K123 - Void #3
One Void, made to order.
Vinyl markings
One thing that stands out on this kite is the vinyl maring on the tail. Normally, I use dye sublimation to add my logo, and some notes. I like to have this mark be somewhere around the edge of the kite. This one is all black around the perimiter though, and dye sublimation won't work on dye fabric since it is already saturated with dye. So, I used heat transfer vinyl instead. I got some shiny holographic vinyl to use. Because I'm using vinyl, the mark had to be a bit bigger than I usually like it to be, because small text is very difficult to weed out of the vinyl after cutting. I think this was a reasonable solution given the black fabric.
Sail Stays
I flew a Benson Deep Space last weekend and took a close look at the kite. The kite was a built wonderfully, as one would expect from a Benson. One of the things that I noticed was how the sail-stays were attached to the sail. I've been attatching the sail-stays directly to the sail itself, then adding a little cover on the back to help prevent it from snagging. However, that fabric cover on the back can become a potential snag point on its own. Benson's approach was something that I just hadn't considered, where instead of adding a cover to the back to cover the sail stay, add a piece to the front for the sail stay to attach to, so it is covered by the smoother surface of the sail itself. I did that here, and I think it turned out well. Good idea, Tim Benson.
