Downwind Kites Publication: Sailing Scuttlebutt
Remember those images of huge kites streaming high above the masthead on Oracle BMW's USA76 on practice days during the Louis Vuitton Cup Series? Could they become the 'hot ticket' on the race course?
According to KiteShip USA, the kite's designer and builder, "In any racing class, a sail that exploits steadier airflow at altitude without disturbances from the vessel's own motion produces smoother power transfer with a minimum of control input." KiteShip says that they designed and engineered the OutLeader Brand kite sail to be ISAF and IACC regulation legal, and their kites performed beyond everyone's expectations. "Under highly secretive development for a year and a half, this engineering endeavor has truly paid off," said KiteShip spokesman Dean Jordan.
So why didn't Oracle BMW Racing use it in the LVC series? KiteShip USA claims, "We perfected this kite application a few weeks too late in the client's design cycle. There simply wasn't enough time for them to implement the kite sail for the regatta at the scale they felt necessary to win."
Original article (Feb 14, 2003):
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/archived_Detail.asp?key=2480