Ships and kites

[mbzporvida]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AvBkQV1_9s[/video]

[Kyle]

Holy cow. I would be fearful of a wind shadow and definitely not sail behind, but wouldn't have expected the kite to get sucked upwind from the vortex shedding, especially given how light it looked. That would have been scary!


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[pipedragon]

Yikes, so lucky the kite took off again without getting tangled. Had this happen one year flying behind the South Tower of Golden gate bridge but I lost the kite to the rocks.

[Aloha]

Years ago, I've been this guy before at Crissy ... It was the same kind of dead air from some kind of up-draft / eddy. It eventually turned into a having to fly in with the kite inverted situation.

One of my biggest warning for kiters at Crissy is never cross in front of an inbound ... even with a ton of lead space. The wind shadow goes a lot further than you think - and it's a lot less stressful to get caught behind one struggling with your kite down because of a weird eddy on its tail than in one's path because of wind shadow on the inbound.

If you are for some reason broken down in front of one, I'd probably recommend disconnecting from your lines and trying to swim / staying on your board or using it as a kickboard to go toward one of the edges of the path.

I've seen a tanker "hit" something small before and it actually just sort of drags it along the edge of the boat to the outside (probably due to the mass of water displacement), but being attached to lines would probably considerably increase the risk of something going seriously wrong or being pulled under. Basically if a boat is hit by one, small debris typically falls off and is swept to the side, but the mass / anything that gets pulled down is probably pretty done for

Best advice is just take your time and stay on the other side / outside of its path until you can go behind it ... Have fun, be safe!

[victor]

i've fallen down in front of large inbound vessels art crissy, twice. (you'd think i would have learned the first time). both times i thought i had more than enough distance before i tried to cross in front of them.

huge wind shadow.

the second time was very scary. it looked like the tanker was going to cut me in half but but the bow wake pushed me out of the way.

[drroc]

i've fallen down in front of large inbound vessels art crissy, twice. (you'd think i would have learned the first time). both times i thought i had more than enough distance before i tried to cross in front of them.

huge wind shadow.

the second time was very scary. it looked like the tanker was going to cut me in half but but the bow wake pushed me out of the way.

Its after stories like this, I avoid the bay. I'll take my chances with 10+ft waves and land lords at the cost :)

[Tony Soprano]

http://www.uscg.mil/d11/vtssf/rule9.asp

It's the Law!
Following Rule 9 is much more than smart and courteous boating - it's the law (33 U.S.C. 2009). Violators can be assessed a maximum civil penalty of up to $5,000 by the Coast Guard.