|
Jacobs Ladder Speed sailing under Flexifoil power.
In the late 1970's and on into the 1980's, British recreational sailor Ian Day became intrigued with the notion of using Flexifoils to power a sail boat. More than that, to make it go very fast. He experimented on snow skis powered by a modest stack of 6 foot kites and commented that it was the fastest he'd ever been over snow. His main problem was stopping! Jacobs Ladder became the name used on many of the craft kite-sailed by the two-man crew. |
|
On one occasion during the launch
sequence of the kites, excess power could not be reduced quickly enough and Ian became
the first sailor to stand a catamaran on end whilst under sail! Stacks of Flexifoils
can be very powerful indeed. |
|
History |
Home |
Archive |