WHY KITES?
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Revolutionizing Sailing 'round the World!
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In addition to the obvious tactical advantage -- if your "spinnaker" is flying 3-5 boat lengths ahead, your boat will cross the finish line many seconds earlier than it might with the rig you fly today (most yacht racing rules consider a downwind finish to occur when the yacht's sail crosses the line, not her hull). While this may become an issue for future rule-making bodies, there are other tactical considerations as well. A kite-powered yacht is unlikely to suffer from blanketing by a windward yacht, as its rig is far distant -- and above -- the blanketing yacht's.
Conversely, an upwind kite boat can blanket a distant downwind yacht -- even a yacht offset from dead to leeward -- by flying the kite across and through the leeward yacht's "air supply." A KiteShip™ kite can fly faster than the yacht's hull in order to create a commensurately larger and longer-lasting downwind vortex street, or "bad air" disturbance with which to thwart the competition.
70 meters / 750 sq ft
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