Kite For Sail

[Caleb6543]

I think Kevin Kostner used one in the movie "Waterworld."

[conrman]

Don't anyone else try this, they do not want competition in the development.....they are working hard to cash in....HAHA

Its an interesting idea....I already do this with my kayak. Steer with feet to operate rudder.....small kites work better

[leandroter7]

no upwind, only downwind! sucks! Doenst work

[ter450]

As a moderately experienced sailor, I see a promising future to kite sails on sailboats.  The traditional, mired in the past, sailors will be 'nay' sayers, but they are wrong. Watch the "Kite vs Moth vs 49er" video, and you will see the kite sail smoke the mono, on all points of weather.

[thirteenfingers]

@ter450 There are more issues than traditional and forward looking though.

In heavy weather windage can be a big issue. The kite turret's windage would be massive.

Junk, fore and aft and square rigs all allow relatively simple reduction of sail. Short of pulling the kite in and rigging a smaller one I see no easy way to reef or reduce sail in this plan.

The K/M/49 video wasn't a test of sail plan but of craft. Put a kite-49er and a sail-49er in a H2H and things would look different.

[thirteenfingers]

@ter450 That said - the idea of using a kite as an auxiliary sail mounted to a suitable hard point on a standard sailplan boat is a very appealing idea and one I've thought about for a long time.

Downwind, rig it from the bow, forward of the spinnaker/asymmetric and catch even more breeze.

In light airs it could be flown from different points to increase boat speed.

It's got a lot of potential (I even like the idea of huge kites on commercial ships) but it's no replacement.

[dogassedugly]

Okay, now turn around and head against the wind...

[kiteforsail]

Kite For Sail is history. View our new videos at highwindhawaii

[bigmuso123]

daft , but fun

[wildkyle55]

Sorry, nothing beats a properly run sloop.... plus, you cant really make a reach or close reach with that, only far reaches and runs. there is a reason that sailboats are the way they are

[NaveganteBOG]

Good idea, but I wonder how do you come about?

[windsurfskisnow2]

humm can u make big air jumps`? hahahha

[123brutalmetal]

naish makes a 200 meter kite+ ive flown an 18 meter kite in like 6 knots with a board

[skyhighdon]

This is not a new invention by these people. Many others had made homebuilts, and Petet Lynn Kites has had a commercial one in Australia for several years. SkySails (as someone referenced) has huge ones for racing yachts, right up to oil tankers. But "don't anyone else try it yet" (until we get our patent, ha ha)

[Xigano1]

Pretty cool.

How far can you go up to the wind before the kite stalls ?

[Windpowers]

A kite-sail can pull a vessel through all courses up to 45 degrees into the wind. The boat will stall out and loose speed if the vessel veers above 45 degrees. The kite will only stall if the apparent wind speed drops below the stall speed of the kite.

[lostinseganet]

The kites for barges are one football field in length.

[goose1077]

It's kind of an obvious idea. I saw kite boarders on the lake and thought it would be a great way to pull my inflatable kayak. It's the same kind of kite.

[andrewgrazier]

i doubt it would go thaat great to windward hahahaha oh wells!

im supprised how well it gets the boat going thoguh, sailed on them a fair bit and sure sits a lot better with the kite.

[kiteforsail]

If you launch a large kite the hull will easily out perform the conventional setup on all courses off the wind and to windward.

[djangobelgo]

Yea, SkySails just made a trip from Europe to Venezuela, with its computer steered kite attached to a cargo-ship.

[isaiah30v8]

I am continually amazed at how much power is in the wind. I wonder how many thousands of horepower those tall ships would reap from the wind?

Keep it up.

Your invention looks spectacular!

[buddhawelt]

i think a barge is going to need a very very big sail ha? i wonder if this would really work on a commercial scale. looks like a lot of fun though...

[brickwheel]

The barge uses a big sail indeed. A company called skysail has deployed a 150 square meter kite onto a cargo ship. The kite in this video is approx 18 square meters.