F-One leading edge Repair

This nicely made F-One hit some rocks and tore up the leading edge very badly. We forgot to take before images, but as you might be able to see, our repair goes from the center of the kite's leading edge all the way out to the tip. Paul, who did this one, said it was the longest he'd had to open and close a leading edge on a single kite in a long time, probably about 12 feet. F-One likes to double stitch their leading edges closed too, and this makes them nicely strong, but also makes them more difficult to open.

If you study the image, you can see our slightly darker red patches, but around those, you can also see the interior reinforcements. Paul staggered the edges of the inner and the outer patches to step down the increase in thickness which prevents a hinge from forming at the margin of our patches. Theoretically this should increase the life of the patch by preventing the material from always bending at the edge of our stitching.

The strut was also ripped. Below you can see the rather complex area that F-One makes around their struts. They at least are smart about it, unlike the slingshot splitstrut system that is impossible to open the struts for service, these are at least made with seams that can be removed from the exterior of the strut.