kite catamaran - best of both worlds?

From Yves Parlier; never timorous when it comes to diving into new directions. This translation from Foilers site:
"This year of 2010, I dedicated myself entirely to plan beyond the sea with the realization of a new planing catamaran that I developed with my friend Eric PELAPRAT. I constituted an international team of experts in kite and naval architecture and we developed a three dimensional program kiteboat.
We sailed with this 18 feet archetype (5,5 m) again and again at Thau and accomplished a certain trial number at the same time of different kite sails, but also a campaign of measurements (speed, tension in lines, angles of traction) which allowed us to validate this program."

 

Parlier

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Interesting that he still likes the stepped planing hull.....

 

So do many fast offshore boats ...

 

Actually it is the same 5.5m platform he used for testing his ideas for the stepped 60 foot cat - makes sense, there it is lying around.

 

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Here is another Parlier test boat:

click on image-

 

http://www.kiteboat.com/kb_videos.html

this looks like fun

 

As kites advance, they will have ability to get more control and lift with a lower drag. This with advances in ease of handling will allow bigger sizes. All of this combines to make things very interesting.

When the boat is only a platform to position a dagger board & rudder along with giving the pilot/crew a ride, the design requirements change a lot. Lowest drag possible with no stability concerns sounds like a dream.

 

A 250 foot effective beam sounds like a nightmare.

 

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That was great! Enjoyed the theme to Hawaii 5-0 too....CORRECTION: Mission Impossible theme(thanks to ThomD)

 

No you didn't... That was the Mission Impossible theme.

That kinda looks silly. I don't get why it is so wet when they have all that lift. Anyway, someday. As doubtless all know, they are working on computer controlled kites for power generation. So in 30 years time, that will be affordable, or 5 years, and you may be able to fly it from a single line, and set all necessary auto pilots and actually go somewhere, fast.

 

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My apologies-you're 100% right.

 

The did make great TV theme songs back in the day.