Given this weekend’s light forecast and the fact the latest round of modifications to Wot Rocket are still in progress, the next planned test sail for Australia’s world speed sailing record attempt will be on Botany Bay on Tuesday 1 July.

The forecast for Tuesday is for westerly winds of 15-20 knots, the perfect wind range for Wot Rocket’s design space according to pilot Sean Langman who has now conducted sea trials in varying wind speeds and believes “everything is pushing us back to 15-20 knots”.

With its new rudder profile, leaner and meaner crew thanks to a crash diet possibly linked to suggestions the pilot had been carb loading, and an ideal forecast, Tuesday could be the day Wot Rocket spectacularly lifts up out of the water on its hydrofoils.

With no word as yet from the World Sailing Speed Record Council on whether the Wot Rocket project team can take its own time using a Trimble GPS receiver, next Tuesday’s sail is at this stage a test sail rather than an official attempt on the 500m world speed sailing record of 49.09 knots (90.9 kph).
It’s a case of ‘toot sweet’ for the Aussies with the flying trimaran l’Hydroptere scheduled to head to Vieux Port of Marseille, the base for the French assault on the very same record Wot Rocket is chasing, three days ago.

For more information, visit www.wotrocket.com .