On Saturday 23 April 2005 19.18, you wrote: > Hi, > Does anyone here have experience of using a kite to tow a kayak? (Or a golf > umbrella, for that matter). I'd be interested in any comments. > Thanks Hi, I have studied the subject in detail and have bought a kite, but not yet tried it. First problem is how to deploy your kite - most kites need to be held up from the ground to be inflated, so to speak. How do you do that in a kayak? Secondly, the kite has to be fairly big to function when going down wind, as all kites need quite a lot of tension on the line(s) to work. No tension and it falls out of the sky. A big kite stays aloft in lower winds than a small one, but deploying small kites is easier (especially from a kayak), while a big might well be plain impossible. If you eventually get it aloft remember that going diagonally downwind works better, and a leeboard, or two, and a hefty rudder, are pretty essential! Four line kites are better in many ways, but remember that you have your hands fully occupied so there is no way you'll be able to handle both the kite and paddle! How are you going to avoid drowning when you and your kayak rolls due to the fantastic tug on the lines and you're ensnared in the kite lines? A few reported cases show that kites and kayaks can be lethal. A single line kite is easier to handle, but you can't dump it when you like, unless you let go of the lines totally! And you can still not brace yourself, as you have to reel in the line, or out, according to the wind speed and your speed! And as a single line kayak by design heads straight down wind you are even more mercy to the whims of the wind, and it has to be bigger for just the same reason, it risks stalling out of the sky easier than one that you manoeuver across the sky all the time! One way to improve things is to increase the drag of the kayak a lot, by dropping a sea anchor, or something like that. This way the tension in the line(s) is/are maintained, and you have more time to plan ahead. And outrigger(s) are more or less a must, if you don't want to risk your life each time you try it! Rafting up is probably also very wise! A huge single line kite, with a dumping line (that deflates it when you want it to) might be the best kite (typically the kind of kite used for KAP (kite-assisted aerial photography), but such a kite has no manoeuvrability, of course. But how you're going to get it into the air is a dilemma! Our kite is a big D-Quad (4.2m) and we'll use it more like as a sail, being at the top attached to our short, folding, mast. I have also modified it, so that if the wind becomes too much for comfort we let go the lines and it folds forward, a bit like the Balogh's Twins. We hope :-)! And we'll use our outrigger, and being two one can handle the kite and one can brace and steer! But we haven't tested it yet! Yours, Tord *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Apr 24 2005 - 03:35:08 PDT
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