Multihull microcruiser design (capsize approach, vol 2)

[Will Gilmore]

On heavy weather, perhapse the kite would make a great drogue.

-Will

 

[montero]

I was always wonder of idea of use surfing kite for boats. Understand that they are most effective vs weight vs surface .

Since childhood, I used various kite and none of them resembled surf kite.

 

[rob denney]

On heavy weather, perhapse the kite would make a great drogue.

-Will

You ain't kidding! We dropped the 400 sq m Kiteship kite in the tide a couple of times. Big effort to get it back on board. And to sort and stow 4 x 100m plus of light line. Coiling was a disaster, roughly stuffing them into a reasonable large bag worked well.

Small-medium ram air and leading edge inflatable kites float for long enough to relaunch them. For medium-large kites, this is probably impossible, they would need to be cut away, which would be a shipping disaster and not too good ecologically. It's why we use masts for launching and recovery and eschew the long lines even though there is more wind up high and they can be figure eighted.

Montero, it is highly unlikely that your childhood kites had the l/d ratios of modern kites. This can be measured by the angle of the lines to the vertical. ~50-60 degrees for kites with tails, closer to 85 for modern kites.

 

[montero]

I remember this toy : Wiropłat, wirolot, samolot, latawiec - 6792974868 - oficjalne archiwum Allegro https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/wiroplat-wirolot-samolot-latawiec-i6792974868.html
also Box kite - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_kite
I can imagine that many flying objects can be used for boat propulsion , not only surf style kites . Floating kites frames can be developed in various shapes , inflatable box kites are some idea . There's many opportunities.

 

[gonzo]

On heavy weather, perhapse the kite would make a great drogue.

Have you ever tried to recover a dunked sail?

 

[Will Gilmore]

Have you ever tried to recover a dunked sail?

Fortunately, no. I've never capsized.

However, I wasn't referring to using the kite as a drogue on purpose. I was commenting on what to do with a fallen kite in heavy weather. Use it as a drogue, until the weather passes. Relaunching it may be possible, but is it advisable? What else can you do?

-Will

 

[gonzo]

Sails get dunked even when a boat is not capsized. Spinnakers are the most usual sails. Kites are even worse because they don't even have a pole holding the clew. If you think a drogue is advisable, then have one. You guys have the usual square wheel syndrome: everyone is a fool by using round ones