Kite Depower

There it is, inflatable foot kites.. Quick somebody chuck cold water it looks too obvious..

I've done both in the past... I guess that hammering the kite right in would only work if it stalls completely, the boat slows down and thus the apparent wind goes back. Dump the jib and dump the kicker might be better options if they are good enough. But in theory if you have a fast boat generating loads of apparent then slowing down ought to help. But its amazing how much you can curl up a really good kite if the sheet leads are in the right place.

I also agree with Ian - the only time you struggle with the kite up to the mark is if the next leg is a good kite leg. Otherwise drop it every time. Another factor is crew's state of health/fitness: if you've got some toned hyper sportsman up the front who can whip the rag up and down in three seconds without taking an extra breath then *never* try hanging onto it. But if the forward hand won't see 45 again and only has enough burst energy for one hoist and drop per lap then you're better off struggling round the mark.

Edited by JimC - 17 Jun 13 at 3:45pm

The next leg promised even better so it was definitely worth hanging in there what is particularly annoying is an RS400 holding his kite (crew lard boy) I would normally expect to trash a 400 off wind given normal crew height/weight as it is these boys are given us a hard time this year, damn near nearly had us the other week it was only supreme tactical genius that avoided a drubbing, but they nailed us this week there was a point we couldn't even hold the bloody merlin for speed, something is clearly wrong. (We're just too small for the Alto dammit)

Edited by iGRF - 17 Jun 13 at 3:54pm

I've thought about lots of things, fireballs, kited icons, v3000's pies and elevated shoes..

Hmm I might not have entirely dumped that kicker thing, never really have fiddled with it much on the Alto of joy, wang it on at the start and leave it, unless it's really windy then I might think about it before the gybe..

Then the plate, surely if you''re trying to stay high, kick the plate and you'll just make more leeway.