End of 2016 - overview of the collection

Early this year, I decided to get serious with building up a Peter Powell kites collection, and 2016 has been quite successful in that respect! On the last day of the year, I thought it would be a good time to take stock of my collection of Peter Powell kites.

As I've written on this blog before, I see the history of Peter Powell kites consisting of four consecutive chapters, and those four chapters are reflected in my collection: 1) The Beginning; 2) Expansion; 3) Going it Alone; 4) Rebirth. So let me take you through those four chapters, and the kites belonging to each.

1) The Beginning
If you're a kite flyer, I don't have to tell you that it was Peter Powell who invented a dual-line diamond kite in the early 1970s. Even though Peter wasn't the first person to fly a steerable kite with two lines, there is no debate that he popularised dual-line flying like no other. It became a massive success, winning the Toy of the Year Award in 1976, and reaching a peak production of 75,000 kites weekly, in five factories. Peter Powell Stunters were initially produced with a 2-point bridle, and these kites are referred to as Mk I. Whereas the sail was made from polythene plastic, the frame material changed over the year: first wood, then aluminium (in a few different versions), and finally fibreglass. Adding a 3rd bridle leg (to the wing tips) turned the Mk I Stunter into a Mk II. Initially, the sail was polythene, as in the Mk I, but that material was subsequently replaced by ripstop nylon; all Mk II kites had a fibreglass frame.

I currently have 11 Peter Powell Stunters in my collection. Nine of these are Mk I kites. My oldest has a fully aluminium frame and a yellow sail. Four have aluminium spines and leading edges, but fibreglass cross-spars; I assume the cross-spars were originally aluminium in these kites, and that they were replaced with fibreglass cross-spars at some point in their lives. These four kites are bridled as two 2-stacks (yellow/red sails and yellow/blue sails). The remaining Mk I kites all have a fully fibreglass frame; one has a blue sail, one a red sail, and I have a pair with black sails, which are usually flying with modern silver-coloured tails (which looks really good with the black sails!). Of the two Mk II kites in the collection, one has a polythene blue sail, the other a ripstop blue-green sail.


2) Expansion
To deal with the initial success of Peter Powell kites in the US, a company was set up there to produce and sell Peter Powell kites under licence. Initially, this US Peter Powell Kites company produced dual-line diamond kites of the same size (4’ wing span) as those produced in the UK. However, they expanded into smaller (3’) and larger (6’) versions. A little later, they also started to produce dual-line deltas and even dabbled in quad-line kites for a bit.

As things stand, I have eight US-produced Peter Powell kites in the collection. Three of them are linked together in a triple-stack of 3' Stunter kites (the first US smaller version of the standard 4' diamond Stunter). I also have the 6’ version, which was dubbed ‘The Monster’; it certainly pulls in strong winds! The collection includes three dual-line deltas: a Skyraker (the very first Peter Powell delta), a Wing (which develops serious power when the wind picks up) and a Skylite (as the name suggest, this is basically an ultralight). Finally, I have the first of the two Peter Powell quad kites, the Double Diamond (or ‘Double-D’).


3) Going it Alone
Around 1994, the US arm of Peter Powell Kites became independent and changed its name to Caribbean Kite Company, based on Jamaica, and with distribution centred in Florida. The Caribbean Kite Company continued production of a small number of Peter Powell kites, and introduced a range of kites themselves. All their kites (except one) carried names of islands in the Caribbean. So, for instance, the traditional Stunter was renamed Cayman, and the Skylite was produced under the name Mustique. Others were sold under the names of Trinidad, Aruba and Martinique, to name just a few. Even though, technically, kites produced by the Caribbean Kite Company aren't Peter Powell kites, some of them certainly do contain the ‘DNA’ of Peter Powell kites. And the Cayman is a Peter Powell kite in all but name; it even came with handles bearing the name Peter Powell! So, for me, kites produced by the Caribbean Kite Company definitely represent a chapter in the story of Peter Powell kites.

At the moment, I just have a single Caribbean Kite Company Cayman in the collection; Caribbean kites certainly aren’t easy to get hold of!


4) Rebirth
The final chapter in the history of Peter Powell kites brings us to the present day. As you may be aware, Peter’s sons, Mark and Paul, relaunched Peter Powell Kites a few years ago, and you can again buy brand new Peter Powell Stunters. Obviously, we have some of these Mk III kites: a pair, customised for Flying Fish, the pair I form with my wife Irma; and a set of five, customised for L-katz, the team we are also part of. As I figured you wouldn’t be interested in seeing five pictures of five essentially identical kites, I’ll just show the two sets:

Having these kites as part of our pair/team quiver gives us an extra dimension to our flying on days when the wind is really strong, whether that is during practice sessions or at festivals.

So that brings the total collection to 23 kites (I'm counting a 2- or 3-stack as a single kite now). Not bad for a burgeoning collection, eh? Obviously, I’m interested in expanding the collection. Peter Powell kites I’m specifically looking for are UK-made diamond Stunters with unusual sails, with a wooden frame, and with an aluminium frame different from the one I already have. With regard to US-made Peter Powells, I’m interested in any that are not already part of my collection, but especially 4’ Stunters (Mk I, II and III), Skyblazer, Skytoy, Firefli, Dragonfli and Omni (the second Peter Powell quad).  As I only have one Caribbean Kite Company kite at the moment, essentially any would be welcome! And as far as modern-day Peter Powells are concerned, I know that Paul and Mark are working on a few different versions of their new Mk III, but I’m not sure how much of that is meant to be public knowledge, so I won’t divulge any details.

If you have a Peter Powell kite for sale which adds something to the collection, please get in touch!

Ripstop Mk II

Mk II Stunters differ from their Mk I predecessors by having an extra bridle leg, which goes to the wing tip. At first, like Mk I Stunters, they had polythene sails. Later on this was replaced by ripstop. If, as I do, you keep a close eye on eBay, you may have noticed that polythene-sailed Mk I and Mk II Stunters pop up quite regularly, but ripstop Mk II Stunters hardly ever do. I'm not quite sure what's behind this. Could it be a reflection of the numbers of kites produced? Were there simply far fewer PP Stunters with ripstop sail sold than with polythene sail?

Whatever the underlying reason, of course I had to have a ripstop Mk II in my collection. Patience paid off in the end; here's our green (jade?) ripstop Mk II!

The kite came with a semi-translucent orange tail; not sure if that tail is original, but it matched the green sail quite well.

Flight characteristics are what you expect from a vintage Peter Powell: needs a decent breeze to fly and steer optimally.

I don't know if ripstop Mk II Stunters only came in single colours (and how many colours were produced) or whether they also existed as multi-coloured sails. One way to find out: keep keeping an eye on eBay!

A Peter Powell selfie!

When we were at Weymouth Kite Festival earlier this year, and took delivery of our set of L-katz Peter Powells, we also got ourselves a pair of PP hats to keep our heads warm in the coming winter, colour-matched with our Flying Fish coats.

Well, today was definitely cold enough to start using them!

By the way, with this picture we've joined the selfie generation: this is our very first ever selfie; not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed ...

L-katz Peter Powells in flight

Some time ago, I showed you a picture of our set of custom Peter Powells for the L-katz team. Now you may have wondered why I didn't post any pictures of them flying. Well, the reason for that is that I wanted to hold off on that blog post until L-katz had flown all five together. Unfortunately, shortly after I got the kites, Tony suffered very serious health problems, and he may never fly as part of the team again .... So I decided not to delay any longer.

The first time we flew three of the five kites (#1, #2, #5; red - black - red tails) was when Neil was also out of action, due to surgery on his hand. Roger, Irma and myself had the honour of the initial flight of the L-katz Peter Powells.

The wind was strong, the kites were in their element, and we had fun!

Next time the kites came out was with a 4-man L-katz. Four kites (#1, #2, #4, #5; red - black - black - red tails).

We could really take the kites through their paces, and try out which patterns worked and which didn't.

And with the 3-man as well as the 4-man team, there were occasions were it didn't work! But, as they say, if you don't crash into each other every once in a while, you're not trying hard enough ....

I want to finish this blog post by simply expressing our wish, in the strongest possible way, that Tony will one day be able to take back his place in the team, and fly kite #3, with a yellow tail. #3 has so far remained unflown, waiting for Tony to pick up the lines. Fingers crossed ...

'Chevron' Cayman

I've written on this blog before about the US arm of Peter Powell Kites becoming independent and changing its name to Caribbean Kite Company. Several of the kites produced by Peter Powell Kites were continued, but under a different name. For the standard PP diamond Stunter this rebranding resulted in the Cayman.

As I said in this earlier blog post, I regard kites made by the Caribbean Kite Company as having 'Peter Powell DNA'. You may well disagree with me, but for me, Caribbean Kite Company is part of the Peter Powell story, and so I've been looking for Caribbean kites to add to the Peter Powell collection. There certainly aren't many around so I'm pleased that I've managed to get my hands on a Cayman in the 'chevron' colour scheme, new in its package, and for very little $$!

This Cayman hardly changed from the Peter Powell Stunter that was its predecessor: same 4' wing span, ripstop sail, same spar arrangement, fibreglass spars. Besides the slightly different nose piece, it's just the label which identifies it as having been produced by Caribbean Kite Company.

It also flies exactly as you'd expect from a PP Stunter: needs a decent pressure on the sail to be optimally steerable, but in winds over, say, 10mph, it's a fun kite to fly.

And in case anyone has any doubt about the PP ancestry of the Cayman, look at the handles that came with the kite:



What does it say on the handles? Exactly ..

'The Monster', part II: adding a custom-made tail

I blogged earlier about our 6' Peter Powell 'Monster' and wrote that I was hoping to convince Mark and Paul to make me a blue-pink-white custom tail for the kite. Well, they were happy to do so, and here is this custom-made tri-colour tail; thanks guys!

Because the kite is around 50% larger in height and wing span, Mark made the tail also longer, to keep it roughly the same length relative to the kite.

And the extra-long tri-colour tail looks really good on the kite, I must say (but I would say that, wouldn't I?).




There's just one downside to flying kites with extra long tails ...

Battle-scarred ...

Got her via Ebay, a Mk I Stunter with fibreglass frame, and she arrived with battle scars: two long tears, repaired with tape. As I was setting her up in our usual flying field for her first flight with me, another tear appeared. She's clearly suffering from BSS (brittle sail syndrome), a common problem with old Peter Powells. Another length of repair tape, a quick field fix, and she was ready to take to the air.

I launched her with a hefty dose of apprehension. The wind was quite strong and blustery, and that's not ideal for an old girl with BSS ... But off she went and crossed were my fingers (at least for as far as the line straps allowed me).

She seemed really happy, riding the gusts as if nothing was wrong.

I kept expecting to see another tear appear as she was flying around, but no, all went fine! Battle-scarred and wounded though she was, she was enjoying herself, diving, rising and looping to her heart's content. I will need to treat her with caution, of course, keep a close eye on her sail for any emerging tears, and repair when necessary. But 'brittle sail syndrome' is progressive and incurable, so the day will come that her sail tears beyond repair ... But until that day, this old girl will remain a welcome part of my collection.