Welcome Nat!! I read somewhere once that the sensation of landyachting is quite similar to the sensation of gliding so I think you'll love it!!

Plans look great so far, I look forward to seeing your progress. 6.7sqm is a pretty big sail and it will be good for the light conditions, so you might want to get a smaller one after a while for the stronger winds.

Cheers

Phil

Thanks for the warm reception and good suggestions.

I think my next project will be a mini, given the places I have available to sail (carparks etc.) For now, the size of this design was dictated by the size of my sail, which I agree is BIG! In fact, I'm looking for a smaller sail to be more forgiving of a beginning sailor.

Made good progress the last day or so. Frame is coming along nicely with front steering set up, mast tube installed, etc. I plan on posting some pics tomorrow.

-Nat

"How I recut sailboard sails to suit landyachts"
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37622

Lake Eyre ... according to ABC news reports will take about a month to fill....
They also mentioned the Yacht club being active again on the lake soon.
Im doing my drive north to Alice Springs in a few weeks (work trip) it will be interesting to see what conditions the lakes are in along the way.

Working on the seat now. Got the deck installed. Next I'll add the side rails and the back.
Note: the blue tie in the front serves no purpose. I just tied it there to keep it out of the way.

Looks like its going to be a lot of fun Nat!
Please dont forget the seatbelt and helmet in your plans
That tarmac is very unforgiving

coolseatbelt, seatbelt,seatbelt

They say that Edison successfully found 600 ways a light bulb wouldn't work before he found a way that it would work.

You have successfully found a way that your land yacht will not work. Thankfully not when you were in it and hooting along at a great rate of knots.

Or in the words of "Winston", "Never, never, never, never give up."

I know what you mean about stick welders and light material. Most of my yacht is 1.6 mm thick material. I tried 1.5mm rods but the arc was too hot or I couldn't get a bond. I went to 2mm rods with the amps on the low side and got a better result. The 2.5mm rods needed higher amps to run and caused a lot of burn holes.

Looking forward to seeing your further progress. Cheers Cisco.

If all else fails, you know where to get the plans for a Lake Lefroy Mini Explorer and how much they cost (nix).

I tell my kids all the time: You can be successful doing something for the first time, but you not a master until you learn every possible way of doing it wrong.
You're right Cisco; I'm glad I learned this lesson at 0 velocity!

Picked up some steel today and frame-3 is under construction. It's just as well frame-2 was destroyed, because I'm much happier with my welding on this new one.

Guys, Thanks for the encouragement. For now, It's back to the shop for some chopping and welding. I've really been enjoying the welding part.

Frame-3 hot off the blocks: Forgive the picture. It was starting to get dark outside.
After this picture, I managed to get the steering link, seat deck and seat belt installed.

Question:

What size sail would you guys recommend using on my Mini for learning how to sail?

Kemosabi said...

Question:

What size sail would you guys recommend using on my Mini for learning how to sail?

Hi Nat, The sail size question depends on what your usual prevailing winds are among other things. If you normally have no more than 20 knots (37kmh), your relatively light weight and a reasonably large open area without obstacles to sail on, a 4m sail should be fairly OK. If you find you are getting out of control, depower the sail (ease the sheet) and steer into the wind.

Remember that an efficient sail will power you to 3 to 5 times the wind speed when sailing across the wind. Also remember to make sure you are securely belted into the craft and never put your arm or leg out if it tips over. The mast will hit the ground first and if it doesn't break (not likely to), you will be safe.

You can practise this by belting yourself into the yacht and have someone pull the yacht over by the mast and letting it drop to the ground. Overcome the instinct to save yourself by putting your arm out.

If you put your arm out when the yacht gets slapped down at speed, you are highly likely to cause a severe, permanent and very painful injury to your shoulder.

Does this sound like the voice of experience?? Well it is. I did it early in the piece and had my arm in a sling for a week. I was lucky. Cheers Cisco.

Looks great Nat
Some very good advice from the guys above
You are sailing on a fast unforgiving surface there
Keeping every part of your anatomy within the triangle of the three wheels is important to your health
Some sort of upstand around the edge of the seat would make this easier
A 4sqMetre sail on the Mini should be a good size for you as has been said
You should have a lot of fun with that machine

Hahaha!! That's a very funny image! Good to hear your having fun with it!!

Might be time for that slightly smaller sail!

We don't get much rain here. I think we averaged 7 inches last year, so it's pretty dry.
Spring is the wet season. Last week we had blizzard that shut down all the schools and sent us all home from work early and tomorrow we're under another blizzard warning.

Next chance I get, I'll snap some pictures of my test track. Not many beaches or salt flats here in Colorado, so I take what I can get. Eventually, I want to try sailing a place that's about 20 miles from my house. Good wind, lots of open space, miles and miles of dirt roads. It's an open range so I have to watch out not to hit a cow as I'm flying along! Here's a pic: