can anyone give some hints on sailing single handed with a kite? have done a search on the forum and cannot find anything(could be my limited computer skills)
any advise welcome <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Have a look at the F16 forums, plenty of info and photos there.

yep; have a look there.

What are you looking for?

Whick bit of the game to you want help with

1, Hoist ?
2, Saailing with it ?
3, Dropping ?

could someone talk me through a race similar to this, I am on a nacra 16sq with a kite.
I am a complete novice with kites and am looking to try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of them
many thanks

You do not mention if the wind if shifting, or what sort of bend you get close to the land. Tide will probably be slacker close to shore, but you may have less wind (or more) – sail over and check, the wind will also shift close to shore. Again sail over and check.......


Ok, so you get to A and need to decide if you can carry the kite from A to A1; This will just come with experience. I have a mental map of when I THINK I can carry the kite high; best bet is to get on the course early and try it, make a note of the wind strength and direction so you know when you get to A if you can put the kite up at once.

If you get to A and know you cannot hoist yet, it might be an idea to go high to hoist later, remembering which direction the tide is going (down the course in your example) as this will effect angles.


OK, you’ve got to A and either hoisted or decided to go high and the kite is now up, you might be on the wire and the boat is tracking along just fine to the A1 mark.

Do you gybe at A and head back in shore, or do you carry on for more tide down the course. Again, you get to the course early and check, does the wind bend help you inshore or not? Remember, more wind down wind is USUALLY better than better tide. A couple more knots of wind will give you the same if not more speed than a couple of knots of tide, but again this depends on the boat and how it reacts to more wind....


OK, how do you drive a boat downwind with the kite up?

Again it can depend on the wind speed and the boat.....

There is a “magic point” when you can fly a hull down wind, and another magic point when you should be in the wire (some think you should not wire down wind as it’s faster to go deeper, I disagree, wireing is the way to go). Again, you need to work it out as to when it pays to fly a gull, and when to wire..

On my F16 I can fly the hull in fairly light winds, and I tend to wire down wind, when wiring up wind.

How do you sail with the kite properly, well, the basic thing is, as the boat accelerates, and the hull lifts, bear off! Otherwise you wash the sails.....

How to you trim the kite? You want the luff to be just curling.





Dropping the kite: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/showflat...=true#Post54758


Somewhere I have posted the way I drop and hoist the kite, but I cannot finds it and I’m a bit short of time to find it.