Annals Of Adventure–SailRocket Frustrations: Paul Larsen’s space-age catamaran–which is supposed to rocket him to a new speed sailing world record and break the hallowed 50 knot barrier–keeps dogging along. He might as well call the thing “SprayRocket,” because the driver gets so lashed with flying water he can barely see. Worse, the thing won’t top 30 knots, even in wind conditions in which the theoretical models say it should be doing 40-plus knots. What’s the problem? Larson and his team don’t know. But he has posted a brutally honest assessment of the project and boat to the SailRocket website, which makes for intriguing reading. Here’s an excerpt:

“The boat accelerates in jerks and when it ‘hooks-in’ nothing will keep up with it but as quickly as the burst starts … it seems to stop. One thing is for certain, the mile long causeway course is getting gobbled up at a fair rate…Once up to speed and on course the boat responds directly to the mainsheet accelerating almost instantly. By this time your eyes are burning and you are beginning to worry about what may be around you. The coarse tune on the mainsheet is getting pretty solid and you are moving onto the fine tune. Looking backwards away from the spray is a luxury. You try a few more tweaks to course and sail and then slow down just to see where you have ended up and to make sure that the runway is still clear. One more burst and then it is all over.

I remain confident that there is a beast in there that is yet to be let loose. It feels like playing with gunpowder but not having the formula quite right. At the moment it is only sparking. It is most likely to be a cumulative thing that is holding us back. A whole bunch of little issues that add up to a whole. We are still not hooking into that ‘Ramjet’ equation where a boat with no heeling moment feeds off the apparent wind, boat speed equation and rides it to the end. There is a drag hump that needs to be overcome and our first efforts will go into improved planing surfaces and less spray which will lead to less waves by being able to sail alongside the shore in the right conditions.”

Can you spell FRUSTATION? Hope the gunpowder explodes soon, or it could be time to scuttle this dog…



“Damn, if I sink any deeper I’m going need to need to start wearing scuba gear…Say, that kitesurfing looks fun.”