RobB Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 I wish I had pictures !!! I took my 17' Grumman canoe for a 4-5 mile sail (using a Power Sled 24) across the harbor yesterday with my wife & another friend. AWESOME !!! We were doing 5 knots, easy. Fully loaded with all our beach stuff and a case of beer. You should've seen the looks ! So now that I've seen that light, my next stroke of insanity is to hook a kite surfing kite to the nose of the canoe, so we can do more than down wind travel. Any advice ? I have a 12 meter kite that I'm planning to use, and I figure I'll be able to hook it to a cleat in the nose, and steer from there. Has anyone done this ? Maybe I should just use my harness and sit back ? Any ideas from experienced kite people would be appreciated... ~Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Might be good to have some way to "kill" the kite, should the power get out of control at any time... Example, an extra line tied to a loop on the bottom edge of the kite... If it gets hairy, you can haul that extra line hard and collapse the kite, killing the power. Safety is paramount. We want you to keep on flying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backspin23 Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Dude that is awesome, i bet it's such a blast. are you able to tac back up wind? we want to see some pics next time you go ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windofchange Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 We have a couple of people here that do kite-canooing??? quite regularly. One thing that you may want to look into is a sea-anchor. What this will do is help increase the drag on the canoo or kayak so that you dont catch up and pass your kite while you are riding. You can get a ton of speed on those things and it is very easy to pass the kite if you are doing a down wind reach. With a power kite you can get some pretty good upwind. The kites of choice are the NPW series or the Peter Lynn twinskins. The reason these are perferred by the pilots in our area is that they are super simple to collapse if needed and are easy to store away if you need to pull out the paddles. Keep the kite from getting 90 degrees of you or you will be pulled off the side of the canoo. If you can add in some extra long fins on the bottom of your canoo it helps with the upwind tacks as well as gives you better stability. Start out with a smaller power kite and work up as the wind permits. Make sure you are familiar with all the safety gear on the kite and can dump the kite when necessary. Also make sure you have plenty of personal safety gear too - helmet, life jacket, etc... It is pretty amazing to see one of these guys here cruising across the lake with only a foot or so of the rear of the kayak touching the water and the entire nose skipping across the waves. 25 - 30 mph is pretty easy to achieve if the winds are right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Thanks for your inputs on the matter. The call to safety is sobering, but has been heard. We were just using paddles as a dagger board and rudder, I need to fabricate more permanent solutions. There was really no way to tack upwind using a kite that you can't change the angle of. It was kind of like a sailboat with just a spinaker. Using the four line kite surfing kite should solve this, and also make in-water launching easier. If you've ever pulled a big kite out of the water, with a drouge bucket tail, you know what I mean. I'll keep yous posted... ~Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ant man Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 ive seen guys use kayaks with rudders built in it looked pretty fun to do i did hear of peter lynn making a buggy like setp called a kite cat it has a buggy frame with hobiecat type floters as for the kayak kiters they are here at the beaches once in a while and it loooks like fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted July 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 ive seen guys use kayaks with rudders built in it looked pretty fun to do i did hear of peter lynn making a buggy like setp called a kite cat it has a buggy frame with hobiecat type floters as for the kayak kiters they are here at the beaches once in a while and it loooks like fun I've been thinking of getting a true sea kayak with the built in rudder, or maybe even an old Hobie cat with no sail. I've seen videos of guys on a Hobie doing like 30mph with a big kite pulling them. Check this out... http://www.kiteboat.com/kb_videos.html Take care... ~Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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