Light wind relaunching the 17m Ozone Zephyr

Hi guys,

I thought I would throw a little more radical honesty into the mix with the Zephyr.

There has been claims that the Zephyr will relaunch in as little as 8 knots. To my knowedge this is both correct and also incorrect.

With the people of average experience with only modern day kites who have tried it, none of them have been able to relaunch the kite once it goes down leading edge down. It will not miraculously relaunch by just turning the bar in any less than about 10-12 knots in my experience.

The truth of it though, as I found out today is the kite can be relaunched in as little as 7-8 knots but not less than 7 knots. I was able to get the kite to roll onto it's wingtip and move to the edge of the wind window several times but was unable to get it to fly off the water in about 5 knots. This took all of the skill and experience in big kites and light winds I had to achieve. With the correct technique it will easily relaunch, but the technique must be taught first otherwise the result will be fail.

Having said that, It has been the easiest kite to relaunch in under 8 knots I have ever tried, but again, the technique is both tricky and must be applied with great "feel" for the kite.

I rate the performance of the kite overall as excellent!

Cheers,

KH