Peter Lynn ARCHIVE
While in the USA in late 1987, John Waters took me out on a beach with a Flexifoil in strong wind for a jumping and dragging session, opening my eyes to the possibilities of using kites as sail replacements on land, water, snow and ice.
I arrived back in NZ with an old sky diving parachute re-rigged as a two-line kite called Adam, and on a mission.
We already made 2.5m span 2 line delta stunt kites called Excaliburs which were excellent traction kites in the very strong winds common most afternoons at Lake Clearwater where we had a holiday Bach.
Pete used one for kite water skiing on Lake Clearwater for the first time in, I think, 1988.
By 1989 we were making 5.5m span delta traction kites.
They had a tendency to luff if not flown carefully but had lots of pull, good lift/drag ratio and a fair amount of intrinsic de-power from tip twist off. They were used with most of our early boats and, with Adam, for various kite water skiing adventures- including from Takapuna to Rangitoto Island (Adam) and across Auckland harbour from Tamaki to Devenport.
For kite buggying (from March 1990) we used stacks of Excaliburs until the development of the Peel ram air inflated two-line 'foil later in 1990.
Peels were an instant success, eventually made in sizes up to 10sq.m, and remained popular for more than 15 years- a long run during this fast-changing era. Their design was simple- just two flat panels joined by ribs with a reflexive trailing edge to reduce luffing,
But by 1995 they were losing competitiveness to four-line traction kites in buggy racing.
The Paua, my first attempt at a four-line traction kite was not successful but the next one, the NGen with fully shaped panels, was competitive (though quite violent) and remained so almost through to the advent of 'foil kites with de-power around 2010.
In 1997, in a break from tradition, we developed the CQuad series of traction kites. These are single skin kites with a light flexible carbon rods chordwise and in their leading edge. CQuads have little de-power but are very efficient kites, competitive in buggy racing and even quite popular for kite surfing for a few years. There are still some in use by diehards in 2024.
From the early 1990's it was clear that Bruno Legaignoux's single skin curved leading-edge kites stiffened with inflated tubes (called LEI's) were the future for water based kite traction because of their water relaunchability. This concept was slow to realise its potential though, opening a window for ram air inflated alternatives. These took two forms:
Two and four line bridleless closed leading edge ram air inflated "Arc" kites developed by PL Kites from 1999. Arcs can be water launched, have excellent lift/drag ratio (upwind efficiency), quite low lift coefficients (not very powerful for their size), and not much de-power. They auto zenith; climb to their highest point and fly there stably in the absence of control inputs. Arcs became popular with kite surfers and were developed in many styles up to 22 square metres but gradually lost out to LEI's after 2005 as further development of LEI's substantially improved their de-power.
And closed leading edge bridled 'foils. My offering in this category was the Waterfoil, made from 2000 to hold a place in the market until Arc development could catch up.
In subsequent years closed leading edge 'foils have been developed (not by me) that have very substantial de-power and high lift/drag ratio. These have made possible the amazing new sport of foil boarding.
Back in 1987, I never in my wildest hopes imagined that the combination of a high performance de-powerable 'foil kite in combination with a hydrofoil supported board would be usable in my lifetime let alone that by 2020 this combination would be faster around the buoys than any other sailing craft excepting Americas Cup 'foilers and a very few similar craft.
Peter Lynn, 2024
