Kitamaran Concept, Entry for the Quicksilver Desing Innovation 2007 contest Options

[Daniel Julier]

CONCEPT KITAMARAN

Inspired by a friend's idea to go on a trip with his kite board I started thinking about other ways on how to travel using a kite.
Everybody that ever rode a board an the street, snow or water knows the great feeling one gets when leaning into a curve. My goal was it to design a new kind of water sports equipment that can provide both, an extreme board riding feeling for lots of fun and the opportunity of going on a journey.

 kitamaran_01.jpg ( 191.28K ) Number of downloads: 46


 kitamaran_02.jpg ( 213.81K ) Number of downloads: 28


 kitamaran_03.jpg ( 143.42K ) Number of downloads: 29


 kitamaran_04.jpg ( 174.71K ) Number of downloads: 31


 kitamaran_05.jpg ( 142.4K ) Number of downloads: 29



FURTHER EXPLANATIONS

Board / Suspension
The rider is partly standing (on the board), partly sitting. The board follows the movement of the rider due to a specially designed suspension system. Its main task is it, to provide the rider with optimum stand all the time and absorb shocks while riding under rough conditions.

Kite control
The Kite itself is fixated on a centre line. Two control lines on each side are attached to the kite. This makes it easily steereble by just pulling and releasing the handles. The height of the kite can be controlled by twisting the handle ends towards- or away from the body. In case of slipping from a handle the kite will simply collapse and therefore loose its power.

Materials
Boat hulll: stiff glass fibre construction
Soft seat: neoprene coated glass fibre lid with handles to remove it (storage room for kite and equipment underneath)
Board: glass fibre with soft neoprene inlet
Handles: metal tube with plastic parts (soft-touch coating)


...hope you like it

[carrera]

Very nicely rendered and designed!

I'm a kitesurfer myself, and i noticed that there's one thing missing; the power/depower control. This regulates the angle of attack of the kite (google angle of attack for more info) wich a.o. regulates the amount of power generated.

Maybe you should think about integrating this into your design, or did you already?

[Lilith]

i like the design, very nice layouts , i am not familiar with technicalities, therefore no crits very nice choice of colors and materials, great job

[grasshoper]

nice renders... do u use depth of field or making blur onto jpeg in ps ?

[MagicFlea]

Great work, with lot's of detail and nice renders. Great job

[DavidB]

really neat job indeed, no crit on the kitemaran itself since, like lilith, i'm no expert in those thecnical thing.
I would been interesting to see it with another background then the grey. you lost the kit in some image even if its red.

[yodesign]

Of course I like it! Lots of details, great rendering!

[***]

Sweet design, very refreshing!
I am probably not the best person to criticize ( only two boat trips and the second time I vomit! ).
But it looks like the pivot point when you ride your boat is on the small floater. So for me the boat would be better on the other way: You sit on the small floater and you are facing the big one (even if it doesn't look logic at first sight) just like the guys balancing outside of race boats when the wind is too strong.
Sorry if my explanation is not very clear.
We need a sailor feedback.
Great design beside this, only bikinis, sunblock and palm trees missing!

[SEANT]

...hope you like it

I like it a lot. Nice evolution of the Proa style. I don't see any rudder; is the notion that all steering will be accomplished via kite manipulation?

[cash68]

For the love of god spell check.

[SEANT]

For the love of god spell check.

To which post are you referring? If the word "Proa" is the issue, that is a style of boat hull.

[Daniel Julier]

Hey everybody!

Thanks a lot for your critics! Boards on the street and snow are actually much more my thing… I have to admit, that I have no clue if this kitamaran concept could work since my knowledge about kites is very little. Some of my friends are paragliding and others are kite boarding, but none of them could clearly tell me if it works or not. There seems to be a fifty-fifty chance.
I still have that dream to build and try it somewhere on a remote island… in my workspace under a palm tree… :-)

@ SEANT: It is indeed supposed to be steered by the kite. I have been thinking about a rudder in the beginning as you can see in the sketches below, but prefered the board solution which seemed to be much more fun to ride.

 funktionsprinzip_01.jpg ( 438.14K ) Number of downloads: 14


 scan_05.jpg ( 506.79K ) Number of downloads: 11


@ grasshoper: For the renderings I used real depth of field and not Photoshop. If you want to add that «effect» afterwards in most renderers (Maxwell for example) you can render the depth of field as an own alpha-channel. So you have a sharp image and an accurate depth of field effect as well after putting both together in Photoshop.

@ carrera: I had a quick look at »angle of attack« on Wikipedia. On my kitamaran the angle is adjustable by the position of the handlebars. (top tip towards you = less angle) It would help a lot I think if they would be longer. According to my experiences I made as a child when I was flying my self-made two-line kite (I know, that sounds ridiculous :-), it doesn’t need much strength to steer.

@ *** & DavidB: The beach feeling doesn’t come across at all in this renderings. Before I put it into my portfolio one day I’m definitely going to re-render it where it belongs: In the water!

@ cash68: I try my best!

[Cédric Blanc]

Cool design.
I have a few concerns however.
Centerboards or fins or the like. I can't see any from your renderings. They are essential if you want to sail upwind, you won't go anywhere without them. Hobiecats 16 don't have them because the hulls are deep V shaped.
Deep V means more resistance of lateral movement but it also means more wet surface area and therefore more friction in longitudinal direction. Also the angle of the surface compared with the flow of water means planning of more difficult to acheive with deep V hulls.
Modern windsurf are very flat, have long fins which means the can plane downwind and gain upwind equaly.
Right, now the concept of the kite on a catamaran or prao is excelent. It essentialy means you can have larger sail surface and less need for righting moment (Less keel weight and less hull width). So for that reason, I am very keen on the idea.
Keep up the good work!

[albentley]

Really well rendered and presented!

few points

I think it should be made more suitable for people who are less fit or maybe disabled as I don't see why any normal person would choose to sit down instead of stand up. For example with an big hull one cant jump, carve or wave ride which are most kitesurfers aims.

Maybe have a go with your friends kite and have a look at the lines set up which is used, I know someone previously mentioned about a depower line which is quite important but also you will need something to rescue it when it drops in the water. I know some of the new kites have a feature like this. As with normal kitesurfing if your kite drops you swim downwind... quite hard if your sitting on the cat.

also whats the deal with the spring board thing? Maybe just a strap to put your feet under might make more sense as in most modern sailing dinghys.

apart from those things well done and good luck!

[sketchyd]

your drawings look VERY FLAT.

its not cuz of the markering.
but cuz of ure line work.

there is no sense of line weight.

work on that :]

make it fun to look at.