In this blog entry we are going to talk about how to proceed relaunching a Flysurfer kite foil when it has fell on the water.
The first photo shows how the kite lies on the water surface once it has fell. In any case the most important thing is not to allow water to get into the kite
This would not happen accidentally, basically because the fabric of the kite is coated and is water repellent. This model is a Speed 4 standar model, and its size is 8 meters.
In fact, water will not get into the kite unless the kite would be laying on its leading edge -downwards- and in that case, if you would pull the center lines towards yourself , is the only way in which water could get into the kite.
According to the first photo, what should be done is to pull one of the steering lines. This would make the kite to turn slowly into the side of the wind window of the side line we are pulling from.
Once the kite has turn and is passing through the center of the wind window, the kite starts to fall backwards, which makes the kite to offer automatically towards the wind the right profile, then, aerodinamically and just by itself, the kite will start to launch without further help, in other words, it relaunches by itself.
If we want to help during this process, we should just pull the central lines over the kite bar and give a couple of pulls, this will acelerate the self launching process.
Now the kite lifts up towards the zenith. We can observe how the kite flies upwards and we can, with our hands on the kite bar, keep control of the kite in case it moves towards one or the other side of the wind window, but if that happens it will be slowly and easily to correct it.
Here a video of relaunching a Flysurfer kite foil: