A friend is looking at buying a Laser Vortex and has found one but it has no asymmetric fitted, does anyone know if the asymm kits are still available to buy and where from, how easy are they to retrofit and a guesstimate cost.

Thanks for the help

I think the class association sells them, but I cant remember the price.

http://www.sailvortex.org - Http://www.sailvortex.org  for info

I've got a non assy vortex at the moment and have just bought the assymetric kit.

(you get alot for your money) the kit cost me £1044 for a medium spec one but the prices range from about £950 to £1300.

The kit is known to take 4 hours to fit (you do get a well illustrated guide).

If you need any more details contact Keith Escritt via the vortex assosiation website and he'll sort you out.

... if you look on the list of pages on the left hand side of the screen there is a contact us link, on there is the people you need to contact. Keith (the chairman) is the man you need to contact about assy kits !

Anyway, it stops anyone posting on there because it doesnt want random stuff up not about vortex's!!

Hector = Keith Escritt

Jack Sparrow:

ive been with keith (hector) for an hour tonight he's asked me to let you know that if yourself or anyone else is looking for infomation on anything vortex relatated you can contact him by sending him a PM.

he's currently away untill sunday evening so wont be able to reply untill then.

(i hope ive got this right keith)

Cheers Jon

hey

does anyone know if the kite is a 29er kite as i understand that they have the same area is this true? or do they have a different cut?

as i am looking to fit one in the near future, as i am a student im looking to do it for as little money as possible, so could i us a second hand 29er kite instead of a brand new expensive one?

thanks

Hi Jack Sparrow / FireballNeil

I'm sorry to hear that you've tried unsuccesfully to contact me via the class association site. It appears that an old email address (my ISP went bust) was the problem. That's now been fixed by our webmaster so if there's anything you want to know please get in touch via the site .

FireballNeil - RE your freinds interest was in an asymmetric kit - here's some information on that:

I sort out the Vortex asymmetric kit for the association. The kit includes:

• Carbon chute custom made by Winder
• Carbon bowsprit from New Zealand - via SuperSpars
• Custom launching Frame (V light and strong) by manufacturer of prototypes for Orange Mountain bikes in high grade tempered Aluminium.
• 15m2 Kite developed by the Class and Hyde - silicon coated.
• Best fittings for job (So a mix of Harken, Ronstan, Holt and others - not just the compromise fitting a single supplier can offer).

The kits cost around £1000 (slight variation mostly due to choice of ratchet blocks). The most popular choice costs about £1050.

Please contact me for more information such as the specification list (with options) the fully illustrated fitting guide (shows what's involved). and any other advice you / your friend may need.

Apologies again that you weren't able to contact us previously and I have sent a PM to each of you with more contact details..

Hector

To cut the cost of development we used whatever we could beg or borrow - starting with a 12.5m2 kite then a 13.5m2 (from L2000 / Stratos I think). Eventually we realised that bigger was best and borrowed an old 29er kite. However it's a very different cut. The 29er is sheeted by the crew from near the shroud. The Vortex needs to sheeted by the helm as the shroud is way to far forward. The shape is therefore considerably different. The class also decide we didn't just want a 'running' kite  and according to Hyde the Vortex design builds on their experience of MPS and RS700 kite shapes to deliver great broad reaching speed and power whilst being capable of tight reaching (at least in lighter winds). Whether that's true or not, the finished article is certainly fast and damned good fun.