What I must be insane! Well I can't disagree with that. I love kites, and I love sailing, so it is only a natural progression that I combine the two. Unfortunately my ambition will have to remain that way at the moment due to time & funding limitations, but some day I will break the world record for a wind powered, water borne vehicle.
The reason that a kite boat can get a greater speed than a conventional masted yacht is primarily for two reasons, there are others but these are less significant.
1. Heeling. The force from
a yacht acts through a fixed mast,
therefore it is virtually impossible to
move the point at which the force acts
upon the hull(s), thus in moderate/strong
winds the yacht "heels"
spilling air that should have been used
for propulsion and also means the hull(s)
is now not "cutting" the water
as was designed. The only way to counter
this is to counter balance the heeling
force, for which weight is required again
driving the hull further in to the water.
However, with a kite yacht, the point at which
the force acts upon the hull(s) can moved
to virtually any where with in the area
of the hull(s) thus eliminating all of the
effects that "heeling" creates.
2.
Friction. The greater the surface area
that is in contact with the water the
greater the friction (this form memory is
called skin friction). There is also the
cross sectional area of the hull cutting
the water, put simply all the water in front
has to go behind, and if you've walked
waist high in water you know how hard
that is! This is another form of friction
the name of which escapes at the moment.
Kites also produce lift as part of the
resultant force counteracting the above
frictional forces.
And that's why!
The design is quite simple, basically I will use a pair of catamaran hulls and some 4 line stacked foils, the number of foils corresponding to the wind strength. However saying it's simple is a bit of an understatement as the rigging is rather complex as it uses a system of bungee ropes to take the "buffeting" out of the kite system to give a more constant force. (Something that again is not easy to rig on a conventional yacht) You may have noticed I'm being very sketchy, it's because I only have prototypes and paper deigns at the moment. (Other than I don't want it stolen!)
I hope I have not offended any yachting purists, as I did not intend to. I still sail conventional yachts (albeit my friends) and always will.
Well that's my ambition, I hope from all this you don't think I'm too fool hardy, only a man on a mission with a spirit of adventure. :)
Well to finish I'd just like to say "Fair wind, fair water & fair weather to you all" - Oh yes and if you have any comments, suggestions or anything else then mailto:kitesailing@kitesailing.co.uk .
Back to main page: Andy & Rose