The only reason those ac75's have trouble sub 8 knots is that their current rules say that they call off a race when the wind is that low. There are I think something like 3 pair of foils and a dozen sails something like that and their foil rules are some sort of "box" rule it can't be bigger than this box. You tell the ac75 boats that they need to race in sub 8 knots and are allowed 1 more foil they will be much much quicker than a kiter. So the only reason they have problems below 8 knots are the rules. The boats themselves are happy to foil in winds much lower if the box rule for the foils are relaxed a little bit. I like the idea that the reason they are so fast is a matter of scale. That makes sense. But it could be something else, I dunno maybe it's that billion dollars of research done on these boats. Throw that at kiters who knows how fast we could go.
I think a hidrofoil kiter could be faster; the wind is faster high above the water but the angle to the wind going upwind might be better with a sail?
The boats have a 26m mast and most kite racers are flying on 11m lines.
I had no idea their lines were that short. Is that really true in a race like this? Lines seem pretty long to me.
They’ve gone to shorter lines over the last couple years and it looks like that video is from 2016. Regardless, fastest sailing is with the kite wingtip just above the surface of the water, especially upwind.
I agree with others. There is no chance in the the ac75's design range, However take the boat outside that range and it would be a different story.
Try doing 40 knots in a 4m swell and 30 knots of wind.... the ac's would implode. But it would be glorious to watch until someone died.