Today I had a fantastic session at IJmuiden. I went to the beach with Lars at about 1pm and we had fun until around 6.30pm when (totally exhausted) we left the beach. Last Friday night, I modified one of my bars a little bit and this was the first time I tried it out and it worked perfectly.
I modified the Gaastra Jekyll bar to giveme an easier depower setup. The out-of-the-box setup kind of confuses me as it hard to depower the kite in a over-powered situation. The picture below should give you a little bit of an impression. The blue plastic strap is the depower strap. The red one powers the kite more. This means that in over-powered situations you will want to pull the blue plastic strap easily and quickly in order to depower the kite.
Doing this is going to be hard in the current setup (as shown in the picture–click on it for a bigger version). The blue strap is fixed to the depower chord (using the metal square-like ring). The black triangle below the metal ring is the stopper ball. and the pink and white lines are running to the chicken loop. Essentially this setup forces the stopper ball down if you’re depowering the kite using the depower strap. If you’re over-powered there is absolutely no room for this–the bar will be fully extended upwards, right up to the stopper ball.
The solution for me was simple: get rid of the ring that fixes the blue depower strap to the depower chord (or whatever you call the lines that are leading down the chicken loop). This makes it possible to pull the blue strap without forcing the stopper ball down. I tested it a few time today and now, the bar setup if the best I’ve ever had on a bar.
The only disadvantage is that if you’ve depowered the kite a little, the blue strap dangles a little, whereas previously it would have been attached to the lines running down to the chicken loop. I’ll fix this later on and keep you posted. I’m seriously not sure why Gaastra designed the bar like this. The depower function is (if left unmodified) simply unusable IMO.
p.s. if you need more detailed pictures, let me know, then I’ll unwind the lines if it’s light out and take some better ones…
p.p.s. Ah, did I mention that other than this, the bar and kite are GREAT!?
Hi Alef,
I ave simila problems with my Jekyll bar. It seems crazythat Gaastra have designed it like this. It looks almost as if it is designed right bu setup wrong fromteh factory.
Can you let me know what you have done to stop theblue chord from dangling down please.
Cheers,
Will.
Hey Will,
yes, it’s weird that they haven’t thought about this or somehow haven’t tested it out. This really shows that kiteboarding isn’t a mature sport yet IMO.
Anyway, I’ll keep the blog (and you) posted on the progress with the depower chord. I just have to find a little time (on a windless day) to fix it.
cheers
Hi there,
I also have the Jekyll (12m and 8m).
Could you post a picture of the modified bar? (do you alo have the problem that on light wind days the kite can not be powered enough?)
I connected the steering lines to the knot closest to the kite, and still evene fully powered up the lines are longer than the ones going to the chickenloop.
What worries me a bit to is the safety going through the Chickenloop. Do you use this, are do you use the safety connected to the metal ring on one of the brake lines?
When I just bought the kite a year ago I got the bar with the malfunctioning safety release, I send it back and now that’s ok.
Further to this I’m really happy with the kite, depower while riding is really easy, upwind ok, hangtime perfect,…
What connection point on the kite do you use? The factory default (furtest from leading edge or closest?
Thanks
KR
Sven
Hey Sven,
I’ll try to post a picture tomorrow.
I’ll also post a bit of a more thorough review tomorrow…
Alef
Argghh… I forgot to take my bar with me last Saturday… Can’t make a picture now… Will do so later in the week…
I recently got a second hand jekyll and am playing with the bar setup. the depower system seems like it does have an oversight as you described when overpowered. I think they thought they had solved the dangling depower strap issue by attaching it with that ring. my flexifoil bar flaps around in the wind….
also due to using the mini 5th line for the stopper, it only connects to the bottom of the depower arrangement – when you release the CL you only depower the same as letting go of the bar (with no stopper ball)!! the flexi bar attaches above the pull/pull straps to get more depower but has no stopper.
maybe removing the stopper is the solution??
I also noticed the CL release doesn’t work easily when under load? have you noticed?? was it a warranty issue as described in a reply above???
Cheers
Martin
Hey mate, I’ve got a (I think 2008) 14 metre.
I completely agree with your summary that the depower system on the Jekyll is stupid, but there’s something more fundamental wrong with mine. I was wondering if you’d be able to help me.
When you fly it directly overhead and pull the bar the power up works well. It’s definitely giving me lots more lift. However, on the water I’ve noticed that once you’ve got it into the sweet spot, if you pull the bar in for more power it stalls. For surfing it’s actually better to fly fully depowered and move the kite around a bit for more. That clearly isn’t right, no?
Is it the case that with the jekyll it powers up well when the wind is right behind you, but stalls when you get the kite into the pull zone and then try to power it up? Maybe it’s a setup thing. Mine seems really weird on that front anyway, advice much appreciated? I can’t get my head around the idea that if I power it up by pulling the bar in I get less power. My landboarding Ozones don’t behave like this!
The lines seem fine – any guesses in why this kite might be wrong?
Hi Russ,
hmmm, I don’t know about that to be honest. I hardly use my 2008 14m2 anymore. Can’t you add a knot or so to the pigtails to which you attached the steering lines?
rgds,
Alef
Hi Russ,
i had the same problem with my 2008 14 sqm Jekyll. When i was riding and the kite was in front of me it stalls very fast, if i pull the bar to get more power. So, the first 6 month, i thought it is my mistake and i am a beginner and not able to fly my kite correctly…BUT: In february this year i wrote to gaastra and told them my problem and i was very surprised about there answer:
The 2008 Gaastra Jekyll in size 14 sqm (only this size) was delivered for a short period with wrong knot-pigtails at the kite. The solution is very simple. You just need to connect some normal pigtails to your steering-lines and so you should lengthen your steering lines (red & blue) roundabout 18 cm. Because i also have a 10 sqm jekyll and want to use both kites with one bar, i just disconnected the knot-pigtails at the kite and now i have kite-pigtail-knotpigtail at each side of my 14 sqm. And it works very good, but you have to need the adjuster more then before.
(All lines of the bar should have the same length, like shown in the manual.)
If you have an 10 sqm jekyll you can check it very easy by yourself. The knot-pigtails of the 10 sqm are much more longer then of the 14 sqm (if you have an 14 sqm with the wrong knot-pigtails).
I hope this will help you…
(If my english is not perfect, please be patient…)
best regards from germany
Robert
Hi Alef,
maybe you can check your knot-pigtails at your 14 sqm and post the length of each knot? It would be very helpful to build some copies for us…
If possible, please post:
kite to first knot: ?? cm
first to second knot: ?? cm
second to third knot: ?? cm
kite to end of knot-pigtail: ?? cm
Thank you very much
robert
Sorry guys only just noticed your responses. I had the Jekyll out yesterday and had the same problems with it, I don’t have a 10 metre to compare with but now I’ve read this I’ll try extending the steering lines by 18cm as you suggest and report back on whether it improves. This won’t be for a month or two though probably, got absolutely frozen yesteray (I’m UK based) so am going to leave it a bit longer before getting back on the water again!
Hiya, I’m sure nobody is reading this anymore, but hey I found this page on Google and it’s possible somebody with the same problem might also – so just to confirm, the 18cm pigtails (best attached to the last knot on the flying lines) absolutely TRANSFORMED my 14m Jekyll it’s like a different kite now and doesn’t stall all the time. Great stuff, I’m going to go and spend the summer enjoying my “new” kite now
Hi Russ,
(i had a big ski accident at eastern, so that i am not able to kite until october)
thank you for your reply. I am very happy that I was able to hlp you. Now, with the “new lines” i am sure you will enjoy this very very good and stable kite also in light winds (as i do).
So enjoy the summer, because i can’t!
But in November i plan to go to brasil for 3,5 weeks
bye
Robert