American Kitefliers Association

Hi Dale P.  Wow big project !   collectively there will be a bunch of pull on the line.  600 to 1K line would work ,might be a tad difficult to sew if it's round line.  The spine can be Fibreglass one peice if you can manage a 5 foot bag to tote the kites. Would be a lot less work using one peice spines eliminating ferrules. .  1/8 " diameter ,maybe 3/16" would work. (think about weight) The kite sails will "float" and find their own AoA. Not too much load on the spine.  What is the graphic ?,,,white sail, red maple leaf ?? 

CLIFF

I have flags of all the Canadian privinces and flags from a bunch of Canadian cities.  Thats the reason for it being 5 foot eddys. Otherwise I would lose a lot of neat stuff from the flage if I made them smaller

I use 1/8" spars on my 22" eddy arches, so maybe you would want to go to the 3/16" (1/4" just sounds too heavy/thick).  Your large size will probaby have a lot more pull and I have had my spines bend and pop on the 22" ones.  I love arches, so good luck & have fun.

The surface area of a large arch generates alot of pull. Another option is to make a train instead of an arch. It would not have the same effect but it might be easier to handle.

Whatever you decide of course you should send some pictues to Phi. He can use them online or in the Magazine.

Some advice about spine length:   Make sure your spar pockets have some slack in them.  When the arch is under pressure, and it can be a LOT of pressure in strong wind, the fabric will want to stretch horizontally and compress the sail at the spine pockets.  The spine will then either bow alarmingly or poke its way througn the pocket.   After repairing a number of pockets, I finally smartened up and shortened each spine by about 3/8ths. of an inch.   You don't want them to fit in their pockets too snugly.    And about using 1000 lb. line for large Eddys--of course it will work up until the wind is too strong.  Let us all know at what wind speed it breaks if does, or if it puilled out the anchor instead.  Good Luck.  Richard Dermer