rocket will be returned to its shed at Noakes Shipyard tomorrow where around 250 hours worth of minor modifications will begin including realigning the bow so it doesn’t dig in as much, refining some of the systems and refining the wing sail, which only came out of its mould last Friday and is still curing.

Langman hopes to be back on the water within the next few weeks for a second round of testing with an official attempt likely to occur in the winter months when solid westerlies typically hit Sydney.