Capsize recovery

Hiya

this weekend went sailing, was on the trapeize and had the very problematic kite up. wen we had a knot it all went pair shaped.

anyway we went over and i didnt know what to do with the kite in the water. i packed it into the chute but took a while. Can anyone tell me the proper technique for recovering with kite up.

Matt

o thanks

we were in a horrid magno with a horrible spinnaker. It seemed impossible to pull down upright let alone on its side.

thanks for that.

we are hoping to get a 29er, the spinnaker drops look amasing on it.

Matt

Its very important to have a kite system that works smoothly, especially in windy weather or racing so spend some time sorting out the engineering by making sure it threaded properly and the ropes and blocks aren't worn.  I would say 9 out of 10 Laser4000s that have turned up at our club are not correctly rigged and the new owners complain about the difficulty of getting the kite up and down.  This is one of the factors that put people off the boat.

Its going to be even harder when the kite is wet and you'll find the kite is wet when you've capsised!

The technique for sorting the kite is to uncleat everything (it has wing-wangs) and start it going into the chute.  You don't have to stow it properly since with the haliard off it will not catch any wind.  With a 4000 its good to get the kicker off too.  By the way there is no air pocket under a 4000 and the thing is so keen to invert completely that the safest thing is to keep clear until you've got some weight on the board.