Altogether again

A new seal housing from Belgium, quick work by Dave Crawford, plus overnight pressure-testing, and it looks like our gearbox is in good shape. Looks like it.

Next job ought to be so easy. The rules say we must show our race number - '10'. But to display the number where the rules say it must go means a mega job for Scorpion. Moulds are having to be made for two panels - and these have to be bolted to the back of the boat. (We can remove them after the race.)

Looks like we might be the first boat to spend nearly a thousand pounds on putting up two race numbers!

This week Motor Boat and Yachting magazine, usually at the quality end of the publishing spectrum, puts the odds on us winning overall at 40:1. It would have been much more interesting to look at the race class by class, and then compare the odds as the race unfolds.

Writing this on Wednesday evening, just a week before scrutineering starts, it's hard to comprehend that the whole project will be over in three weeks.

This weekend, co-driver Roger will be down for our last run. We will launch Black Gold in Lymington on Saturday, swing the compass at 10.30 am in the Hamble, then do the start and part of the first leg of the course for the first time, wearing helmets, intercoms, lifejackets etc.

We will also have all the safety gear on board.

Black Gold is quite light, but we hear that some boats have been having trouble getting up on the plane with a full fuel load, plus all the other stuff we have to carry. This shouldn't be a problem at the departure in Portsmouth. But in Plymouth, with the long leg up to Milford Haven which will require much more fuel, weight could be a challenge.

The project feels like it's coming together although there are still a load of details to cover, and deliveries still to be received. There's the satellite phone card, for instance, and mini flare packs which we haven't been able to buy over the counter. And as I have been known to suffer from seasickness (though not yet in a rib), I have those pills to buy, too.

One thing we haven't sussed yet is loading routes from the PC Planner software to our Northstar GPS. Might be easy to do, but we haven't done it yet.

We have found, though, that routes are much more easily planned on paper charts. So I have been in the loft rummaging for the 1978 Round Britain Race set. They are probably hopeless for buoyage, but as Roger says, 'Most of the Scottish islands won't have moved.'

Will be back with the next update after our weekend run.

- Gavin Wednesday night 11th May