THE ENIGMA-

This kite plan is taken from the original work of Phil Womack. It was always one of my
OOOHHH! WOW! sort of kites. It took me a lot of time to get up the nerve to do it and
now that I have done it, It is not as intimidating as it looks. Phil even said that himself.
The plan was difficult to find until I came across it on the Kite Plan Base (only as a
mirror.) Phil’s original site is not online anymore. So, here’s to you Phil- thanks.
When you get yours done, remember to thank Phil.

When I built the latest one, I timed in at 18-1/2 hours-

I suggest you read ALL of the instructions first.

The instruction set below was what I composed for doing a blitz build with a group over
a weekend. Nothing is left out so you should be able to do this on your own with the
information provided.
Popeye. (Peter Ross)

MATERIALS LIST
Qty.
SkyShark P200 80cm 1411 full length
1 cut @ 21”
2 cut @ 23”
P200’s are as strong (IMHO) as 6mm, and 1/3 the weight.

Internal ferrules (solid CF) 6 3-1/2” long

FSD Tee Connector 7mm x 6mm 2 Drill 6mm hole out to .297” (19/64”)

4mm (157) Pultruded CF tubing 2 24” long

¼” MNCA-1570 4

3/8” MNCA-E40 4

Internal Arrow Nock-Black 12

Long VEC for Nocks 8-10

DOHIC 197 stoppers 8

3/4oz. RSN 3-1/2 yd. MINIMUM

4”x 3.9oz. Dacron reinforcement 3 YD.

100# Black Death Line(or Dacron) 75-80 feet

Wright’s
Doublefold Bias Binding Tape
¼” wide 4YD. Pkg. 8 MINIMUM
(sometimes you get a joint in them where they joined 2 pieces–not good-. I’d get 9 or 10
since they are only $1.49 ea.)

3/8” C3 Sail tape 6 feet

Spray & Fix 505 Temporary Adhesive (or equivalent temporary adhesive)

5-Minute Epoxy Adhesive (the 2-part kind)

CA Glue (Super Glue) 1 little tube should do it.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES WE NEED.
Bring all of your normal sewing equipment and scissors.
Don’t forget your seam ripper- nobody’s perfect.

2 spools 500M thread- Mettler (best) or Gutterman, or something equally high quality.
I use only 100% Polyester thread to match my sail color.
(Load up 3 bobbins (with above thread taken from the spool)
Some people like Nylon sail thread, I’ve never used it so I wouldn’t know.

A BIG Cutting Mat- the bigger the better. 72”long will mean you only have to reposition
once, not three times to cut the main sail out.

An X-Acto knife with a narrow point blade and a few spare blades.

A #2 Pencil (sharp) with a synthetic eraser (I like silver Art pencils, but they are hard to find)

Ironing Board and Steam Iron to press the EB

Small Light table/ light box – (mine is only 11” x 21” -nice and portable)

Blue Tape- 3M is best. I like 1”

6 foot rule or straight Edge (Wood or Metal, but it’s got to be straight)

6” x 24” Quilter’s Guide (If you don’t have one by now, you’ll wonder how you got
along without one. I like the Omnigrid one, but Fiskars has a good one too.)

An old smooth edge table knife (not serrated- that is, has no teeth on the tip) which is
best- OR a “YOUR NAME HERE” plastic credit card offering from junk mail OR a
piece of sample laminate from your local home improvement center would be acceptable
too.
It has to be nice and stiff and you need to be able to get a good grip on it. That’s why I
like the table knife, it has a convenient carrying handle included at no additional cost.

A Shallow cardboard box (like a soda can case box, or an empty soup case box from the
grocery, the one I have was used for boxed Strawberries. (You will spray your adhesive
into it)

OPTIONAL TOOLS
If you don’t have pre-cut spars, you might like to have something to cut them with but
hopefully we will have pre-cut spars.

A 6” Upholstery Needle
WOULD HOT CUTTING BE BETTER?
I personally do not think hot cutting is required since all edges will be bound. I cut
everything with an X-Acto knife because I can see what I’m doing and it sure is faster
than MY hot cutter.

REINFORCEMENTS
Attached is a sheet with full size reinforcement patterns and a layout of where they
attach. I use posterboard for patterns so that I can get accurate marking. Here is a good
place to use 505 to stick the paper pattern to a cardboard sheet for cutting them out. Once
you have your patterns ready, mark the required quantity on your Dacron. Cut the 72
pieces of reinforcement and have them ready to install. I use “paper” scissors for this, so I
don’t ruin my good fabric scissors on this operation. This should take about 1 hour to
prepare. (cutting all of these pieces ahead of time, means you cut fabric sooner)

I like sheet Dacron so I do not need to be concerned about size. 4 inch wide is the
recommended width if you are going with roll material. After cutting the quantities
required, I set them out with the pattern so that I can get to the correct pieces when I need
them. Some of the pieces are close to the same size but not exactly so this way I do not
get them mixed up. The material list has some extra in case you need to make some over
later.

NOTE- DON”T cut the center holes out of the R6 and R7 pieces at this time. We’re
going to do that after they are sewed down.

PREPARE LOOP STRIPS-

Personally, I have had numerous a bad experiences with Grosgrain ribbon for loops. It
comes apart from the backside forward and when it goes, you’re not flying that kite
today, and you have a repair to do before you can fly it later. Not only that that, but when
you just got done telling the gathering hordes that YOU built this kite, and a loop blows
out, well- it’s not going to happen on this one.

Cut 8strips of RSN 1-1/4” wide by about 28” long. Cut along the grain as it makes the
next steps easier. Rotary cut is OK here too.
Lay your RSN strip on a scrap of your pattern cardboard or even a section of newspaper
for some padding.Take your Quilter’s guide and lay it down with ½” of the strip under
the guide. Being transparent, you can see the marks and line it up exactly.
This is where the table knife comes into play. Pressing down firmly on the guide, run the
edge of the knife over the fabric applying good pressure to form (burnish) a crease. If you
are working on a hard surface like a cutting mat, this isn’t going to happen unless you
have serious intentions. If you get too serious, you can probably expect to separate that
½” of material from the strip. All you need is a little padding to get this to work.
After “burnishing” the crease, your preformed fold will go down nice, straight, and long
with a little finger action. Turn the strip around with the crease up and burnish another
line about 5/8” from the edge. Now you should have a “U” shaped piece.
Fold the ½” down, lay the 5/8” on top and STRAIGHT stitch down the length along the
cut edge. Stitch the other side down and you have loop stock. Triple folded nylon that
will not fail. You need a lot of loops, so make at least 8 pieces.

PLEASE CONSIDER ONLY USING STRAIGHT STITCHING UNLESS I CALL FOR

A ZIGZAG.

CUTTING THE SAILS OUT

WINGS FIRST
Cut the four outer wings out first, checking the fabric edge for grain when laying the
pattern down. If your fabric has a really skewed grain, use your six foot straight edge,
square it up to the factory edge and cut the end square.
I use a bit of blue tape to mark the back side of my fabric as I cut out my parts.

If you want to go ahead and cut it all out, it’s your choice- but I cut each group of pieces
as I need them. Wings, then centers, then main, in that order.
When you cut out the main sail, DO NOT cut the center holes at this time.
Mark them, but DO NOT CUT.

Note that the patterns are ½ patterns for the main and center sails. Since you NEED to
know the center line anyway, mark it- and you can flip the pattern and do the other side.
Make registration marks at the center of the horizontals since you will need these marks
later and it will help you align the pattern when you flip it.

NOTE: If you only have 58-1/2” wide material do not worry- you can make up the
difference by “cheating” the reinforcement alignment. That’s why I had you cut the
reinforcements first.
When laying the pattern on short fabric, center the pattern so that the upper and lower tips
hang off each end about ¾”. This will all work out. Trust me.

SEWING DOWN THE REINFORCEMENTS

We’re going to do the wings first since this is the easy part and it will be good practice.
First- You need to apply a light coating of the 505 temporary adhesive into your shallow
cardboard box. This will give a little stick to what we’re going to put in it from now on.
Don’t hose it down, just a light spray will do.

Take your wing reinforcement pieces and lay them top and bottom (up/down) in the box.
They should stay put since we gave them a little sticky to hang on to.
Give them a little light spray of 505. You only need a little-little bit. This is really sticky.
Now if you DO hose it down, no need to panic, you’re going to put two pieces of
reinforcement on top of each other so it shouldn’t get too ugly. (But, if you were doing
appliqué? You would not like the results.)

Lay pieces on the reverse side of the wing sails first. Flip over and- (using your light
box)-, lay the front side of the reinforcement down so that it matches the back.
This way you can get the pieces nice and even front to back.
Sew them down stitching about 1/8” from the edge from the tip point turning to go across
and then back to the tip point. Reverse at the end. This gets covered by the EB so it’s OK
if it isn’t perfect.

After you have all four done, then “IT’S EDGE BINDING TIME”.

EDGE BINDING
If you have never done much Edge Binding (EB) on curves before, you will get lots of
practice on this build. THE ENIGMA has no straight lines.
There is about 100 feet of EB and the main sail may need 2 people to get it down
perfectly. When we get to the center circles, one person should sew while a helper
handles the fabric keeping the weight off so the sewing area can be kept flat.
If you are doing this at home, a spouse or friend, would be a great help later on.

SOME THOUGHTS ON USING COMMERCIAL BIAS TAPE-

Why use commercial double fold bias edge binding? Well- There are several reasons-
First, I find it is easier to run this on curves than strip nylon or Nylon Herringbone. The
second advantage is that you don’t have to make it. Third, the curves we are going to be
doing are very tight and I have never been able to get any nylon to do a really tight curve
without buckling and the commercial cotton/poly product is a lot easier to fix if you
happen to run off the sail edge since it has some give to it. Often, you will not know until
you’re all the way around the hardest curve that you missed it 4 inches from where you
started.

TIP
Press the EB with a steam iron on MED steam. The EB has sizing in it and when they put
it on the little card it gets stiff creases in it. We just want to get it straightened out and be
careful not to press it open when ironing. You need to check it out for seams. Wright’s
cuts this from bias fabric and stitch pieces together. These seams are fat and hard to sew
through and although they do a good job of not giving you very many, they do sometimes
occur. (I like to have a few extra packs of EB at the ready.)

TIP
One side of your EB is slightly shorter than the other. You want to sew it down from the
short side. This will guarantee that you got the long side stitched, even if you get close to
the edge. You can put the short side on the back or the front whatever you like. There’s
only about 1/32” difference but this tip does help when you are sewing it down. If you
sew on the long side and miss the short side on the back, it will quickly unravel. Then
you have to go back and rip it out and repair it- which I don’t think you want to do.
I like to stitch from the back side of my sail when edge binding, but if you like working
from the front side of the sail, please feel free to do so. I can only recommend that you do
all of your EB from the same side. These instructions will work either way.

TIP
Plan ahead- If you place the EB on the right side of the presser foot and the sail on the
left (away from the arm- outside of the machine). The center holes will then be the only
place where you will have to move the bulk of the sail under the machine arm. I
personally do not like to crunch up my fabric when I can avoid doing it.

TIP
Guide the fabric with your left hand, and with your right hand, “push” the EB into the
fabric edge. I have done a few thousand feet of EB and I can “feel” when the fabric edge
is fully inserted into the EB. You will learn to feel this too after a while.
Also, keep the EB from getting stuck or twisted. Start slowly. Nail the EB down with
about 1” of stitching and stop. If it doesn’t look right in the first inch, rip it out and try
again. If it is going down fully inserted and flat, you can go on. It is better to rip 1” out
than a foot. Don’t try to go all the way non-stop. I stitch about 5-8 inches, check,
reposition, and go again.

Let’s get going now.

WINGS
We already reinforced the tips, so measure out your EB along the curve and add about 1”
or so. Cut two pieces since both sides should be equal. Edge Bind only the sides that go
to the point.

CENTER SAILS
Do the same as you did on the wings. Set all the point reinforcements first, then EB all of
the outside edges.

BUT MY FABRIC IS ONLY 58-1/2” wide!!

OK, if your fabric is only 58-1/2” wide, this is where we “cheat” the reinforcements to
make the sail come out to 60” The reinforcements are curved, so is the sail cut. Match the
sail curve to the reinforcement curve and you should make up the difference (about ¾”).
If you want to be exact, use your cutting mat grid. SEE? This is EASY!

CENTER SAIL SPAR HOLES

The center sail spar holes need to be reinforced. I do these after the edges are bound.
Using your center marks on the BACK side of the sail (which you marked earlier, of
course-) 505 8 pieces of your 2 inch squares and line 4 up to the cross marks you made
when cutting them out- 2 per center sail. Flip each one over and using your lightbox,
place another 2” square on the front sides. The lightbox allows you to see the patch on the
back even through black fabric. Make sure that the cutout mark is up

TIP
Sew the center reinforcements down 1/8” from the outside edge of the Dacron, I work
from the FRONT side of the sail so any misalignment or stitch problems go to the back of
the sail. These stitches DO show.
Sew a second line on your center-hole mark to complete.
After all of the reinforcements are stitched with two rows, use your X-Acto knife to cut
out the hole for the spar. Cut just inside the inner stitch line.

MAIN SAIL
Now that you have all of this experience edge binding let’s get on to the main sail.

If you haven’t done it already, cut the main sail out, REMEMBER- DO NOT CUT THE
CENTER HOLES OUT YET.
Reinforce all the tips There are a lot of pieces so I work from top to bottom, doing no
more than 4 pairs at a time. The 505 holds quite well, but don’t get too far ahead because
you may lose a piece while handling the sail before it gets stitched.

I start EB at the upper center curve and work from the top down to the bottom. Left to
right or whatever you like. I do the right side by stitching EB top to bottom and the left
side by going bottom to top of the curve. This keeps the bulk of the sail outside of the
arm of the machine.

The EB should not meet at the tips, which is OK because the loops need that space.
EB all the way around the outside curves.

Add the center hole reinforcements now before moving on to cutting out the circles.
The bottom center piece will need to be clipped off to fit properly.

Now you should have the four wings, two centers and the main sail cut out and edge
bound.

SPARS
We need to make 4 spars 160cm for the spines.
And 2 spars need internal ferrules for the longerons.

Epoxy five of the ferrules into an 80cm P200 and one into one of the 32” P200’s
After they set, Dress and attach four 80cm P200’s to four of the 80cm ferruled pieces
above. These four are now 160cm and the other two pieces form the split longerons.

After this all is set up, insert the internal nocks into your four 160 cm pieces making sure
to align the nock grooves. Insert the arrow nocks in the longeron pieces as well.

TIP
Sometimes I get a little excess epoxy at the joint. To get rid of this, you need a little
#180, #320 and #600 grit sandpaper. I sand the epoxy off the joint using light pressure.
Take some Paste Wax and some T-shirt cloth for buffing to cover where you sanded your
spars. I also like the way the P200’s look waxed up. It adds some shine, so I do the whole
spar.

It took me about nine hours to get to this point.

I would call this a good day’s work.
Day 2

Back to the sewing.--

CENTER HOLES IN THE MAIN SAIL
The 2-person part I talked about earlier is next-.

So, we have these three 16” diameter holes left to do in the main sail.
Intimidating? Well kind of- but not so bad if you can get a little help.

Cut out ONLY 1 hole at a time. I like doing the bottom one first, but they are equally
challenging. So take your pick. You need about 54” of EB to make it all the way around-
maybe a little less by the math, but to make sure it isn’t short, go with 54”.
This works best with 2 people. My wife, bless her, helps me with this part since I don’t
have enough hands to and feet to do this alone. (I tried it once or twice, and it sure works
better when you get a little help) I start about 1” in front of the 12 o’clock point and stitch
counterclockwise so I can keep the “push” into the fabric. This gets really tricky when the
mass of the sail has to go under the arm but do it in short segments and you should be
OK.
One down, two to go, (It takes me about a half an hour to do one hole). OK, cut out hole
#2 EB it around. Then do hole #3.

We’re ALMOST done with the sewing. Nope, no more EB(all that fun is behind us now.)
We have some straight stitches to do on the kite and they MUST be straight and true.

MARK FIRST
Take TWO wing pieces you want to be the back wings, and measure and mark a 4-5 inch
long line from the center of the unbound edge toward the tip on the BACK SIDE. These
marks will line up the R7 reinforcements for the holes we need for the upper longeron to
pass through on the REAR wings.

On ALL FOUR wing pieces, fold over ¾” of the unbound edge on the BACK side of
each wing. This is where the burnished crease technique really helps out. You can get an
accurate and straight crease. This is the first important step to prevent ripples in the final
attachment of the wings. Sew this down close to the raw cut edge to form the sleeve for
the 4mm spreader. While we only need one sleeve on each side, we need to hem all four
wings. I didn’t hem my spreader sleeve edge top and bottom. I don’t think it needs it.
On the 2 REAR WING pieces (with the center marks) lay a 505 prepared triangle on the
back lining it up to the cut edge of the fabric fold. Flip over and match the front triangle
with the lightbox. Stitch a single line across the base of the triangle about midway from
the edge to the cutout line- ONE line only here. Double row stitch the sides of each
triangle using the lines as a guide like you did the center-hole squares.
Cut out the holes now.

LOOPS
I cut my loop stock at 3-1/2” long. I also like to 505 it so I can fold it and line it up for
sewing. I did not use triangles or D-rings in my loops and I suppose you could, but it adds
more parts. I use a compressed ZIGZAG to stitch the loops down making sure I leave an
opening for the tension line. I folded my loops over the tip and if you want them only on
the back that would be just fine too.
There are 28 loops. The 4 loops for the 4mm spreaders must go on the main sail before
attaching the wings.

ASSEMBLING THE MAIN SAIL AND WINGS

Lay the main sail flat on the cutting table. Using a straight edge mark a line from the
outside edge of the edge binding at the top wing attachment point down to the lower
point. Mark both sides- front and back this way. I use the edge binding to eliminate
guessing when I turn the sail over. Phil Womack says to mark when cutting out but I
think this way actually works better.
Lay a piece of C3 sail tape just inside the line on the sail fabric only on each side of the
back of the main sail. Peel the top off the tape and hold the rear wing piece taut (but not
stretched) and lay it down on the C3. The tip of the rear wing should cross the center hole
in the main sail. Press well to make sure you have good contact with the C3. Use blue
tape to hold the wing piece down in three places. Repeat for the other rear sail.
Carefully reverse the sail and C3 the front wings down. Blue tape them as well. All the
wing pieces should match up on their EB. This is a particularly important part since you
are going to sew all the pieces together at one time.
If you need a stitch guide, you can make a line mark to stitch along, but I usually use the
folded edge of the hem as a guide. Stitch from the front of the sail here. Stitch the seam
closest to the tip first (at the fold), running about 1/8” inch from the edge. You are going
to need to make sure that the rear wing hem stays flat and that you are picking up the
edge when making this seam.
Next, make another seam along side of the hem stitch to form the spreader pocket.

After completing both sides remove the blue tape.

Lay the sail assembly face-down on the table. Pull the wings out so the center of the main
sail is clear on the table.

LOOP LINES & EARLY SPARRING

Cut your loop line into 24” pieces.
TIP
I find that threading the loop line through an upholstery needle (basically, a GIANT
NEEDLE- they sell them in packs with four sizes from 6”-15”) I can get 100# line
through one of these with no problem. Since I make my loops with small openings, this
makes getting the line through much easier.

Slide your 4mm spreaders into the front side sleeves and slip on the MNCA’s . Cut two
of your loop lines in half to have four 12” pieces. Thread the loop line through the sail
loop and pass one end through the MNCA. Tie one end with a square knot approximating
about half of the spar extension. Bring the tension up to taut and tie the bottom with a
square knot. Again, this is much easier with a little help.
TIP
If you take the loop line twice through the MNCA, you won’t have room to add the tip
tension line so just go through with one line.
I put a loop line in all of the remaining main sail loops and the top and bottom of the
center sails so I can tie them without stopping to thread.
At this time you can lay your center wing spines (160mm) in place and attach the top and
bottom with loop lines using square knots. Try to keep the spine centered between the
tips. Don’t put too much tension on the sail but make it taut for now.

STOPPER PLACEMENTS
Lay the remaining two 160mm spars on the main sail, line up and center them to the top
and bottom loops. Install an FSD Tee on the ferruled half of the upper longeron with the
CROSS-HOLE DOWN. Slide it through the hole in the wing. Insert the other half of the
longeron through the other rear wing and join at the ferrule. Slide the tee to the center of
the joint. Center the tee over the spar hole and mark the longeron just inside where the
spines cross. Inside of this line is where the C-clips (DOHICs) get CA glued. I
recommend you take the longeron out before going anywhere near a perfect sail with CA,
but that’s just me. Before you get to any gluing though, mark where the top of the main
sail circles cross the spines. Just below this point are the tow points. Now lay in the lower
longeron attaching the FSD tee like before and mark the points at the center of the two
side holes. This is where the center sail will attach to the lower longeron.
Take the pieces out and CA your DOHICs.

TIP
For the tow points, I am using donuts that I can make by cutting off the end of a long
VEC into 2 donuts. A short piece of 10mm FG tube makes a nifty tool for pushing the
donut down the 7mm CF tube.

FINAL ASSEMBLY
Once you have all the stoppers in place, put the longerons in first and lay the spines on
top of them now. Tie off the tops and bottoms of the spines. Use Square knots since you
have a fair bit of adjusting to do at the end. Tie off the upper longeron to the tips. You
will start to see the main sail getting flat. Tie of the lower longeron and adjust until the
whole center sail is nice and flat with no ripples. Don’t put so much tension on anything
that it causes any spar to bend.

Take one Center sail and slip it below the main sail. Take the other and lay it on top of
the back. Line up the cross-holes. Thread a loop line through the side tips of the back
center sail. Then take each line and thread it through the corresponding loop on the front
sail. Wrap each line twice around the longeron outside of the DOHIC in opposite
directions and tie off with a square knot. You have to go through the lower part of the
main sail through the hole to do the lower longeron attachments.

Take four of your remaining loop lines and make a 1-1/2” loop in one end. Thread
through the center hole of the center sail and lark’s head around the spine in the center
sail at each of the four points of the center sails.
OK now stand it up on the floor and lean it against the table.
Take your 1 remaining 80cm P200 and push it through the upper FSD tee. Push the 21”
P200 through the lower tee. Measure them to get them centered.
Put the E40’s on each end and then take the lark’s head line through the hole tensioning
up the center and tie off using a taut-line hitch about 3” up the line. Take your remaining
two loop lines and thread through one wing loop and then through the E40 and then the
other wing then back through the E40. Tie off with a square knot on the top of the E40.

Go back to the 4mm spreaders and add a tension line from the top MNCA through the
longeron nock and then through the bottom MNCA finishing with a taut-line hitch. Do
both sides.

Congratulations Doctor, It’s an Enigma.

Now if your kite doesn’t stand straight- which does not affect flying, but enhances the
display- You need to adjust the spine loops to get it straight. Once you’re happy with it
trim your loop lines and add the VEC’s to the top and bottom.
Trim up all of the excess loop lines EXCEPT for the lines at the longeron tips. Leave
about 3-4 inches on each and tie a small overhand knot at the ends to prevent fraying.
You need to have these for TAKE DOWN (see below).

TAKE DOWN Procedure.

To take it down, loosen the 6 taut line hitches. Remove the E40’s and slide the 2 center
pieces out of the tees. Grab one pair of loop lines at the longeron tip and gently pull the
loop off the nock releasing the tension. Slide the tee back onto the ferruled end and
separate the longeron pieces. Rotate the upper longerons down and the lower longerons
pieces up into the sail.
You can now roll the kite up for storage.

BRIDLING
When Phil Womack published the original plan in 1997, he said he had never been able
to fly one without a drogue. I would agree with this using a 2-point bridle, but I am
experimenting with a 4 point bridle arrangement but as of this writing I have not had an
opportunity to try it out.

I have attached copies of Phil’s original plan post so you have it for reference.
Thanks for participation. See you on the flying field.