Thanks for that. Loved the Moth!

Nice race, you gotta hand it to the moth guy with the foil, they are supposed to be pretty hard to handle.

Rattlehead said...

i8cats said...

Nice race, you gotta hand it to the moth guy with the foil, they are supposed to be pretty hard to handle.

I used to sail a moth skiff in the early 1990's ,pre foil era now that was a handfull..
Once you get some speed up an get up on the foils they are suprisingly stable..

The power to weight ratio of the kite board is pretty much unbeatable ,the kite kite points higher and has better speed..I think an intresting match up would be a kite race board and a nacra 20 carbon would be closer..I'd say bigger multihulls such a open 60 tris or even volvo 40 cats would hand the kite an ass woopin around a coarse..

and we can bring out the rhino on the race board /// not me shinn

Rattlehead said...

i8cats said...

Nice race, you gotta hand it to the moth guy with the foil, they are supposed to be pretty hard to handle.

I think an intresting match up would be a kite race board and a nacra 20 carbon would be closer

Hey i8cats,

Dont know about the Carbon Nacra 20, but I smoked a Tornado on all points of the compass riding the North 2010 Race LTD and using the Ozone Zephyr at Pinnaroo last season. Seriously wasn't even a competition.

I think a dedicated race board and race kite will smoke just about anything around a course with the exception of the big 60 foot ocean race skiffs.

DM

The kiteboard is one of the Alex Aguera race boards. His boards have been dominating course racing this year. They have 3 or 4 big fins. See www.alexaguara.com for all the details you'd want.

If you owned the America's Cup winning trimaran, would you want to go up against a USD $1100 kiteboard?

bjw said...

I have no idea what you are talking about, although how cool are those Moth Foils!

open 60 tri's and monos among other things.

AKSonline said...

Rattlehead said...

i8cats said...

Nice race, you gotta hand it to the moth guy with the foil, they are supposed to be pretty hard to handle.

I think an intresting match up would be a kite race board and a nacra 20 carbon would be closer

Hey i8cats,

Dont know about the Carbon Nacra 20, but I smoked a Tornado on all points of the compass riding the North 2010 Race LTD and using the Ozone Zephyr at Pinnaroo last season. Seriously wasn't even a competition.

I think a dedicated race board and race kite will smoke just about anything around a course with the exception of the big 60 foot ocean race skiffs.

DM

Kites get slaughtered by windsurfers on race gear in the ocean, or even in chop.

Absolutely slaughtered.

kimpa said...

"Kites get slaughtered by windsurfers on race gear in the ocean, or even in chop.

Absolutely slaughtered."

What complete rubbish - a race board for a kite is basically a windsurfer board and a kite is not stuck in one place. Maybe a racing windsurfer against a guy boosting waves but not a racing kiteboard.

Do you seriously disagree??? Maybe you're just making this up based on what you wish was the case.

Not trying start another kite vs poley thing, but the speeds of windsurfers on race boards compared with kiters on race boards are not even close. You need to get a grip on reality. The boards are not remotely similar either, and nor are the physics.

The guy who won the Lighthouse to Leighton race on Saturday won it by miles, literally. He himself said he was averaging 20-25 knots, and his time was over 24 minutes!

The windsurfing record for the same crossing is 19 minutes, set years ago, and decent poleys on race gear average close to or over 30 knots in the ocean, with peaks in the 33s.

I am by no means one of the fastest poleys out there, but I sailed out to the leading kiter in the Rotto race, gybed far downwind of him, caught him while pushing upwind and then cruised the last km along side him with one hand on the boom, and weed on my fin.

This guy is one of the fastest in the world isn't he?

Kites are by far and away faster than poleys on perfectly flat water, but anywhere else they are not fast at all, they're slow.

Poleys are pretty fast, but nothing can touch the big multis; L'Hydroptere, Banque Populaire etc.

So if poleys are faster in the ocean, why exactly?
Maybe because the power source is more in front of the rider, which gives some lift at the nose of the board hence making it easier to smoke over chop..
Just a guess from a non-poley.

I've seen latest reports , that the kite race boards are now quicker around a course the a formula windsurfer( this is only fairly recent ,maybe last 6-12 months)..the kite boards are recording up to 18 kts upwind in board speed and 30-35 kts downwind ( on gps) .The kite guys are also trying to asshole the windsurfers out of the 2016 Olympics..[}:)]