Interesting Article
 

Some may have seen this before:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22788488...8287?gt1=10832

I think its funny because people act like this is like a new invention or something. Last time I checked they were called sailboats!

That is a pretty new concept, actually. I hear ya' on the sails, but it's a kite. :)
The wind up top is MUCH stronger than what a sailboat can get with sails down low. Plus, it takes up zero space on the deck. The kite also helps give a little lift to the hull. Pretty nifty.

Anyway, just a couple of years ago many people were skeptical that this would ever happen, so I guess it took some serious engineering.
That'd be a cool job, piloting the kite. "Ok dudes... prepare for a railey to blind!!" :)

Wow, if you save 1,600 hundred a day on fuel, that really adds up.
I wonder what the whole kite and rigging costs? It'd be easy to justify a quarter million, or more, right?
I know that's a "sales pitch" I use on people all the time about this sport (no gas bill) if they think a grand is a lot for a kite rig. Not that I sell people stuff, you know what I mean, though.

Yeah its me being a smart a$$, lets recap:

Attaching a big sheet like thing, to a pole on a boat, to make it move? Not a new concept.

Though I understand the differences and with what you added about the wind higher up and deck space it makes sense.

Plus think about how little modification it takes to do that to a boat.

If you really think about it though, this is how people came to america.

In addition to your sales pitch(or should I say sails pitch), I tell people how much i spend but when you do put it into perpective the fact that you can move faster than an ocean kayak, its like wakeboarding but without the cost of the boat, fuel, insurance, and there is the on demand factor (wind permitting) that you can just go do it, no gas to put in, no need to go to a boat ramp, and you don't have to rotate to give your buddy a turn to ride!

I'm with you on the sailboat thing Danny. Ha! Never thought of the deck space though.... i've definitely gotten hit in the head by a boom while coming about. Not fun!

When they double the kite size it should make for the world's most interesting kitemares. Looping kite capsizes cargo ship, entangles prop of coast guard rescue vessel.

I'll be watching real tv waiting for this one with beer in hand.

i bet len10 could loop it :confused:






















in about 10 minutes.....

... in a parking lot ...

if i read the article right... its a one line kite, that is controlled by a computer on the kites side???? interesting.... in 10 years we might be paying 5K for a one line kite with a nintendo controller on our end :)


i can see it now....

up up down down left right left right A B B A select start => triple kiteloop handle pass transistion to blind :)

Holy crap... Inferno, what game was that cheat to....?
I remember the sequence vividly but cannot think of the game...

Mike Tysons Ear off, Uh I men Punch Out! Right???