I know it's very early days in the evolution of kite racing, and love going fast myself.
Over time I have spoken to many kiters about board design, but normally the comments are about whats wrong with this board in this condition, but good for that condition....etc......
Being a little ignorant on the subject of design, it accoured to me that a high speed power yacht cat style has it all.
cuts through the chopp with ease, with a bulbous front end, and with some, the jet powered vessels have zero drag or protrusions. holding the edge with the rear of the hull, with a sharp cut away.
Just putting it out there..
Came across these images that got me thinking...
Boats with engines don't need to generate lateral resistance as the force from the engine is aligned with the direction of travel.
Sailing boats/kiteboards (unless running square) have a power source pulling at an angle to the direction of travel (most extreme when going upwind) and hence need to create lateral resistance (sideways force) as efficiently (max lift for min drag) as possible. This requires some sort of foil shape with a vertical component (fins or a hydrofoil at an angle).
For this reason the pics you offer won't work for kite racing.
Windsurf race boards have experimented forever with such bottom shaping but always return to simple and minimal combinations of shallow concaves and V with the fin (and centreboard) providing the most efficient lateral resistance.
Good comments DJ.
But why not give it a go.
The pioneers of drag racing beat physics thoughts of the time with forced induction
Select to expand quotekitcho207 said..
Good comments DJ.
But why not give it a go.
The pioneers of drag racing beat physics thoughts of the time with forced induction
I have to agree
For a race like the Lighthouse to Leighton beach, 3/4 reach straight line run to the finish line, could be the go. Worth a try anyway.
^^^ For a weed-infested 3/4 reaching course it could be worth a shot, but again, you have to get some lateral resistance and edging then becomes the way. Would this sort of shape edge more efficiently than a twintip type shape?
Absolutely agree that it can't hurt to try and it may have some applications. Let us know how you go.
