sky sails

[greenman]

If you've ever been to Dieppe kite festival, you might have flown a kite of the back of a ferry, I have.
Well how about a kite that could pull a ferry into Dieppe.
It looks like its finally arrived.

news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/17/content_7265817.htm

[Batchoy]

The official SkySails website is here: www.skysails.info/ and watch the video stream at the bottom right of the page.

When I heard about this on Radio 4 the other day, I could not picture how you could get a power kite to do (controlled) figure eights on only a single line; the video explains all. Plus the inflation vents appear to be surprisingly small in relation to the size of the kite, and they are talking about kites starting at 160m² and going upto 5,000m² in size, dwarfing the current world record holder by a factor of 5.

P.S. Do you think Santa would bring me the launch/capture mast for Christmas, if I asked for one, plus a fitting kit for the car. I've been a good boy this year, honest.

[Administrator]

Have you read your Aerodyne April 2007 edition there was a short bit about skysails in it on page 6

www.brightonkiteflyers.co.uk/Aerodyne/2007/April_2007.pdf

[greenman]

I knew I'd read about them somewhere before but couldn't locate the place.
Thanks Simon.