I use a GPS watch when I am kiting and it maps the data to the Garmin Website.

In the attached image, I spent the first 30 minutes on a twin tip and the next 15 minutes on a foil.
A reasonable example of the upwind capability of a foil (and a cheap foil at that).

boating angles will be quoted in relation to the wind, 0 is directly into the wind.

My cruising cat can point 30deg (which would be 60 in Christian's pic), however speed at that angle really drops off, bear-off to 45deg and it gets along nicely. That is a cat with mini keels which doesn't point as well as a cat with daggerboards, which is outdone by a good monohull in terms of how high they can point into the wind. Pretty sure monos can point higher due to a combination of factors like keel size (grip in the water) and the fact that the mast leans over creating a greater low pressure zone behind the main. The design of the headsail plays a big part in this too.

Big difference with kiting is we don't have a mast which allows the sail angle to be controlled without the sail racing to the edge of the window.

A door is pretty good, but a hydrofoil is ridiculously efficient.

Strong wind, slowest board speed, kite as low as possible, depowed kite and edging as hard as you can and I think you may get some twin tips up to some respectable wind angles maybe up over 20deg. But that's just guessing and not confirmed.

Why do you want to know? What are you planning on doing and how does putting a number on it make a difference?

Most of the upwind performance differences are fairly obvious and follow what you would intuitively expect.

as long as you can get back to where you started then that's upwind enough

foils aside, a massive improvement over a TT is a surfboard

Also, it's gonna happen in june so I'm expecting super light wind.
might have to use a sup

I've got a 17.5 lf solo which I'm really happy with. Will build a door soon and report back. I'm fairly confident that I can do 20 deg which will be heaps for a fun day on the water with a sail 'rescue' boat

very little beats a hydrofoil & foil kite upwind.here is track from Mexico Hydrofoil Pro Tour recently.Matt Taggart - Mikes Lab Hydrofoil and 15m R1v2, wind maybe 13knots.
The top mark 1 is directly 1.8km upwind from the start line on the course



With more wind you could could go higher angles again as the hydrofoil starts to work better at high speeds.

kiteflo said..
what about a foam surfboard? Got one lying around somewhere. If I remember it correctly it doesn't have a lot of rocker and it is super floaty. Around 7" I think. Any good upwind in light winds?
Any tried?

HighzaKite said..

foils aside, a massive improvement over a TT is a surfboard

like I said, if you don't want to invest in (ie: waste money on) a foil board

As you can see pilot Pete
Is heading straight under the boat