How to Make a Dopero Kite

Mark out a keel shape on some spare plastic, as per the dimensions on the template. For all the steps below, refer to the above photo if anything is unclear. A keel in black garbage-bag plastic looks good with a light-colored sail! If you lay black plastic against a window on a sunny day, even black marker-lines show up easily, I've found. Rule the lines with the plastic flat against the window glass. You can also hold the plastic up to the light while cutting along the lines with scissors.
Cut out the keel and tape down two lengths of flying line onto one side, using clear sticky tape. One goes from the bridle attachment point to the upper attachment point, and the other goes from the bridle attachment point to the lower attachment point. The pieces of line hanging free should be at least as long as your finger.
Now flip the plastic over and tape down another two lengths of flying line, directly over the first two.

Where two pieces of line come together, tie a Multi-Strand Simple knot close to the plastic. These two knots will sit against a vertical spar.
Where the four pieces of line come together, tie them into another Multi-Strand Simple knot close to the plastic, then tie another one further out. The photo shows all the knots.

All done? Now do it all again to make the other keel!

Poke a hole in the lower sail, just below where the lower horizontal spar crosses one of the vertical spars.
Take a keel, poke the upper two lines through the hole and pull tight against the knot, then tie them off around the bamboo with a Granny knot.
Use the keel itself to find the exact spot to poke the lower two lines through, near the bottom tip of the vertical spar. Poke a hole in the plastic there, thread the lines through and tie them off around the bamboo. See the photo.

Flip the kite over, lay the keel down flat, and lay a length of sticky tape all along the base of the keel. Place half the width on the keel, the other half on the lower sail plastic. See the photo. Because of the dihedral, you might need to use something brick-shaped to support the kite while you do this.
Now flip the keel over, so it lies flat again. Stick down the base with sticky tape. Now the keel is attached along its full length, on both sides.

All done? Now do it all again to attach the other keel!

Lay the kite down with the keels on top, then cut off a length of flying line about two skewers long.
Tie a small Loop knot into each end.
Poke holes in the upper sail, and hence attach the line to the vertical spars as indicated in the photo. Use a Double Wrap Slip knot in each case. This is the upper bridle loop.

Now make another bridle loop line. Again, about two skewer lengths long, with a Loop knot in each end. Make these Loop knots much bigger.
Now attach each end of this line to a keel, using a Larks Head knot. This is the lower bridle loop—see the photo.

Take another length of flying line about two skewers long, and attach one end to the middle of the upper bridle loop and the other end to the middle of the lower bridle loop, using a Prusik knot at each end. Let's call this the bridle line.
Now take a length of flying line about one skewer long, and tie one end to the bridle line with a Prusik knot. Tie a small Loop knot into the other end. There's the whole bridle, in the photo.
Secure every knot on the vertical spars with a tiny blob of wood glue. There are six in all!

Cut out a long thin rectangle of colored plastic for the tail. Mine is black, to contrast with the orange sail. Make it 10.0 SL (290 cm, 115 in.) long and 0.2 SL (5.8 cm, 2 1/4 in.) wide. Knot pieces together if necessary, to get the full length. Avoid taping, because it adds weight!
Tie one end around one vertical spar, and the other end around the other vertical spar. Slip the plastic under the bamboo and between the keel knots, but as close as possible to the lower knot. A single Half Hitch will do, since there are very low forces on the tail in flight. Pull it fairly tight and trim off any excess plastic. See the photo for the final result.

At this point, you've finished making the 1-Skewer Dopero!

To attach the flying line, just Lark's Head the flying line to the short bridle line.

As mentioned earlier, there's more kite making on this site than you can poke a stick at :-)

Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?

The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads — printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.

Every kite in every MBK series.