Sailrocket ready for overdrive

It’s all systems go for the next stage of the Sailrocket programme. The futuristic speed machine created by Malcolm Barnsley and Paul Larsen (left) with the aim of breaking the outright speed record under sail and becoming the first to crack 50 knots is ‘coming out of winter hibernation’, according to Paul.
 
Sailrocket’s soft rig is about to be swapped for a solid wing rig. The components for it arrived today at Sailrocket’s base in the Weymouth Sailing Academy. “We’ve got the main spar and all the ribs. It’s like a big Airfix kit,” Paul tells me.
 
“The soft rig could only take us so far, but this is the final version and I know that it will take us well up into the 40 [knots],” he says. “We’ll get on the water as soon as possible, and I can’t wait. I’ll be like a school kid who’s put a V8 in his Fiesta.”