Date:	Tue, 18 Oct 1994 00:06:11 -1000
From:	andrewh@holly.harvard.edu (Andrew Hawken)
Message-Id: <3806mj$jhr@beta.qmw.ac.uk>
Organization: Queen Mary & Westfield College, London, UK
Subject: Getting Knotted

My Sputnik almost flies.  Well it does fly.  Rises up gracefully.
Looks a bit crupmpled, so I think that some power would fill the
sail a bit better.  I turn the kite into a dive, the power comes on
and ZIP, with the sound of a flexi stack hitting ground zero, 13
suspension lines detach themselves from the v-lines in under a second.

Both suspension lines and V lines are 150# spectra.  A post mortem
revealed that one small v line had broken (probably the first to
go) and that the rest had undone the sheet bends with single hitch
stopper knots.

What knots should I be using here ?  Perhaps a heavier line ? (Although
I would prefer that it was the line that broke and not the skin that
ripped!)

Andy

--
____________________________Andrew Hawken______________________________
          "However many ways there may be of being alive,
     it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead"
                                                                R Dawkins.
	Home  :	0895 420110		QMW   :	071 975 5542
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