I think you touched the cause of the misunderstanding. I judged the outleaders as the replacement of the classical rigs as indeed all other kite designs have tried to do.
I'll admit to misintepreting the outleader concept.
This is quite common and no offense taken. A lot of what we do is education.
Truly the way to launch and retrieve these things on a sailing boat. Indeed a big issue with most (other) kites.
Yes, especially in large sizes. Nobody else has successfully launched large kites; we do it everyday. The largest available commercial kite (except ours) is 25 sq meters. We just delivered one at 420 meters and are willing to build at 1000 meters. Not prototypes, but shipping products.
I'm still very skeptical about the outleader boosting performance on beach catamarans though as we current sail downwind with the apparent wind angle coming from about 70-80 degrees forward. For any sail to work at these angles of attact it must be able to go upwind so to say and must have a good lift to drag ratio. Boosting performance on beech cats is not that simple anymore. But as a kite buggier you sure as hell know that.
You are quite accurate and right to be skeptical. Under many conditions we cannot sail this high (principly in light winds; also with less than highly skilled fliers). Most boats, with less than half an hour's practice, can sail as high as 80-90 degrees. Under controlled conditions, we pulled a 2000kg truck across the California desert at speeds in excess of 35 mph, at apparent wind angles as small as 40 degrees, for protracted periods of time. This has not been matched by others as yet (we have some experience, you see. ;-)
What they are designed to do is to kick spinnakers' butts. On all boats, at all sizes.
Do you throw the assymetics as used on skiff and sport catamarans unders this target as well ?
Because I'm truly facinated by a outleader that can kick a Tornado sport's butt downwind.
We are very confident. Perhaps overly so, but every boat we have put a kite on has reported an increase in speed. We offer a money-back guarantee if you don't sail faster with our kites--nobody in the business offers this but us. We don't just believe; we know.
I doubt that a one-design such as Tornado is going to be allowed to fly a kite in-class. I hope I am proven wrong...
On the other hand, boats such as cats and skiffs are very much limited in the size and power spis they carry by their stabiliby--both transverse and longitudinally. Flying a kite in place of the spi vastly increases both types of stability. Flying an OutLeader on a hot cat or skiff will be a handful, but the first guys who succeed at it are going to make the record books.
Dave one question I have for you. Can outleaders be used to sail faster downwind than the windspeed ?
I have done so, yes. Again on land, pulling the truck. We were making 35 mph, very deep, in 25 mph of wind. VMG about 29 mph. This was not an approximate course or speed. We were gathering instrument data and "did the math" later in the evening. VMG/TW = 1.18.
Can this be replicated on water? Yes, I believe it can. Apparent wind was forward of the beam, but not way forward. The relatively high L/D of the truck was not a deciding issue, I believe.
Of course you can wait until Rob denney is in the Netherlands, but we have a Dutch distributor who can demo for you immediately. Johan Mulder;
johan@kiteship.comDave Culp
http://www.kiteship.com 
