September 30

This past few days has seen us travel from Palma, where Balearic Boats have finished the installation of the WINGit system, to Andratx, where we met Stephan From WINGit and Jean-Yves the rigging engineer from Lagoon (who designed the deck fittings for the kite) for the training. We have already generated a fair bit of interest just at the fuel dock in Palma and the buoys in Andratx. People are really intrigued. A German yacht went past us at one point and called out, “How is the Wing going?”

Stephan came aboard straight after his arrival from Germany in the afternoon. It turns out he is actually the inventor/developer of the device. We started to look at the set up ready for the next day. It’s a quite complex and very clever system. We all had a practice with the trimming and letting in and out via the joysticks on the remote control working the lines. No kite attached at this stage! There are three clutches on the motor so if one winch fails you can unite all three to control the lines by inserting a pin. We think we have the rudiments of how it works but actually flying it will tell!

Stephan doing some basic explaining.

Getting our first look inside the box.

You can see the lines on their drums. Blue, Silver and Red. Blue is the starboard control line (sheet), Silver are traction lines and Red is the port control line (sheet). This is the right hand toggle on the remote.

Looking at the clutches.

Better look at the winches

From the potr side

Mast rigged

Stephan being a kite with me working the remote box.

Max having a go. Shaunagh was on camera but did her turn as well as Peter.