hongchew wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 8:42 am
I seriously doubt you can easily relaunch a Cloud after the canopy is filled with water, unless the wind is super strong.
Oh ye of little faith! Decent wind makes it a no brainer, light wind and your going to need a soft touch and patience, but kites are kites, and clouds are among the very easiest to get back up from the water. I find that funny because its precisely what scares so many away from the idea of strutless kites. Many of us have been jigging kites off the water from various states of disaster for well over a decade now. In the end, once you get over the look of a downed cloud, you can most definitely learn to deal with it. It's one step to clear the canopy, and from there they are lighter and more flexible than any of my other kites which makes them the best at relaunch.
I don't film much of anything. It's just not my interest, but can confirm, the worst situation is a load of water between the LE and canopy. Simply on top of canopy is no big deal. Patience is probably the biggest factor. Try holding the one rear line elevated to encourage that corner to act as a wind sock funneling air under the canopy. In light wind it will be slow, but the entire canopy with inflate much like a ram air and eventually it will catch the wind enough to open the trailing edge off the water. There is almost always still water on the canopy at the other end of the kite. If there is enough wind for the clear side to lift, you just have to be light with that rear line as not to flop the kite onto its back (have done plenty of times) and it will also slowly clear. If there is not enough for the clear side to lift, you are better off to jig the other rear line to get that tip to start catching wind. The goal is to get both tips up and the kite canopy clear with only the bit of water on the canopy more or less in the central part at the LE. If both tips open, you can yank both rear lines hard to clear the last bit of water from the centre of the kite. Again, this is not a 6 knot procedure, but doable in 8.
The double back line yank can also be used to clear water that gets between the LE and canopy. Wont get all of it, but most. That scenario generally only happens in waves/chop which means wind around here, so its not a low wind scenario for me.
To correct something form an early post. If you mess up and oversheet one rear line in light wind relaunch so the kite ends up flat on its back, pull in on front line, not one rear. This will expose more of the LE, elevate the line to get wind under it and the kite will flip itself back over and you get to start all over again!
Since working out these tricks to clearing water off the canopy, my cloud relaunch threshold is a good bit lower than it is for my 3 strut wave kites. Again, I'm not into chasing sessions below 10 knots, so once it dies down below 8, your chances are getting pretty slim.