http://www.kiteboat.com/kb_videos.html

Pretty cool cat from sailinganarchy.com

guess you could call that a "kitemaran"! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

The boat looks like a supercat 20...
Too Cool...

Regards,
Bob

Man...that is too good.

...and I was wondering what in the world to do with my Freestyle 474, which has a broken mast....

My life now has some direction....!

That could also be way fun, hooked to my RIB dingy or the Stiletto 27.

Oh, the possibilities of it all...

Now all I have to do is talk my son into giving me his kiteboard kites.

Waahoo..!

Tom

Try sailing upwind.

Maybe you can with a cat platform like this but the kite boarders at my club are unable to make much headway at all upwind.

I'll be interested to hear the results. I think this capability (or lack thereof) alone will determine if this setup will have legs in the future.

Wouter

Wouter
I am surprised to hear you say that the kite guys around here can crank up wind 15+ degrees higher than a modern sailboard (granted sailboards are not the best vehicle for pinching up wind). 10 years ago when they started the "walk of shame" up the beach was the norm...but not today...it is amazing how high some of my friends can point.

Regards,
Bob

That was pretty cool. With some more development maybe they can figure out how to make it go upwind. Did you notice how high the bows were? No chance of pitch-polling with all that upward pull from the kite I guess! And there were 4 guys on board, but it looked like it had plenty of freeboard. Question, did they have daggerboards? And if they did, were they as deep as a "normal" cat board would be? Do they even need to be that deep, or there at all? I know Kiteboards do have little fins on the bottom, don't they? But nothing as deep as say a windsurfing board. So, does the Kite Cat need deep boards, shallow boards or no boards at all? And why are there 4 guys on it?? Looks like the extra two are just there to keep it from lifting up in the air! Imagine how fast it would have been if they had left those other two on the beach?

Now, let's put that kite on that cat with the foils and see what happens!! This could revolutionize the way we sail cats! And just think of all the kites you could buy for the cost of a carbon mast and 3 sails, not to mention the hour of setup time you would save when you got to the beach, just unroll the kite, hook it to the beam, off you go! Of course you would need quite a bit of wind, take a look at the whitecaps in the background! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Two drawbacks I see right away: 1. no hull flying and 2. no trapeezing, both of which I love and I'm not ready to give up, yet...Perhaps if there were a way to mount a short, stubby mast, say 10 feet tall, with trap lines and all the kite controls attached to it, we could have our trapeeze, and the kite too! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"Modern sailboard"???

There is a huge range in modern sailboard types. The guys you are watching may be on wave or free style boards, they may not be trying to go upwind, or they simply may not be very good. A modern Formula board (planing course racing board) will be competetive with or beat most cats around a race course (upwind and downwind).

The only time I've seen kites go upwind better than windsurfers is when the kiter is powered up and the windsurfer isn't (the opposite would be true if the windsurfer were powered up and the kiter not).

Around here, most of the kiters I see like to do "downwinders".

sm

Theoretically a Kite powered vehical should be able to tack upwind, but in practice the kite boarders can't to any significant measure. At least not the ones here at Zandvoort and they are a pretty darn active and moneyed bunch. Each year they buy several new sets.

I'm told formula sailboards can actually point pretty high and as such I don't see the kite boarders outpoint them by 15 degrees.

In the end of the day a kite will always be less efficient aerodynamically then a (masted) rig. This is also the experience I have with power kites that I have build myself. Their power quickly decreases when they reach the "zenith". A quality that one needs for good upwind work.

Summurized, I can not smooth my own observations with those presented by you. Naturally this can just as easily point to an oversight on my side of the argument.

Wouter

You guys sound like mono-hullers sound when they're talking to us.

I hope that the kite can work upwind, if not it's like walking with only one leg.exfla.

Wouter, this would tend to suggest regular races can be run, including going to weather..
(Quote)This summer history repeated itself on the San Francisco Bay last month, when nearly thirty paid professional kite surfers from around the world came to San Francisco to compete against the locals in the first national championship in the fast-growing sport of kite course racing. Harnessing kites to boards, sixty riders raced around a course, governed by the rules of sailboat racing.(Quote)

The full article and pics can be found at http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_6693832

Wouter,
Despite upwind inefficiencies, the kites could be efficient and safe replacements for spinakers and other downwind sails. What about a hybrid?
Luiz

That would be very cool, instead of pulling the spin, launch a kite! But can you imagine the mess if you were to accidently wrap that thing around the mast? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

'member the story about the guy whose kite drug him across the parking lot into a brick wall!?

If you relly want to see how ugly it can get, go to YouTube and search on Kitesurfing. There are some pretty horrific crashes there. While you are there, check out the "Parasailing" videos, lots of crashes there too!

or the mess if you got your kite tangled with another one. Start line would have to be huge.

Yeah, how do the real kite board guys handle that, when there are a bunch of kites all in the same area? Do they ever get themselves all tangled up? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />