No return point of a foil kite

[JoseTumaco]

I learned to hydrofoil with an Hyperlink UL 12 M. Its very frágile internaly, the baffles broke about 5 times in this years. Now after 2 years of use, 3 days a Week, it seems really OLD. Last time, in a nose chrash, about 20 baffles broke internaly. I normally repair them myself, but this is too much, what would you do with it? Repair? Of course I am going to buy another one very soon, but what should I do with the HL?

Thanks from Colombia

[merl]

Bummer. I guess you should not be buying a UL if you are crashing it hard. I have had large foils for 12 years or more starting with the first UL - the flysurfer silver arrow - and never had to repair them, but I don't remember ever crashing them hard into the water. I mean, these are not fast kites! The only foil I have blown out is a 3m Pansh where I slammed it in the blink of an eye before I had a chance to get used to the speed.

[Foil]

I have the hyperlink V1 and V2
V1 is in ultra light and the V2 is now just as light as the hyperlink V1 Ultra light, the V2 is now only available in the new V2 super slippy lightweight cloth which is defo more water tight and airtight than the V1
the baffles are fragile on the V1, I agree with that, and a good hard slam will snap a few thin white internal connecting straps, which as you know can be seen straight away as the shape is a bit blown out where the cloth strap has broken/snapped, easy to fix and I believe using Tear aid to do the permanent repair make this joint much stronger.
after crashing and repairing once then it taught me to avoid keeping any line tension on the bar when I am about to go into a bad uncontrollable crash, and as my V1 hyperlink ultra light is a 5mtr, then it's one that I use in the strong winds and waves, so more likely to be crashed.
took out my 7mtr Hyperlink V2 out last week in mad conditions and got lofted and spun around into a head first crash, kept hold of the bar but remembered to push it right out to the bar stop, the kite hit down softly nose first, reversed it off the water spun it round which shot me forwards and then kept the kite above me to check for any tell tale little signs of a snapped baffle strap, all good, but of course if I had powered the kite in good a hard then I would expect to damage at least one strap, but better a strap you can fix yourself than busting open the main outer skins which would mean a repair loft job.
I will pull out the baffle cloth and straps on a section of my V2 and compare the quality with my V1 baffles just to see if they are different,
no sunlight can get to these parts so they can't age and weaken as far as I understand, but maybe they can? thinking unlikely.

[dave1986]

Please could you explain what is meant by baffle straps? is this an internal diagonal piece? or something else?

[Foil]

if your hyperlink is getting very soft and soggy too quickly, as it may well be after so much use, then consider a waterproofing treatment that works well,
I have used fabsil gold (uv protection in the Gold version) 5ltrs around £25 off ebay/amazon,
one kite takes around only one Ltr for a 11mtr kite, easy to do.
Pick a warm day with little wind, hang up the kite by the top Y bridals and use a clothes line pole to push up the line to suspend the kite well clear of the ground, then use a hose pipe to thoroughly wash and clean the full kite, I do this early morning so I can then let the kite fully dry, to help this process I insert the nozzle of a hairdryer with a rose attachment fitted into the back zip and trap the dryer in place by shutting the zip on it to trap it, you can of course use one of the two little zip entries for the 5th line snow kite conversion to trap in the hairdryer, I leave the dryer on low speed which is enough to inflate the kite and dry it very thoroughly.
once very dry and clean inspecting all seams for tiny bits of trapped sand, then I get to work brushing on the Fabsil,https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=fabsil+gol ... u9k20a23_e
using a very wide new brush, so quick and easy to do, the cloth goes very shiny wet as you apply so easy to spot where you have maybe missed a bit, I keep the kite inflated to make the job easier, after the kite has dried the wet look fades (shame really) then maybe 3hrs later I go over the kite ends again as these seem to go softer first as the kites gets more abuse at the tips from rolling up too tightly and sand wearing the cloth from weighting it down.

Try it
It definitely works, water just runs off the surface so easily after treatment, kite will float longer before getting soaked, dry more quickly after a rain shower, and hold air better when landed on the beach. cloth feels and looks slightly better better as well, at a tiny cost per treatment whats to loose?
tip- wear old shoes when applying, as the silicone ingredient drys on your skin and waterproofs your feet.

the treatment adds very minimal weight as the thinning ingredient evaporates away, I did read up a lot before applying this fabsil gold and the boffins say that as you use the kite then you normally abrade the covering in normal use and over time wear away any surface treatment the manufacturers apply when new, therefore reducing the weight very slightly, so adding this treatment back to the kite then you are only renewing back to the original weight.

[Foil]

Please could you explain what is meant by baffle straps? is this an internal diagonal piece? or something else?

I just call them straps, they are the thinner width white cloth upright connections holding the top skin to the bottom skin,
they look like thin width straps that are maybe 20mm wide in the middle section of the "strap"
and it's at the very thin middle section of this "strap" they can simply snap, and the reason why they are so easy to fix as well

never damaged one on the chrono though, and I must have hit one of my v3 chronos down hard at sometime.and I only use ultralight

[Foil]

Well! look at this
Just pulled out the baffle strap parts from my Hyperlinks, V1 ultralight in blue
and V2 in Orange
No wonder the V1 baffle "strap" parts snap ! They are so much narrower than the same "strap"material on the V2,
And the narrower strap edges are weaker as slightly frayed which will be the point of tear failure.

[Foil]

V1 owners better keep this handy

[Mossy 757]

what should I do with the HL?

• Keep it as a parts kite.

• Repair it and sell locally to someone getting started with full awareness of its defects for a great price.

• 'Professionally' (whatever that means) repair it and sell it to someone not-locally for a fair price.

• Sell it to someone in northern Europe to use as a snow kite where water relaunchability, light-wind stability, and absolute performance margins are less of an issue due to standing on solid ground.

• Recycle the materials into something else because the kite is no longer fully functional in the ways you or any subsequent buyer would value.

[Peter_Frank]

It seems weak yes, looking at the experiences and pictures.

But you used it for learning, and if learned experienced these day, you will never crash it from now, so if used for hydrofoil and marginal wind only, it should hold up just fine.

Peter