Took the Blade out for it's first sail today. Weather in Victor today was about 26 degrees C and about 12-15 knots blowing offshore, which means gusty and very flat water.
Despite a few teething problems like remembering how to leave beach on an offshore day with me on the boat and not dragging behind it, I finally got it going. Heading out to sea boat wanted to really wild thing, which had me thinking, "do I really want to put the kite up today?" Gee I'm glad I did. What a ride with the kite up. There was one point where I wondered if I really should be on the wire with the kite up without footstraps. A couple of seconds later my fear was confirmed. Footstraps behind the main beam will be added very soon.
The main I used is an experimental one Marcus has developed and unfortunately it kept jamming against the cut out in the track so I was limited in the amount of luff tension i could get. This made going upwind exciting when some of those gusts really hit to be sure.
Obviously i have lots of work to do to remember how to steer again after spending 12 months at the front of an yvonne, and tacking and gybing are going to need lots of practice, but overall i am one very happy customer.
Ok here are some photos. Fire away.
