Ballooning on 14m kite in 8 knots and ripping!

[Balloonboy]

I was down at a local site recently with side-on winds. One of the kooks had a windmeter and rather than stand there like the Statue of Liberty, he put it atop a stick about 7 ft high in the sand.

It was reading 7-9 knots with occassional (very) gusts to 12.

I (175lbs.) was fully powered with a 14m kite on a 135 x 40cm board. Ok, the board is wide, but there is no way it was 8 kts.

8kts on the beach at 7ft elev. is not the same (true) reading as the reading 50m out into the ocean at 7ft- or really, 50m out at 27m high.

The wind reading on the beach is therefore a relative number and not absolute. That is, its not 8kts and no one should delude themselves that it is. Its semi-useful because I now I know I can sail in "8kts" (according to the meter) but it ain't 8 knots. I also know that when it picks up to "15" I can put on my 10m!

With all due respect to the posts from the 19.5 Contra (for example) sailors who are blasting in 6 knots- I'm happly you are out there but I doubt its 6, 8 or really much below 10-11kts.

That is all.

[mark van haze]

so true.

[loeuftok]

you are right, but most of the people who rode in 8 knots measured on their wind meter will think that you are full of sh@t.

A measure is related to the condition of the measure.

What does it mean?
simply a measure taken at one point at one time can be related to a measure taken at the same point at another time.
change the position af the measurement point, the relationship is broken.

What is true in one place is not true at another...
On our spot, when there is 10 knots under the coconut trees beside the beach, there is only 5-6 at the edge of the water, only 50m away.

So if two guys measure the wind at the same time at these two different places, they will get different readings.

measurement are a good thing if they are compared in a relative comparison system, not in an absolute comparison system.

[cleenjeep]

Sooo... what you are saying is that I might as well use my nose hairs to determine what size kite to fly?


And a weather channel?

[sgt. Salty]

I so agree. Reading company website claiming kites to start at 5 knots is so funny!

[zfennell]

Thats all well and good.
But what would you have people do?
No one knows the wind speed 30ft up and 100 yds off the beach.
They can only report the numbers on their meter, wherever they happen to be standing.

you read the number, look at the water and decide if your kite will work.

same thing for kite size....
flat or projected.
i doubt any two companies are the same.
you read the number, look at the water and decide which ones going to work.

-bill

[MadMick]

I have never seen a wind meter reading that made any sense !!They lie !!

What we need,is a meter with a memory that you can attach to a kite,maybe a trainer,any kite will do. Then you fly it to 30 m and take a reading.

The readings at ground level are probably affected by" ground effect" or friction or some other abnomoly that some of the aeronautical tech heads can explain.

[jester56]

if you use a wind meter all the time the reading you see may not be a true reflextion of the actual wind but after a while the readings become relative because you will no you can ride a certain size kite when the wind meter reads a certain wind speed i think it takes a lot of the guess work out of the equation.just my opinion

[Balloonboy]

I guess they still have a use but in SUBJECTIVE analysis- not OBJECTIVE.

In other words, like I said, if sailing the same spot the same day if the windspeed doubled from "8" to "16"- I'd think about changing down. But do I really need a gizmo to tell me that??

A different spot on a different day, you throw all that data out and start fresh.

For me they seem of so marginal value that I've never bot one. But hey, spend your pesos as you see fit.

BTW- different spot today showed 16-20kts and I was on the same 14m kite with 127 board. Now this made more sense to me.

[consumer]

haha maybe they could fork over the bill for wind tunnell analysis.