I'm interested in doing some simple racing. whats the general layout for the course? and what is the best way to set one up.

thanks,
- DC

The experience we have is that the most important thing is the start and placement of the starting line contra wind-direction. The sailors stand in about 50 cm water, with about 15 - 20 meters between every sailor. If You draw a line from the first upwind top mark in the wind direction, you have the angel for the starting line. The sailors will then bee started one by one, and the first one to go is the sailor standing the longest way from the top mark. A person or boat is "going" along the starting line, starting the sailors one by one. If you run a number of heats, you can give the sailors different positions on the starting line in every heat. This will make the starting procedure much more safer, and the sailors do not have to look at the watch all the time.

If the wind is low, there must be more time between every sailor, so the person has to go slowly along the starting line. If the wind is high he has to go/run faster (it can be a very hard job to be "the starter" especially in high wind).

In Danish we call this start a "Hare-start" I don´t know what the term is in English.

We have sailed courses with 2-3 and 4 marks, and it really dosen´t mater. If the wind is low we use only a few marks, but we have always both an up- and downwind mark.

Hope the above description is understandable.

You can se pictures from 2 of the races in a earlier post "Cabrinha Kite Race" in Denmark.

BR
Steffen
Surf & Kite Denmark
http://www.surfsurf.dk

here the course of the PKRA race in Portugal:

This course takes about 20-30 minutes.



I recommend a course about max 25 minutes, if longer it is really hard on teh body!

But it is fun, so give it a try! But be sure...you will buy lots of new gear to beat your kiting buddies

hey,

so if we were to arrange this, does it require a certain amount of freestyle tricks too? WOuld hat be something one could include? Sort of a run, but you have to do and land a trick? Just to even the score a little?

I am considering trying to set up a few here? Maybe from Island to Island? Since the Maui -Molokai were canceled we were thinking Molokai Oahu..that would be a great run..but of course lasting several hours..

A

long distance is really tough on your body, and can bring guys into danger.

An about 15 min long race is a good distance.

If you put in obstacles and jumps, then it would be kite cross.

Course race requires no tricks!
Just speed and upwind!
So everyone can do it!

here the second course from Portugal!
It was a bit faster!

The layout of the Aber Kite Cup, Nord-Finistére, France, this July. Won by Bruno Sroka, I took the picture from his blog.

The best racers took 15-17 minutes to finish the 2 rounds.

wow, that looks excellent!
Interesting would be to know, if there was wind behind the islands?

Reminds me of a race we organised recently here, hey toby?
Tactic and seamanship would play a big role too.
Nico

Yeah, the wind was around 25 knots gusting to 30, so we had enough wind even behind the islands which are rather flat and without much vegetation. The race was very varied, we had chop up to 1m on the open water while behind the islands and rocks the water was completely flat and the transparent turquoise kind that is typical to northern Bretagne. Add to that some currents, a bit of sunshine and than an incoming shower, and you get a mix that I found really (even a bit too much) exciting for my first race! I'm definitely hooked...