Hi everyone I'm new to the forum and look forward to exchanging ideas. I presently own a 4.9 cat rig which has been in dry dock for a couple of seasons since winning the Australian Nationals in 2000. Since that time I've been looking into developing a kite kit for the 4.9 that can be handled and used in our conditions (20 knots / 2 metre seas)



We are very fortunate to have a very strong fleet of skiffs where I live (Adelaide, Australia)including the recent 14 foot world champions. This is a boat type that has been developing fast kite designs for over 20 years and which could provide very useful information as a basis for cat kites.



To get to the point it has been found that the fastest kites are not necessarily the biggest and that the ability to handle them effectively can be as important as sheer horsepower. Based on the numbers evaluated to date it is likely that we will use a 16 m2 kite size which will have relatively high aspect to improve efficiency and reduce sheeting loads. I for one would not be concerned about limiting the cat rig kite to 17.5 m2 as this seems larger than necessary anyway - particurlarly, as Wouter points out, other (heavier) classes which tend to cater for the milder weather sailing regions have limited themselves to 17 m2 or less.



Cheers



James

AUS 153 'Woof'