BP promo

In a recent blog post, I mentioned a BP-branded Peter Powell Stunter, and asked for anyone who knew more about this promotional kite, or even had a picture, to get in touch. And, lo and behold, I received a message from a Philip Smith who had one of these kites, was looking to sell it as BP merchandise, and, while googling for a bit more information, stumbled across my blog.

Here's a picture Philip sent me of his BP promo kite:

The kite in question has a bit of history, as it won prizes! I'll hand over to Philip to tell the story:

I guesstimate that it was about 1976/7 when we holidayed in a B&B in Kingsbridge near Bantham and went to Bantham beach daily. The kite came with us, I think I had bought it about a year or so before.

The lifeguards and locals organised event days for the kids / families such as sand castle building competitions, bucket and spade races - all sorts including kite flying, which was in 4 age groups, 3 for children and 1 for adults. 

I had flown the kite quite a bit and did a lot of manoeuvres but my specialist move was skimming the sands without crashing, they used to put straws in the sand that we had to ‘clip’. Distance judgement being more difficult than height!  Also there was a duration competition and I think I managed the longest at something like 1.5 hours. Bantham had some really amazing winds which were also great for surfing and the odd beach sand yacht. I can’t remember what the prize was, possibly a bucket and spade or stick of rock!

I did go on to own other kites but after divorcing my wife other things took priority. All I have now is a pocket kite that my son bought me 10 years ago to keep in the boot - just in case!


The story of this kite has a further twist ... quite possibly you already saw it coming, but following donations to two of Philip's preferred charities, the kite is now in my possession. It needs a bit of TLC: the tail part of the sail had been repaired and strengthened with silver duct tape a long time ago, and this tape is now losing its adhesive properties. But nothing that some fresh tape can't deal with; watch this space for the BP kite to fly again!

Round Table PP, again

Some time ago, I posted about a promotional Peter Powell Stunter, created for the Round Table. It appeared on eBay, for a buy-it-now price of £80. That was way too much for my liking, so I didn't bite. The kite was relisted a few times, each time for £80, and then disappeared from eBay. I assumed it had found a buyer.

Turned out that wasn't the case, because after a while, it was relisted, this time for a lower price, though still well above what I was willing to pay. Again, it didn't sell, and was relisted yet again, and again for a slightly lower price. I decided to play a bit of a 'chicken race' game: hold fire until the kite was relisted with a price I was willing to pay. Of course, someone else might well snap it up before the seller had reduced his/her price enough for me to grab it .... The kite was relisted well over half a dozen more times, and the asking price kept creeping down, slowly but surely. Until one morning I saw it was relisted for my max price (£40 if you want to know), and I pounced! Gotcha!

The kite came with a red tail, but I felt a white tail would look much better. I happened to have a white Peter Powell tail which originally came with The Monster (which now has a custom tri-colour tail), so that white tail replaced the red tail. And here is the 'Round Table' PP, in our usual flying field:

It flies exactly as you expect from a polythene PP Stunter: needs a decent breeze to fly and turn properly.

Of course, it being a Peter Powell means that some tail-rolling is involved at the end of a session ...

I have no idea how many were made, but it can't be that many. Maybe this is even a unique one-off? In any case, it's a very nice addition to my Peter Powell kites collection!

Owners Group on Facebook

Earlier today, I created a Peter Powell Kites Owners Group on Facebook. Why? Well, several reasons. In no particular order, to raise interest for these iconic kites; to help Mark and Paul a wee bit, possibly; to get a bit of experience in running a Facebook group; and, let's be honest, it might also help my collection.

Time will tell whether there is enough interest; I'll try and create regular content in the first instance, in the hope that others will join in and the group will fly (pun intended). So we'll see where this goes. If you're interested in joining the group, you know where to click!

Blog post on Peter Powell

On the anniversary of Peter's passing one year ago, a very brief blog post from me this time, just drawing your attention to a very nice post on Peter Powell from another blog (link to the full blog post given below the screenshot).

Click here to go to the full blog post. Peter, hope the winds are good where you are.