Today we took out pro kiters Kevin Langeree, Nick Jacobsen, Ruben Lenten as our guests on the kiteboat. The riders are featured in Chapter One: The Kiteboat Legacy Begins, along with Don and the Kiteboat Project, which premieres at the Palace of Fine Arts tonight. Members of the Eyeforce production team and the WeTransfer team also joined us on the chase boats.
We had a lot of wind today, especially for our 40 sqm kite! It was a good short test and a nice way to show everyone the power available to the kiteboat. After our guests departed, we foiled under the Bay Bridge on the way back to Alameda.
We launched the kite around 2:15 pm at our usual spot northeast of Treasure Island, in about 17 knots of wind. The wind speed steadily increased as we made our way toward the city in choppy water. The boat did very well upwind—angles close to 40 degrees at speeds close to 28 knots, with 3 crew. Visitor David Fu joined the kiteboat crew, and we foiled under the Bay Bridge between Yerba Buena and SF.
Conditions on the other side of the bridge were completely different—high winds visible toward Candlestick Point, but only around 10 knots near Alameda and behind the city. We dropped the kite and Don’s children, Nalani and Max, joined the kiteboat crew. Around 3:40 pm we relaunched in a […more]
Testing today in burly sea conditions with Max Carlgren and Michael Mahlberg from Båtnytt magazine. Some difficulty with the winch when retrieving the kite.
Beautiful day out on the Bay. We hit a top speed of nearly 37 knots in only about 13 to 16 knots of wind. This is the fastest we have gone (so far) on our new T-Foils or ever with this boat! We foiled from outside the Golden Gate bridge, where the swells and chop were very rough, all the way back to Alameda, where we practiced jibing in the lagoon, in calmer wave and wind conditions. This was also the first time we were able to kite back the full distance back to Alameda after crossing under the Bay Bridge.
Tested new sonar sensor in middling wind. Circled Alcatraz a few times and raced some kitesurfers near Crissy Field. Sailed under the Bay Bridge from the north.
