Another day of preparation has the BOR 90 closer to its maiden sail in Valencia, according to design coordinator Ian 'Fresh' Burns (AUS).
"Once again it's been reconfigured in a way that we think is going to make quite a difference to the performance of the boat," he explained this afternoon. "It's actually quite exciting to go through the load testing now and think that this is maybe the last time we have to do it.
"There have been a number of structural and configuration changes and all of them need to be tested in a methodical way. So we've been going through the load testing and gradually bringing things up to speed, checking for noises or anything that looks unusual. But everything has gone well - a clean bill of health."
The testing has been conducted with a traditional soft sail mast in the boat. That was pulled out late this afternoon.
So what happens next?
"Then the wing sail and we'll be straight into it tomorrow."
Does that mean sailing on Tuesday?
"That's the plan. But we're not pushing it. Getting these things right technically is the challenge here. This is going to be a boat speed race so everything has to be perfect."
"Once again it's been reconfigured in a way that we think is going to make quite a difference to the performance of the boat," he explained this afternoon. "It's actually quite exciting to go through the load testing now and think that this is maybe the last time we have to do it.
"There have been a number of structural and configuration changes and all of them need to be tested in a methodical way. So we've been going through the load testing and gradually bringing things up to speed, checking for noises or anything that looks unusual. But everything has gone well - a clean bill of health."
The testing has been conducted with a traditional soft sail mast in the boat. That was pulled out late this afternoon.
So what happens next?
"Then the wing sail and we'll be straight into it tomorrow."
Does that mean sailing on Tuesday?
"That's the plan. But we're not pushing it. Getting these things right technically is the challenge here. This is going to be a boat speed race so everything has to be perfect."
