By David Harry
Staff Writer

These club members don’t mind being told to “go fly a kite.”
Last Saturday, with long strings and all manners of design and a steady breeze on a sunny day, about a dozen members of the Nor’Easters Kite Club converged on Bug Light Park in South Portland for what they hope will be an annual vintage kite fly-in.
Member Ralph Reed admits the club is very unofficial. Members pay no dues, elect no officers, have no bylaws and hold no meetings. They just like to fly kites, especially at Bug Light.
“It’s the best place in Maine to fly,” said John Martin, a Waterford resident who comes to the park at least once a month.
The long flat lawn at the park, winds coming off Casco Bay and lack of overhead power lines all make the park an ideal spot, even if the definition of a vintage kite was never clearly defined.
Reed, a Lowell, Mass., resident, said vintage means “early sport kites that are loud and noisy.”
Others brought kites that hearkened to older designs, even while sporting optical illusions such as a saxophone player who turned into a pretty woman’s face.
Reed said the park is one of the three best places in New England to fly kites, as Martin handled a 1945-era “Gibson Girl” kite he said was used by downed World War II fliers to hoist radio antennae.
Although club members are often affiliated with larger clubs including Kites of New England or the American Kite Fliers Association and fly sport, stunt and vintage kites, they may also spend their time sitting in tents after securing the lines and sending the kites aloft.
No one flew the traditional diamond-shaped kite made of newspapers during the fly-in, but designs ranged from elemental to intricate Saturday. One of the kites Reed flew was a simple cloth model made from spare kitchen curtain material. As it soared above the park, Mark Williams of Laconia, N.H., pieced together a Rogallo Corner kite constructed in two stages.
“It’s an inside-out box kite,” said Williams. “It’s just a unique design that is challenging to put together.”
Williams said he has been visiting Bug Light Park for about four years, and equally enjoys the camaraderie and wind conditions.
“The folks here are among the friendliest and most helpful. And if the wind is going to be consistent, this is where it will happen,” he said.
While Williams pieced together his kite, Rumford resident Dana Duke wondered if her tetra-style kite, a series of triangles of plastic sheets, would take flight.
“Its first flight might be its last,” she said of the kite she bought on eBay.
She had not expected to fly it when she  discovered the 37-year-old plastic was worn and torn. Duke spent the night before the fly-in repairing the kite with packing tape, she said.
Duke was not the only flier testing an old kite: Glenn Davison said he pulled his kite down from the wall after 10 years to see how it would fly.
Davison said the kite design, made of paper with bamboo supports, dates to the 19th century. After a decade on the wall, the kite took wind easily and soared above a backdrop that included a berthed oil tanker near the park and wedding guests walking back from a ceremony near Bug Light.
While conditions Saturday lacked a full breeze, South Portland resident Tony Heeschen said club members are hardy enough to have an annual fly-in each New Year’s Day at the park.
The fly-in may not last long because of cold weather, but a potluck meal afterward keeps the camaraderie going, he said.
The next fly-in at Bug Light Park is scheduled for Sept. 12, and Heeschen said club members and the public are also invited to celebrate the annual One Sky One World International Kite Fly for Peace at the park on Oct. 10.

Staff Writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219.