Hi guys,
I fly the Drafts in 12/14/17 with a Naish Bar (Below the Bar Depower) and LWR Light Wind Relaunch System attached.
I plan on using it with the 2012 North Bar and Microloop/hook soon (and of course a LWR System from Naish attached)
If you have a Kite from Naish that supports LWR, has the LWR attachement attached and you ordered a LWR System (Basically a yellow line with a few loops woven in and a 4m extension (so you can use it with 20 and 24m line setup), a plastic pipe/ring of 1 cm length that goes into the end of the floater inside (to avoid the floaters getting ripped apart when you pull the yellow line) you can use the LWR with any 20 or 24 m bar (and if you use longer lines you lust need a longer own extension line)
I only have experience on snow yet, as I havent tested the Drafts in Water yet.
That the Draft is a great great Airstyle kite seems to be well known by now. He won the several tests for jumping height and hangtime, where he was about 20% better than the rest of the market (you can find the test in German kiteboarding magazin)
Some people however had issues with relaunching it (due to ib being a race/boosting kite and its long and thin shape) as easy as other kites in lower winds.
I had the same issues (but on snow most tube kites are a bit hard to relaunch by yourself), it kept staying on the snow, couldnt get it to relaunch in 6-10 knots, I had to be exactly 90 degrees to wind, let the kite roll on its back first, place it upwards in starting position by pulling a steering line, sometimes have it blown away thtrough its own lines when doing that)
UNTIL I attached the LWR system.
The LWR System is basically as stated above a second (yellow) "steering" (it doesnt steer the kite, ust is attached on the side of the bar too) line on the left side of the bar/kite, attached together with the blue steering line on the bar, it has a few little loops every 2-3m, so the blue steering line can be pulled through them, making the two lines apear as one and staying parallel. On the bottom you run the blue and yellow line through a 1cm plastic pipe/ring which is placed inside the floaters end, to avoid the line cutting through the foam of the floater (it happened to me as I first thought that ring is moving freely on the first 50cm of the lines).
The only difference to the blue steering line is, it is about 2-3 m longer and on top of the blue steering line it separates after the last woven in loop (about 1-2m before kite) and goes through a little round plastic ring on the wing tip which is attached to a 80 cm long rubber line, which is placed parallell to the wingtip (= LWR attachement) This is to always keep the yellow line under tension through the elastic rubber line so it is parallel to the blue line)
From that plastic ring it goes directly to the tip of the first strut on the left.
NOW HOW DOES IT WORK?
You just grab the yellow line and pull it - immediatly this will cause the yelow line to be pulled through the LWR atatchement ring and pull the kite/2nd strut together, changing its form in a way that it has much more wind exposure and power in the kite (back edge/strutend is pulled in, tip comes closer to the center, making the kite smaller and easier to turn)
The kite now immediatly rotates around its center and starts up directly (if you dont let the yellow line go quickly enough, directly into the power zone (which is up to 12-20 knots no big deal usually, even with the 17m)
It doesnt really matter if you stand in a wrong position, it will work in wind direction and 90 degree to it or anything in between.
Even a beginner can start the kite really easy this way. I could solo relaunch the kite in 6-8 knots on snow no problem and effortlesss, where I needed 10-12 knots and lots of effort before.
I always wondered why the lightwind kites in the naish videos had this yelow line attached and now I only wonder why Naish doesnt massivly advertise this brilliant thing? Made my life in low wind much easier, especially in snow I safe at least 30-60 min a day when I usually had to do all kind of things to get it to relaunch...
Now I can also use it for my sister when she starts kiting, as the draft is not difficult to fly, only difficult to relaunch
I could not experince any different in kite handling, steering, weight etc. I always leave the LWR attached on the bar.
I plan on putting the system on all my three bars - as between 6 and 20 knots it makes your life so much easier and above 20 knots you just dont use it if not needed (and dont feel it).
5 hints for the perfect Naish LWR experience:
1. Check if your Naish Kite supports LWR (Drafts, Parks and some more)
2. Check with the dealer if the LWR attachement with ring is attached already or in the neopren pocket on left tip (Parks etc. have it in a pocket, the draft comes with it attached already), otherwise get him to order one for free (had to do that with 2 out of the 3 Drafts - obviously because its a new kite - it was only attached to my 12, the 14 and 17 they had forgotten to attach it)
3. Order the LWR (about 100 Euro incl. shipping) directly at your Naish Dealer, tell them exactly the year/kite/line length
4. The little pipe/ring (that goes into the floater on top to avoid lines cutting through the foam of the floater - IMPORTANT!) has sometimes a bit sharp edges inside, just sand them down a little so the lines dont get worn out
5. Every Kite size is a bit different from line ratio/lengthes - you always need to adjust the LWR Line - do that on the bar/inside floater - hide the left over line length in the floater ( I pulled it through the floater and let a small 5-10 cm loop stand out at the end next to the bar of the floater, in case the yellow line ever gets to long and starts hanging too much I can easily readjust it (you can as well just cut it to the right length, knot/tie it next to where you attached the blue line on the bar extension lines and hide it in the floater too - ( the rubber line on top should be a few cm under tension (not too much - that will cause the kite to always steer to the left!!, reason is that depending on pressure in the kite the yellow line sometimes is shorter/longer and therefore not always parallel to the blue one - the elastic rubber solves that problem perfectly.
Have fun with the LWR - I think it is brilliant and just love it