Today we headed out to test several new components on K2. We tested the new motorized winch for the first time, and we used a new car (which houses pulleys and load cell) under the seat, which was an upgrade from the former aluminum car. We did not plug in the load cell but structurally tested the system. The new winch worked excellently. Dudu flew over in his helicopter, and Gino Morrelli and Bruce Sutphen, visiting boat designers, joined us on the kiteboat and Protector. The kite seemed to be deflating the entire time, perhaps as a result of the inflator accidentally turning off during the test. Despite this behavior, it was a great test. We hit our fastest K2 speed of all […more]
We took the Kitefoiler out again with the original J-foils, as they’ve proved the most reliable in allowing us to sail upwind. We took out an old kite from 2003 that has a high aspect ratio and a very simple bridle, in order to compare its performance to our newer kites. The wind proved light, so we did not sail quickly enough to get the boat on the foils. We did, however, verify that the simple bridle on the kite was much easier to handle on the launching mast than the more complicated ones. Also, we realized that the launching mast needs to be expandable, in order to be made taller for larger or higher-aspect-ratio kites. Additionally, Don and […more]
