Hugh2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:17 am
Someone please straighten me out here. When I trim my kites for overpowered conditions, I am usually taking about 6 inches out of the front lines, maybe 9inches at max. Does this system allow for 6-9 inches of additional length to be added to the rear lines? And how do you regulate that if the depowering is by bumping the "knob"?
Hugh, great question and for most 1st time users this head scratcher gets solved pretty quickly once you're on the water and using the bar.
However, to address your question, on a traditional front line trim bar when you've taken 6-9 inches of trim out, you've actually only shortened the front lines by 3-4.5 inches as the trim line is a 2:1 pulley.
The R3 winder is 1:1 and offers 8 inches (21cm) of trim line adjustment or 16 inches of traditional front line adjustment.
The bar's mechanics are (intentionally) very simple. The winder knob is held under tension and at a 45° angle to the load by a bungee. This ensures the gear is always engaged and locked. Each quarter turn rotation of the knob to add power results in the gear riding up over a tooth and then snapping back into place to again lock it's rotation. By bumping or nudging the bar, all you're doing is relieving the tension on the knob to allow the winder to unspool. Since the winder is held in place by the tension, it quickly snaps back to a locked position.
In this way, the result is that the bar de-powers 1 notch with every bump. By deliberately holding the butt of your hand against the knob or by "karate chopping" the knob to add rotational force to your nudge, you allow the winder to unspool more aggressively for rapid depower.
Here is a basic line art drawing of the gear schematic looking down its axis of rotation, note the room at the top of the drawing for the knob to bump clear of the tooth:
- Screen Shot 2017-09-21 at 1.27.31 PM.png (18.43 KiB) Viewed 2346 times
It should also be mentioned here that the back lines are held under tension, which means even with slack back lines (kite down in the surf or rigging on the beach) the bar can still be safely depowered without concern of the line spooling out inside the bar and / or tangling. Finally, if the entire system fails, the bar returns to full depower, not fully powered up as with traditional bars.
John