It was 40 mph gusting to 60 here Tuesday morning, but we were lucky and the power stayed on. Probably about 6" rainfall, which makes the pond behind the house look nice & full.

What's up with the other two "areas of interest" coming off Africa? Are they likely to develop into something?

Reef in a kite???

Are you asking about reducing sail area, or do you mean REEL in a kite?

Kiters reduce area by switching kite sizes just like a windsurfer. They cary an assortment of sizes, big for light wind, small for high wind.
They also have the ability to alter the power of the kite by adjusting it's angle in the sky as well as adjusting it's angle to the wind through the various lines that connect the kite to the control bar.

As far as reeling in the kite, they don't actually reel it in. The lines are a fixed length. So in most instances when the rider is ready to land the kite, they fly it down to ground level and then have a helper grab the kite and hold it on the ground.

The problem is that if the kite overwhelms or "lofts" the rider on the beach, it is very likely that he will lose control of it and it will inadvertantly power up before he can pull any of the emergency quick releases. This is a fundamental safety difference between kitesurfing and windsurfing.

sm

I would bet he was kidding about how do you Reef a kite

No power for the last 36hrs here. One stupid branch on one stupid wire..............> no power. The worst parrt was that only 20 houses were affected and just 4 people are here to complain. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Sunfish was great fun yesterday! Anybody know of a good bolt-on muffler for an 11hp techumseh engine on a generator the noise is awful right now.

If you find a muffler for that gen. lemme know .I've got a loud Tecumseh also, I'd like to put a muzzle on.
Todd

I'm trying to figure out how to muffle a 13 hp diesel generator... you think a gas one is loud!

Around here when power is out, gas is very hard to get. No gas stations in the outage area. We have 1K gallons of road diesel and 500 gallons of off road diesel at my shop for our trucks. I always have plenty of diesel. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> But also a lot of noise.

Clayton

After Hurricane Charley, I put the generator between the hulls of the Hobie 16. Then took some sheets of plywood and leaned them together to form a leaky box with a partial roof. To maintain airflow I plugged a window fan into an unused outlet.

This really quieted it down.

Jack

A piece of plywood leaning up against the genny can make a big difference, your neighbor might not like it. I've seen guys build a 1/2 box to deflect noise and protect it from rain, just watch wear the muffler is.

Better yet, I've used that foil backed foam board insulation (the cheap stuff) to line my RV generator box to cut down the noise and heat (damn designer put the generator right under the main sleeping bed). Worked marvelously. I would say a couple of those duct taped together into a box would do the trick.

Strange, most RVs seem to have a generator that keeps everyone else in the campground up at night, but doesn't bother the owner in the least.

Yeah, that's because it's hard to hear it over the white noise of the air conditioner. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />