Rolf,

I thought for quite a while about whether to break the boat down or not, and in the end I was really glad I did it. German contra-flows, the Alpine roads and some of the roads around Garda are all pretty narrow. I tow it flat around the UK, but for a total of about 40 hours driving, having it narrower than the car made it far more relaxing (and also meant that Ann was prepared to do some of the driving...)

As for the kite, I must confess I didn't check the luff tension while I was there, but I've done it before and it's been just a little slacker than a fistfull turned to 90 degrees. I've found that I've I set it much tighter I get the luff flapping constantly (a fast buzzing in the front few inches, rather than a normal curl). Sat in the boat, it looks how kites normally look to me, so it may just be the angle of the photos.

Sadly, I didn't notice the 49er there until I saw the photo, so I didn't get a chance to show them how it was done <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Lake Garda introduced me to a new form of waterbourne obstacle: similar to windsurfers in their tendency to regularly switch between beam reaching at high speed and sitting almost invisible in the water, kite surfers add 20m of airbourne lines used to catch passing masts... Posing for these photos meant sailing straight across the kite/wind-surfing band, so I wouldn't have noticed anything that was on an immediate collision course <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Paul