Which kite is the easiest to re-lunch at low winds?

[cglazier]

don't forget to sit on your hydrofoil when you relaunch. It's the only way to get enough resistance against the wind.

Good point but there is another way. Put both feet on your fuselage under water. This allows you to tilt the board and get resistance and it is quick.

CG

[hongchew]

True but the reason I got a Cloud 13.5 was to go out in super light wind, and it's super super light wind when my Cloud can't stay in the air. So maybe it's my skills, but I find it really difficult to relaunch when the wind is just marginal, and worse than a struted kite that will at least drift, my Cloud will anchor down in the water, even when I paddle with my foil downwind, it will sit put and usually end up upwind of where I'm with my foil. I don't know how it'll ever "drift down wind".

Ha ha, for sure! Most of that was not cloud specific, but more low wind specific.

I guess it all depends on what you call low winds.

For a Rally, low winds is 10 knots.

For a cloud, its 6.

I had a 2015 Rally, liked it a lot, but like all slingshot kites, it was one of the heaviest meter for meter that I have ever owned. All that blah blah Ive spilt about cloud relaunch is in wind lower than a rally stands a chance. Sub 9 knots and they're pretty much dead in the water. I foiled with a 9m for over a year, and it absolutely needed that 10 knot gust. A cloud will go back up reliably as long as its not below 7. In rally flying winds the clouds are rarely more than a quick tilt of the bar and they're up, but if you somehow manage to really mess up, clearing the canopy in those winds is easy peasy. Pull in and hold one real line for a few seconds.

The cloud is ultra easy to keep in the air in 9 knots. Like you don't have to move it or even pay attention to it kind of easy. Where the Rally is gonna fall out of the sky the moment you take your eyes off it, and with those little wingtips it's a bitch to recover once it starts to fall. I guess you have to weigh easy relaunch with not needing to relaunch much at all.

In normal kiteboarding weather the Rally is a super quick relaunch. On the hydrofoil forum when your talking light wind.....

[alowishus]

only a foil will launch when the winds drop below 5 knots. I find the tube kites are much the same, has to be enough wind to get them up so it's better to never crash them in the first place. Once you know the inner center line outer rear line trick, it's more about how much the tube kite weighs than anything. If the wind actually goes to zero then swimming in with a foil kite sucks but if it's 5 knots or more you should be able to relaunch it as long as you don't have a pretzel.

Can you talk more about this center/rear lines trick?
I gues there is something to do with keeping the tension on the lines otherwise it may stall during a messed up turn.

I use the rear line / opposite side centre line method relatively often in marginal winds when the kite won't quite relaunch normally. You need a low Y.
Explained well in this vid:

[Janus]

Interesting waterposition on the hydrofoil / board.. 8-0
I would not stick my bare feet near the trailing edge of my mast or wing.. It will cut deep...

[marekmk]

Ozone 1 strut Alpha so far...........

[Regis-de-giens]

don't forget to sit on your hydrofoil when you relaunch. It's the only way to get enough resistance against the wind.

in marginal wind with a foil kite, I found out that it is not enough sometimes, and I get a better result by swimming backward ( with the Pulsion 15 m or 12m at least) ; physical but efficient

[Huib]

When a cloud gets water on the canopy or simply messed up in some other way, I pull in a couple meters of one rear line. When that tip becomes the most upwind part of the kite, wind will slowly begin to get under the canopy from that wingtip. Sometimes its pretty quick, sometimes its pretty slow, but it eventually will lift enough of the canopy off the water that you can let go of that line and let the kite drift to normal face down position. Sometimes you have to still be patient from here that the canopy fills properly and pushes the remaining water off the other tip, which will have a tendency to stick to the water. You can eventually relaunch normally by one rear line, rolling it up on a wingtip, or you can do a series of yanks on both rear lines to clear the last of the water and reverse relaunch. Even when the kite has flipped over and is completely flat on its back, I have found the one rear line move will get the kite to flip over face down and you go from there. In anything over 7 or 8 knots, I can usually get a cloud sorted from however it manages to end up.

Good luck. It takes a little practice. Pumping the kite pretty hard is helpful, but mostly patience and timing are the keys to reliable success rates.

Once you figure it out, its pretty easy to reproduce. I am using clouds to drift launch at certain spots and really like them for their easy slow drifting. With a little water intentionally put on the canopy and oriented right to the wind, they are very reliable drift launch kites, but it requires you know this key step of using one wing tip corner to begin catching wind and patiently clearing the canopy for launch.

I'm 100% with drift launching clouds over the last three years.

Thanks. Good instruction. I have now 3 Clouds D/E but in light wind I followed your instructions but I still have a lot of problems to launch the Cloud from the water. Also for reverse launch you need a lot of wind.
That's why I keep the Ozone Alpha 10m as my biggest kite and don't replace it for a Cloud.
The Alpha is so much easier to relaunch in light wind conditions then any other LEI kite I know. But keeping the Cloud with light wind in the air is very easy. You have to make a very stupid move to get the Cloud on the water.

[marekmk]

i have owned the clouds, the one strut north kites and the easier to relaunch in low winds is the One alpha

[FLandOBX]

Small point, but with the goal of battling the epidemic of "fake news" on the internet, I'll point out that there is some incorrect information at 2:15 in the Houston Kiteboarding video. The 2017 Cab Apollo reverse launches just fine. I do it all the time.

[matth]

I picked up a Naish Boxer and it is by far the easiest launching kite I have ever owned...