THE KITESHIP™ PROJECT - CHAPTER 5 IN THE CONTINUING SAGA

Principals of the Kiteship Corporation have been working on the development of traction kites for marine propulsion for over 25 years. For many years we worked on kites with airfoils like wings, using a series of proa test beds, both in fresh water and on the ocean. A challenger for the America's Cup races recently contracted with us to develop a racing spinnaker replacement kite that would satisfy the strict rules of the 2003 America's Cup. We were successful in this effort, although the success came too late to be used in the 2003 America's Cup races. The present paper describes our work on this effort.