footstraps can hurt!

Nice picture and alternative Tony,

But from a biomechanics standpoint- I totally disagree with you.
If your fore foot looses contact with the hull, in MANY situations, including a brisk leg flexion at the knee, unless really wedged in there- the strapped foot WILL come out.
You shouldn't need the torque/force from your other foot to pull the strapped foot out.

Besides that, the skyhooks mentioned by Tony are just to be used by kitesurfers on a directional strapless board.
The newest hype in kitesurfing is kiting strapless!

But doing so at sea you need to pass the breaking waves and that's where you want to lift the board with your feet. So you squeeze both knees together and take the board with you by the skyhooks as you steer the kite up.

This all has nothing or less to do with catsailing.

Don't kill the Messenger please

Yes, but nobody says the hook needs to be as short as that. The upper hook could be 12" long and function like a standard footstrap - just open on the end.

Ofcourse, but the hooks are made of a very densed foam (which will not damage your foot). I wonder if an open bridge of 12" from this foam is stiff enough.

Also I ask myself if open ended will work for your balance.

I think you have to try it. Hope for you that it works.

It would have to have a rigid spine of something other than foam (I'm a mechanical engineer).

Use the sky hooks but turn them around. A wide stance would brace you in. The reversed rear sky hook would keep your rear foot from being washed out from under you. The front skyhook would allow you push back against the rear. relax and you come right out of them.

wouldn't the Sky Hooks interfere with the rudder operation?

It may need development, for all of the reasons given above, but I think the concept is brilliant.

Obviously, the details are absolutely critical, or this goes the way of the dodo or Bethwaite ball and socket trapeze system (loved by few, ignored by most)...

Mike

How will this keep your foot from getting washed off the hull side. That's all a footstrap is supposed to do anyway.

Like Orphan said, turn them around so the openings face each other. If the material were stiff enough, you could flex your foot to grip/brace for a wave.

Mike

Interesting concept.

What about that combined with a shallow well that your foot went into? Like an inch or less deep?

Thanks, but I'll stick with the footstraps, tensioned as suggested, that have already worked for me for close to 10,000 miles of ocean racing. If you guys want to re-invent the wheel feel free. The chance of hurting yourself pitchpoling while trying to use a unproven device are way greater than getting hurt with what everyone has been using for a decade and a half.Just adjust the things right and it's not an issue.

Thoughts on this, anyone?

Mike

The problem I see with the skyhooks is how do you attach them to the hull without ripping them out of the deck during a crash? (Bigger attachment footprint would help).
Funny thing is, is that I would never buy this for my directional kitesurfboard, much better to go strapless <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

You sound like the guy that said the wheel was crap and would never pan out. And,

fire

? you'll just burn yourself....heeeeh.

What was that guys name again?
Please put all of that

ground breaking stuff

on your boat, especially the next time we're racing against each other.I expect to see skyhooks on your boat the next time I see it. What a great place this forum is where real life experience counts for nothing and an engineer or keyboard sailor's guess is inscribed in stone, especially if they have a high post count, 'cause ,Hey, we all know that's what really matters.

Has anyone looked up the price of the skyhooks?

At $20-30 per pair, straps are cheap and effective. They also last many years. I'm guessing those hooks are going to be costly when designed for our application. That cost is going to be a hurdle for developing them.

My straps received the most use as handles for moving the boat around on the beach. The bigger catamaran skyhook I have in my head doesn't seem that it would work as well for that use.

They do however seem to offer some advantages.

I don't know if it would ever work but it looks like an interesting thing to try. I probably won't have the time to ever put it together but I have a design in my head that will very likely work well and addresses all the concerns raised here. This is how new things come about - you try them and try to make them better. Sometimes it works, sometimes it takes a lot of refinement, sometimes it fails. Ever see Randy Smyth's scissors? America's cup on foils? It's not like this affects you in any way at all - good god man, why are you so angry and hateful?

(ps, and I'm actually a pretty good designer and have affected the delivery and handling of products you touch and drink every day)

What about keeping you at the rear/footstrap when the bow stuffs and the boat decelerates, sending you up to 'check out the jib'?
IMHO, the footstrap is WAY more important to actually keep you back there for that.

I love how you sling an insult

you sound like..

and when someone responds in kind they are angry and hateful. Like I told Tad you raised your hand, don't get all butthurt when you get called on. You wanted to play...and that's all it is.

And humble too. Well, this certainly makes you more than qualified to design footstraps for a sailboat, get on it or you'll be the new Doug lord in no time.

I would second the comment about the footstrap holding my back foot when the boat decelerates rapidly. The chicken lines work better, but sometimes it's not practical to rig them (for buoy racing, as an example)

I have been washed out of the back strap once or twice, but managed to stay with the boat using the mainsheet/spinsheet (sometimes it wasn't pretty, but worked).

Maybe a combination approach? Traditional strap at transom to keep you getting lurched forward, and some version of the skyhook thingy near the beam to help you from getting washed off the back?

Or maybe just velcro shoes?

You sound like someone that said the wheel was a bad idea

while you are actually being negative and scorning new ideas, isn't exactly the same thing as calling you an ****. It was intended as a fun way to illustrate the fact that you were being negative on something that might prove out to be a worthwhile endeavor. Your negativity served no purpose. You don't have to buy it, believe in it, or hear anything about it. I'm sorry if I offended you.

What if the design was 2 of those hooks of a dense foam that basically formed a strap but had a seam or gap in between them that could release your foot when it saw a load other than shear?

Your fixing the problem at the wrong end....

the issue is the waves we encounter,
it can cause the boat to suddenly stop and thus sending us forward until we slam into the side shrouds
or
we actually are struck by the wave sending us off the back of the boat

so.....

we either get rid of the waves (not so easy)

or we fit a rudder-blade to our trap jackets (just below the shoulder blades) and that rudder must have winglets

as the wave strikes us the blade will keep us straight and the winglets will lift us clear of the water

its all about winglets I tell ya

MOst all of us have used Chicken lines also, but

In the GT300, I think the tybe also;

Chris Green had a rig for his crew;

The was a line from the front and rear crossbar that the crew would pull tight and put into a jam cleat- one on each side- so it held him from going forward or backwards.
Seemed to work

Chicken lines are allowed by SIs, and are not necessarily in class rules, correct? If so, there is a specific procedure for this, and it involves getting permission from the class association.

Mike

Are those strong enough? I imagine those were designed to lift a board weighting 3 kgs out of the water, not to stop a 95kgs man from flying forward…

skyhooks

experience with padded skyhooks