Sunday, April 18, 2010

Kite Race Board

Mahalo, well long time from the last post I write, there was a lot going on!
Not I am lazy to write, but just no time to seat down and type on.

In last 3 years there is a lot going on on the kiterace community. I was always more on this side of kiting, mean low wind and pure technical sailing. Going fist on the water, or be the last one on the water is special feeling! I like it, you can believe me;-) In the last decade the kite community was not really focused into low wind kiting and this is changing. The group from SF sailing club was push from year to year the whole series of kite race, this was move the group of kiters out of hardcore freestyle to the course race. I like it! For me interesting are the boards and technique of riding. If I am looking back and compare today boards for race they look like the board I made in 2000!

Here they are the race boards of today! Huge planks with even bigger fins, interesting enough to jump into and prepare my own design. One weary important point on the low wind and also on course kiting is perfect planing of the board and good hold of the fins. As everybody wish no sniping please. The board is "classical" shaped, the widths point is moved back from the middle, quite square tail and "big nose. Almost 1/2 of the rocker line must to be flat. This make the board good planing and speed. The rails are on front round and completely sharp /90deg/ from middle to tail! I decide to go with the top surface in 3D to get more ridged construction with less weight. On the tail I need flat zone to mount the fins on! The design of the board looks like this: Looks relay unofficial in CFK look with 3D top and veneer strap in the middle, even more difficult to understand are the side fins. But wait they are there for a reason. The middle fin will keep the position lite it is "state of the art" on the boards, the front fins are moved out of the board to be in clear waterfowl to get as much as possible track and force out of it. The end decision was done after all the analysis and comparison measurements. The fins shape are up to date the best of Aero and hydrodynamical calculations and yes they looks like fish fins, surprised, me not!
Bottom flat part of the board! And for the end the whole shape in one top view! I was not mention before, the whole board and everything else is drawn into CAD parametrically, used the latest SW technology and calculations. The core of the board was milled out of foam core with CNC machine, on this point is no comparison any more with hand work and precision! The decision was right! The board will be laminated in the rocker table in next days, so keep this space for future news! Then on the water to push this stick to the limit! Looking forward and I will be back!