Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Ratchet Bar

For all foil kite riders
Herman
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2090
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 7:09 pm
Style: My Own.
Gear: SLE, foils and C kites, TTs, Directionals, Landboards, Buggy.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 218 times
Been thanked: 528 times

Ratchet Bar

Postby Herman » Sat Apr 23, 2022 9:16 am

The threads endeavouring to clarify thoughts on mixers have prompted me to ask the question below:

Has anybody made a Ratchet Bar that allows on the fly adjustment of B and C ?

See dodgy art work below. The idea is that the top section would have two twist grips and a release button to operate two ratcheting drums. This would allow profile changes for upwind and downwind legs. I don’t follow racing but if I did…………
Would it be a waste of time and drag ? Just too much bar pressure (move drums to centre of bar) ?
Attachments
80A808BB-E75C-46B1-B20E-45100A4B0822.jpeg

merl
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 760
Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 8:43 pm
Kiting since: 1999
Gear: HF
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Sweden
Has thanked: 108 times
Been thanked: 113 times

Re: Ratchet Bar

Postby merl » Sat Apr 23, 2022 11:17 am

You mean flying the kite on 8 lines...! ?

Herman
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2090
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 7:09 pm
Style: My Own.
Gear: SLE, foils and C kites, TTs, Directionals, Landboards, Buggy.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 218 times
Been thanked: 528 times

Re: Ratchet Bar

Postby Herman » Sat Apr 23, 2022 11:47 am

Yes you would be flying the kite on 8 lines. If you were flying it on 12m lines that would be 96 m of line compared to 80m of line for 4x20. Taking out camber for the upwind leg and putting it back in for downwind.

You could of course take the B to the chickenloop with or without adjustment, or various other permutations. Too late in the day for me to bother with such things, but I am a little surprised not to hear of something similar from racing! Just shooting the breeze really, (offshore winds for days here)……….

Kiter_from_Germany
Medium Poster
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:39 am
Kiting since: 2014
Weight: 110
Local Beach: Northern Sea, Netherlands
Style: intermediate Twin, Beginner Foil
Gear: Tubes: North Reach 8, 10, 12, 15m
Gear: Anton MTrain, china foil and others
Brand Affiliation: none
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 16 times

Re: Ratchet Bar

Postby Kiter_from_Germany » Sat Apr 23, 2022 4:42 pm

Hi Herman,
had my thoughts about that during my hundred of tweaking hours on the beach with my old chinese foil kites.
My personal result was, thats impossible with a ratchet configuration.
Reason is the little margin for errors in mixer adjustments:
Compare exp. 0,5-1cm adjustment (b/c Delta typically) to the length of lines 12m (1.200cm), one can see that every inhomogenuity in the lines or even slightly different wind loads will disturb your setting (too) much.
I used knot ladders above mixer's connection points, to make a change possible with at least reduced effort, but I never managed to change something in flight.
Maybe someone genious with a RX controlled device (must be light?)?
🤔

BWD
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:37 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 81 times

Re: Ratchet Bar

Postby BWD » Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:54 pm

Do it with a fifth line instead, if you can?
Simpler. Slingshot and rrd lei kites did this 15 yrs ago.
For a bit i used a fifth line running through the bar to a pully just above the cl then back to a cleat on a floating collar that rested on top of the bar. This made the 5th line automatically tighten when pushing the bar away, and also reduced bar pressure. The fifth line could be tuned to flatten the kite early or late by adjusting the cleat. It was complicated, but maybe not more complicated than a mixer and other things you foil kiters deal with. The downside was flagging to 5th for safety was not reliable because it wasnt a straight run.
There is a post about it here, from way back in 2005-2008-ish. The rrd with similar setup was called “type wave” or “type wave 2”


Return to “Foil Kites”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 128 guests