One World Diary

Mark Chisnell looks back at the CORM non-regatta, although he's not allowed to tell us what happened...

And that brings me neatly back to our own new boat, and the week surrounding the launch, when all the pieces were slowly coming together. The navigation and electronic team's part of the puzzle is the instrumentation, and its installation has tended to follow a familiar pattern in the past.

As some of those involved with the rig, sails, winches or any other hardware love to point out - you can sail the boat without the instruments. And so, naturally, the needs of the electronics department (like all the fiddly bits of boat building we need; brackets, boxes, etc), tend to drift towards the bottom of the priority lists simply because they won’t stop the boat being launched.

But inevitably, within about two hours of the boat hitting the water and it becoming apparent that she's not going to sink or break up, people want performance information. And suddenly the instruments shift from being the poor relation in the build programme to the focus of attention - why isn't all the gear installed and calibrated to within a millimetre of its life?

Fortunately, the head of our electronics department, Bill Handey, has been through this more than once - in fact he's done it in every Cup since 1988. So Bill and his offsider, Richard Kent (a Pom, and runner-up at the RS800 nationals last year), had planned around it as far as possible, and done a great job of getting the resources they needed to help with the mechanical side of the installation.

But even with the best planning in the world, and a huge cooperative effort from the boat builders, there was always going to be a bit of a frenzy around the launch. The only answer is to tough it out and do the long days. So this is me, surfacing for air and a little light relaxation - writing for you. And on that note, I think I’ve said enough, it's time to hit the surf!