Today was the first Sunday in the new lockdown and I did not get out on the cycle route as we had a broadband and landline outage.  An engineer called first thing this morning to check that access to the termination point was available!

During the week I received images of the Peter Malinski Hexagonal Train and we can now date it as 1987 or earlier.  The images were from Sylt, Germany in spring 1987.  I had started to look at the restoration issues and have purchased 10mm split rings in stainless steel for the tail fixing points and checked the tail configuration.  More split rings and spring clips as used on early Revolution line sets and without swivels.

I have decided to make dacron ‘spar boots’ for repairing the spar pockets that have worn through.  I’ll sew a prototype soon and make a pattern for going into production.  The boot will sit inside the spar pocket and be fixed at the front edge to the existing pocket fabric.

I finally got around to putting together the modern version of the Modell Deutsche Seewarte 1904.  I don’t know exactly why there was a problem when I last attempted this on Blackheath but I have now tape marked the main cross spar to avoid confusion.

The vertical sail tensioning lines seem to work very well and the whole construction is tight and light.  I am puzzled by the spar fixing points as they seem very shallow.  I will investigate further in due course.

Felix