So on Monday 15th December c120 x 11.5cm and c120 x 4cm strips cut for the remaining four sails. *** Update 16/12 The reel of tape was the wrong width ***

One of these days I'll get a weighing scale for lightweight items so as to be able to keep a record of weights gained and lost at the component level. (Ordered as at 16/12)

An assembly has been placed on the jig ready for the first of the remaining sails and I finally got the second 22TB drive out of the box as a back-up drive for the other one that was set up a few weeks ago!

I have a similar pair of 5TB drives for the kiting project images.

I set the fifth sail applied the adhesive strip and then found that the covering strips prepared previously were 12mm wide rather than 10mm. There was no way to proceed but to cut new 11.5cm strips and proceed from there. I did salvage some of the 4cm strips by cutting them down with scissors but that was far from ideal.

I set the one sail and completed the sewing before preparing another 90 11.5cm strips. 2mm may not sound much but actually 10mm contracts down to the 8mm seam area underneath the sleeved kevlar and just fits!

I put the sail aside once sewn and prepared the sixth sail. Once it was sewn I set about cutting out the old mesh, bridling and framing both sails.

Two sails finished today 16th December.

I had anticipated moving on to the 2015 set of JMH 1.5 sails but will now adopt an interim preventative oversewing of the vulnerable edges.

17th December, adhesive applied...

Half the long tapes in place, the final sail!

17th December, final two sails completed but the forecast is currently showing light wind on Sunday 21st December so a test flight will have to wait.

The bench will need to be properly tidied now at the conclusion of this project. The 4th October seems a long time ago!

28th December and one of the final four sails got a test flight.

Four more to fly and then new bungee cords all round and a careful check for sail splits including re-working of a previously damaged area.

4th January and a clear blue sky looking towards the pond on Blackheath.

There was a westerly breeze, about 6mph, not enough to really test this other red sail.

11th January was somewhat overcast.

There was a southerly breeze, about 10mph, plenty of power to test the last three sails.

Not a particularly photogenic view but at least it is on the record.

Blue sail first...

All the bungees will be replaced, a somewhat tedious undertaking but many have lost almost all elasticity.

Remains of the leading edge gauze from the eight 2009 sails.

As the oversewn edge proved to be quite tough the next set of kites have been treated that way before much cracking was evident.

There were short breaks c2.5cm on most of the 2015 sails. All eight sails done as at 14th January 2026.

The final steps for the 2009 sails are to replace all the bungees as many of them have little elasticity remaining.

I do not have a hot knife so have used PVA to seal the ends of the bungee elements.

The multiple tears before the new repair tape was applied.

The old repair strips were removed and the adhesive was tackled with white spirit and then detergent and finally the fabric was wiped over with alcohol.

A single piece of transparent repair tape has been applied.

The sail has been checked for other defects and appears to be in good condition.

The sail with fittings weighs 180 g. The green race rod set is 90 g.