[quote=yurdle][quote=mummp]Hey Rob,
That's similar to what I have set up, only I have the mast rotation cleat set up aft of the shroud, not the downhaul. If you attach anything to the trap, you want to make sure it is long enough to reach the foot straps when trapped aft down wind with the kite up. It's easy for us to mount the downhaul just about anywhere, based on the conditions and kind of race.
The problem I see with your set up is you will have to reach between the hull block and the cleat to release the downhaul, which is difficult to do single handed from the wire in a blow. Now if that hull block were mounted to a bungee, it would work nice.[/quote]
Woot, thanks for the response.
I think the pic is a little deceiving. The block on the line is only attached to the white hook -- nothing on the tramp or hull -- with the downhaul running through the block. The downhaul terminates at the 'crew's' trap line shock cord (I don't have the crew trap lines installed) going through the main beam.
I can hook the hook to my trap ring going upwind. I can just leave it on the tramp, or hook to the shroud or something, downwind. The first problem I noticed was that trapped under spin I would uncleat the downhaul due to my height -- and I've never needed to adjust it under spin anyway (I'm new to kites, and not good enough of a sailor to warrant tweaking the main much with the kite up)
Upwind the only limit that having the downhaul block hooked to me imposes is I can't go so far that I hit the connection between downhaul and shock cord, as it won't flow through the block. From my tinkering on land I've only got about a foot of extra play, which I could lose by adjusting one side in and the other out a few times -- I can fix that with a longer line though. The height upwind looks like it won't accidentally uncleat the line, but if it does, it's back to the drawing board.
My goal with this is to play the downhaul when trapped going to weather in gusty conditions (ie 'sailing' in OK.) Playing the main doesn't seem to be necessary (at least playing it more than an arms length) and doesn't work all too well anyway on the I17 in big puffs.
I'm concerned that if I capsize and go flying that I'll break something (on the boat or in me) if I don't have shock cord in the system somewhere to break me lose. The line won't be hooked to me, but if it's hooked to the handle and I don't come out of the handle (seems to only be a concern in peter pan moments) I could hit the end of the downhaul with a lot of velocity... Come to think of it I could attach the block on the downhaul to the hook on the block w/ a short shock cord and that should break easily.
I'm a nubbins and appreciative of any insight. Thanks![/quote]
No HTML tags allowed (except inside [code][/code] tags)
