Trying to come up with the best way to do a deep water set-up and launch.

Build a line winder/ launcher...... will need to have the lines attached / then inflate (Arc) let drift away from boat while the lines play out.

Looked at the turbo launcher, not to sure about this, anybody have one or used one?

http://www.kitelauncher.com/launch_tools.php

One idea I have is to use 4 1/2" PVC pipe, cut a slot, put in bar, have the whole thing where it will rotate w/ crank, wind the lines onto the pipe with kite attached. no twists.

any good ideas for making something similar?

I've yet to try it, but it sounds like a great plan.. One of the guys on arcusers said he sewed velco tabs on the spar pocket about a foot from the leading edge lines. Inflated the ARC and pull the steering lines back and velcro it all together. That will keep the kite in the taco position while you let it drift. Once your lines are all sorted, yank hard on the steering lines to bust them loose for the velcro grips and relaunch as you would after a crash. Seems like a great way to get everything situated before the kite opens up and produces power with lines still wrapped on the bar.

I have a turbo launcher as well sitting in my basement. Haven't tried it yet. Seems like it would work ok, but I bet paired up with the velcro idea it would be even slicker. Someday I should try it, but I can't see why it wouldn't work just like the launch assist tab does.

the fewer gadgets you have to handle the better .

from a boat (ski boat not an 80ft yacht with a fat transom deck), lets say a lake .

-fill the kite , without getting it too wet INSIDE, not impossible but an education moment to moment . remember you'll have WIND blowing this thing around if you intend to ride! could be a little chop, boats gonna be bobbing, kites gonna be whipping with the lines attached.

- clammed to drift as lines unroll from bar ends ...this would have to be tidy and quick. lot of dry practice to know exactly what snags to avoid.

- you are gonna need breeze!

- velcro on the tips that can the snatched apart by mainline tug, but not open prematurely. not essential but favorable

first practice step - keep bar and lines on kite and go! pack to unpack to launch, lines perfect everytime. if u can't do on land , ain't gonna happen on the water . final test set up to go.. fill & DON"T WEIGHT THE UPWIND TIP. clam it, lay it out, what ever works for you. hook in and back the lines off as fast as you can!AND launch! it will lay still a little better on the water but timing, input and ability to get it all out and UP will be the same.

the fill will be the limiting factor.

Practice Practice

One of the biggest problems with the turbo launcher for locals ( it's a local inventor ) was , what to do with it once your kite is launched. Folks were constantly losing them.

the video above is slick, but the technique will not work with arcs due to their lack of bridle

but if you have a boat the turbo launched is nice device. I imagine you could make it a while lot smaller and attach to yoru harness with a small line so that it would get out of the way after launch.

I'm gona have to try something. Knowing how much fun the 19m can be on land I bet it will be a hoot trying to set it up from a boat.

My PVC winder would work but dunno if I'm going to go thru all the trouble.

Ther velcro for the tips is a good idea.

A high speed inflator would be nice also, one of those battery opperated blowers, leave the zipps zipped, and inflate at he intakes.maybe

I can't imagine trying to setup a stock arc on water. maybe it you had a near zero weight prefiller and assistance to get the back edge off the water properly, but getting and arc up from a bout would be a feast in itself.

I have a large back deck, no areas to snag the kite, I hope. But if it blew onto the windshield, too bad.

I can lay half the width in the water and the other on the boat to fill. Fold it with lines already attached and let it drift away.

I'm planning on staying in the boat till I get it up. Would probably attach the CL to one of the pop up cleats to bring it to Z so it wouldn't pull me out.

Then get the board ready and hook in. Maybe just slide off the boat to start and might get in the water to start.

I wont be commited by staying in the boat, if I can get it flying then I'll commit to the water. When I fall, the boat will have a driver.

I know how much a pain kites can be on the water. Had a few attempts with kayaks and kites. It can't be that bad,,the lines hanging on everything and you cant do squat sitting in a kayak.

Inflate on land, park it at the zenith and sail out in the boat :dunno:

LOL, Where you can touch land you can also touch tree's.

Man,, there are some killer places when the waters down or where they usually keep the water level but this year its up, way up. Last year it was down like 20 something feet, you couldn't even get a boat in.

I may be talking to much chit and dreaming. Just being there when there's wind and having everything ready will be tough.

... if you could stand in the water, you may be able to drift launch without gadgets ...

I've thought of doing a drift launch with an Arc just to irk the local "expert" who has some pretty standard views of closed cell foils (my brother has a Flysurfer Pulse and he told him that once it hits the water he's done). My thought is to do a sort of modified parapack with the kite. Instead of winding it up like you would with the lines all even though, have the kite layed out like you are filling it and start winding the upwind lines first. So basically start winding the two lines that are loose. Once they are tight, grab the other set and finish winding normal. Once you get close to the kite either bring the downwind tip of the kite over and finish winding or just lay the extra line inside the kite to be folded up kinda how a Flysurfer bridle is wrapped in the kite. I haven't figured which way would be best because I haven't had a chance to try. From there, just make sure the lines don't get tangled and roll er up.

When you go out to launch on water, or for that matter land, lay it out and fill it up. Then slowly let it out and it's basically flagged out because the upwind lines will carry all the tension. Once you get to where the downwind lines are done, keep tension on the upwind lines with your hand and unwind the rest of the line so the kite won't launch until the lines are all off the bar. Then let the lines loose and with some luck it seems like it should be launchable like a typical water launch. Well, assuming the kite hasn't gotten wet. I can unwind my lines in 30ish seconds. Don't know if that's enough time for the kite to drift downwind so the lines don't tangle. Any thoughts. I would go out and try it, but some nice guy on the forum agreed to swap me a 15m Syn for my 10m Syn for the cost of shipping. They are crossing paths en route right now, so of course it's windy. If anyone is brave and decides to give my idea a shot let me know. If not I'll report on it when the new toy arrives.

I tried a few times to wind the lines on a launcher I made, didn't work, by the time I would get 10 feet from where the lines were attached, they were twisting pretty bad. I think it can be done tho.

With the turbo launcher videos, they never have the lines attached to anything while winding.

A thought was to put barrel swivels at the attachment point of the kite and then it could twist all day.

I have done the pack up with the lines attached to the kite, have a vid on here somewhere. I did it with the kite in a clam shape, but when I launched from this somehow the lines got crossed.

Kami's idea to launch then go to the boat is a good one, just finding the right spot for me is hard.

I'll launch and fly an Arc from the boat someday. Looking at a drogue device to make the boat drift with the bow pointed into the wind so the kite wont blow onto it while setting it up from the back.

Looking forward to hearing how your attempt goes Woodland.

So, my kite showed up on monday. Of course I went out of town for work on monday too. I got home today around 7:30 and bolted for the park. There was a light breeze. Not enough to fill the kite so I used my trusty Makita blower. I already have the batteries for my work tools, so I figured I'd pick up a blower for those so so days. Here's a link for those of you who might be interested.

http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Tools/ToolDetails.aspx?I...

It works great!

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I had a chance to try winding the kite up how I described earlier. It was a little tricky figuring the best way to even start winding because it seemed like the other two lines would be in the way. I can't describe how to do that part, so I'll wait to show it on a video. It's possible to do it without too much of a mess. Once I got winding it was pretty straight forward. When I got to where both sets of lines were tight with the kite lying flat I just grabbed the downwind set and kept going. Upon reaching the upwind side of the kite, I took both sets of lines and wrapped them around one end of the bar to keep them from unraveling and getting tangled. Then I finished winding the other set until the kite was in a clamshell.

I decided to see how it would be to unwind the lines with the different lengths. Again, pretty easy, you just have to mind the downwind lines, because they are looser and tend to just dangle instead of peel off. Once I made it to where I had started winding the second set, I grabbed a hold of the upwind lines and moved the bar so the lines pretty much unwound themselves. Then I let go of the upwind lines, walked backwards and she launched like a champ, no twists, no knots, no fuss. Partial disclaimer to all of this...it wasn't super windy. I can see how it might be a little more difficult to do this in winds that would actually allow for powered up flying, but it was more for proof of concept and to work out any snags in the process.

I am planning on heading to the park after work tomorrow with my brother, so I'm hoping he will give up a little of his flying time to do some video.

I hope you get the video. Sounds like a great idea.

I can't get this stuff off my mind. Thinking about a boat launcher everyday. Have a good plan for one but don't want to spring for the components with all the what if's related to it.

What I need most is time and wind.