And may have raised their record. They also crashed and damaged the boat so that was most probably it's last run ever.

In 20-25 knots of WSW wind and on a rising tide, Macquarie Innovation went for broke today........ and broke.
In the first run the boat looked fast and smooth with a reported top speed of 53 knots. It looked to me like they held their speed for pretty much the whole run and seemed to finish at top speed. There is every possibility that they have raised their own class C mark and may even have topped the outright world record but we won't know that until tomorrow after all the downloading and processing of data is done.

They came back and went for a second run almost immediately. Conditions we getting better as the wind moved more south west to give them a better angle and filled in to, by my estimate, a steady 25 knots. The start and the first half of the run looked good but right at the end the boat slewed one way and then the other as it appeared that the skipper lost steering. The boat proceeded continue to turn downwind for 20 meters or so and then the front hull dug in causing the boat the capsize forwards. The wing hit the water and the boat stayed in it's nose with the aft hull way up in the air. The support boats were quickly on the scene but there was not much they could do but let the boat drift slowly to the lee shore sandbar. A local windsurfer, Craig Spottiswood was quickly on the scene from where he was watching at the bottom end of the course and helped the crew hold the boat in the shallow water while they worked out how to right it. After righting, they walked the boat back upwind and towed it across the channel to the base where it was dismantled and stowed.
Both the crew are safe and well.
The wing has some damage as it buckled on impact with the water but looking at it while they de-rigged it was hard to see.
The crew pod was looking very worse for wear. It did the job it was designed to do, namely, coming apart to allow the crew to escape uninjured. It is the only part of the craft built without carbon fibre for this very reason.





I have both runs on video. I will post them as soon as I can capture and convert them.

Great reporting Daffy.
Feel sorry for the guys stuffing the MI but from what Andrew said it sounds like they have had a ripper of a couple of runs.
Looking forward to seeing the vid!!

Apparently, no advance on their record. Crew members told me the first run was around 48 knots average. From looking at the video, it looks like they were bit slow just after the start and then powered out of the course at full speed with a peak of 53 knots.

I have managed to convert the video to DVD but evet time I try to convert it to AVI or WMA it squashes it in (from widescreen format to 4:3). I'll have another go in the morning.

your on a Mac, aren't you Daffy?
try this free program for converting videos.
videomonkey.org/about-2/
works a treat for me

cheers
Boogie

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C3 said...

your on a Mac, aren't you Daffy?
try this free program for converting videos.
videomonkey.org/about-2/
works a treat for me

cheers
Boogie

Thanks Boogie. I will have a look at that for sure.
There are 3 macs in the family but none of them are here at Sandy Pt at the moment. All I have is my Windose laptop. I will post something soon even if the AR is wrong...

OK. I finally had success converting the video.
I will have to tease you though.[}:)] I have only had time so far to upload the first run. My apologies for the shaky picture. I was a bit cold and being buffeted by the wind on max zoom.
Check out the accelleration when they hit the wind line!

Andrew,
Thanks for the vid - very impressive machine. By the way what are the chances of the bystanders near the waterline being collected by the pod should it happen to track slightly windward?

[Edit - spelling ]

I like the alert sound in the beginning : uuueeeuuueeeuuueeeuuu !

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sausage said...

Andrew,
Thanks for the vid - very impressive machine. By the way what are the chances of the bystanders near the waterline being collected by the pod should it happen to track slightly winward?

Probably pretty good!

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Dr Speed said...

I like the alert sound in the beginning : uuueeeuuueeeuuueeeuuu !

That is the siren on the chase 4 wheeler bike! It seems to clear the spectators from the edge pretty well!

good on em,pitty about the damage

OK, here it is. Again apologies for the shaky picture.

Daffy you should have borrowed the wing and tried it on your board 2 bottles of red a day tends to give you the shakes from time to time

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choco said...

Daffy you should have borrowed the wing and tried it on your board 2 bottles of red a day tends to give you the shakes from time to time

Is that right? I wouldn't know, being a teetotaler.........

looks like spinout probably due to cavitation.

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yoyo said...

looks like spinout probably due to cavitation.

No, Tim says that they literally bounced the foil out of the water and then put it back in and by that time she was gone. There actually wasnt that much damage - they have a spare crew pod - so could have gone on. They've only stopped because its come to the end of their "competition" window.

Sailquick , thank you so much for putting up those videos.
going out and sailing a wing is such a privilege that few of us get to do , and seeing footage like that reminds us to get off our backsides and do it a lot more often. If you are the one sailing you never get to see what it looks like, and if theres a camera aroungd you can bet it will be pointing the other way , have a flat battery , or out of focus just when you need it.
thanks so much