K2 Speed vs. Load
11/16/12The tow test on Wed Nov 14 provided some insight into how much force is needed to pull our kiteboat at a range of speeds. By measuring the tension of the tow line and plotting it against the boat speed, we can infer the approximate force that a kite would need to generate to pull the boat at those speeds. The first attached plot shows only the tests with a crew of three, for which the maximum sustainted speed was 38 knots. The second plot shows the towing power, calculated as the product of the force and speed. The polynomial fit (red and green lines) may be helpful to understand the density and trend of the collected data, but should […more]