Kirt,
I'm told a kite with a full head provides more lift.
I'm also told that one of the objectives when designing a kite is getting the right balance between llift and drive.
A kite that provides a lot of lift can also be very slow.
A kite that provides a lot of drive, is fast, but only when your not swimming. They tend to catch the backs of waves and also stop fast.
Right or wrong, I always consider the lift generated by any single point on a sail to be perpendicular to the surface.
Then I just look at the surface. I think this contributes to spinnakers with long luffs being faster than spinnakers with shorter luffs but more actual area. The lift created along the luff has more of a forward vector while the lift back towards the leach has very little forward vector.
A jib does not provide much in the way of lift but my hooter even though it is like a huge jib does in fact provide lift.
A lot more lift than I would of expected.
It doesn't have a full head but then the long pole puts it at such an angle that if the lift is perpendicular to the surface at least along the luff there is a bigger vertical vector component than my jib.
So what about the full head? It has a lot of sail facing the sky and therefore has a large vertical lift component.
My veiw is very simplistic but it does seems to hold true with the situations I've bothered to consider.
Regards,
Phill
