The Decorators Team Fliers

Felix Mottram

Jørgen Møller Hansen, Flare Kitestack 1987

Recovery and repairs after Blackheath

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The bundle of kite sails after recovery from the trees of Greenwich Park, 24th October 2021.

There were two tears in the fabric and one torn seam, a few broken bridle legs and one pulled out eyelet. There was only one sail with both upright spars missing and one sail with one broken upright. There were two missing lower spreaders.
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The first damaged elements, a torn out eyelet and broken bridle leg.

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Some dacron has been added to form a strong base for the replacement eyelet.
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Eyelet in place with main line re-attached using the original mark on the line.
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The bridle leg line is quite 'stretchy' so has been fixed using an insert of braided polyester line until an exact match can be found.
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Torn seam located.

Top corner of the right hand lower keel element.
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Torn seam, detail. The frayed edge had to be tucked back into the seam and secured from the reverse side. It was not possible to access one side of the joint directly so the seam has been oversewn at the edge!
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Disconnected spar pocket and torn sail.
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Repaired sail and pocket.
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Kite Page
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Jørgen had bound the ends of the spars so his example has been followed using waxed polyester line.
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Ends were trimmed and then some candle wax was added and melted gently over a flame.
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Further repair after Portsmouth 2025

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A temporary repair was made on the field at Southsea on Saturday 26th July prior to a successful flight.

The drogues are decanted along with the spars on Tuesday 5th August!
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I think that this is a missed repair and not the one that was done previously having failed.
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The safety pins proved their worth after many years sitting in the box!
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A small section of stitching had pulled out so that provided a starting point for un-picking the rest of the seam.
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The stitches unpicked...
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Opening the seam on the 'other side.'
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Consolidating the torn edge of the fabric.
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Further stitching to secure the new edge.
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The repaired fabric edge slipped into the seam ready for re-sewing.
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The resewn seam from the back, oversewn with zigzag, just in case.
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Partial front view.
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Split front view.
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Another front view.

Kite Page
This repair should be fine in normal conditions but may be slightly compromised if the stack were to become tangled in trees again!
Site Updated July 2026 Felix Mottram