As expected most of the tanks for sale in the UK have been snapped up, despite prices being higher than we have seen before. The Alugas crisis appears to be going on until at least the end of 2022.
Apart from tanks, June saw the sale of two envelopes, several burners & fans and Dick Sargeant’s custom ‘balloon bus’ – although the last mentioned not through these pages.
Following the renewed interest in Hot-air airships, perhaps driven by Bobbie Frankham, we welcome two smaller ‘ships’ to these pages advertised by Crispin Williams.
New from Zebedee are several good tether ropes and an old style Bonanno quick release. With the imminent sale of the BA envelope, the good condition Westfalia 2.5m trailer, currently in BA livery now becomes available as a separate item. Another item which may interest Lindstrand fans is a well used Quad burner unit (no frames) which stands to offer some useful parts, particularly coils and the ‘H’ bar that keeps the cans together. Other parts may be ‘rescuable’ but will need extensive cleaning, lubrication and new seals etc. An Easy Balloons test report is available from us.
We are somewhat surprised at the lack of interest so far in Cameron Z-77 envelope G-CIXR – anonymous colours, just 7 hours on the clock, new UK ARC (Export variety available!), no wait till the end of the season for delivery and less than two thirds the new price …..!
As with so many things at the moment the price of items from our suppliers is increasing, so several items in Zebedee’s Box have had to follow suit this issue.
It came as a shock recently to discover that Zebedee is nearly 50 years old! We bought our first sewing machine on 24/7/72 for £15 from a London “junk shop”, put it together and smartened it up for mending our first balloon G-AZIP ‘Dante’ and making tank covers and other accessories for the limited number of pilots of the era. We moved into buying and selling balloons and equipment in the early 80s then publishing the Zebedee List a few years later (423 months ago!). We are not quite sure what has happened to all those years – or how eventually to halt this unstoppable train! As with life in general our sport has become much more bureaucratic than those early years, especially since the build up to EASA in 2008 and the struggle we have with exporting items since Brexit. At the last count we have sold items in 46 countries worldwide including all but 3 of the EU nations.
Pete & Celia