Ok, well first of all; g'day to all, new to the site (well was sure I joined many years ago but dropped off radar many years ago) and my (questionable) first post.
Close mate of mine (Cob, as in Cobber), whom bought a Hobie Adventure Island (sailing tri hull kayak) from me. Found in hard street rubbish (what a great service and supply source (looking around innocently) a 4.8m mast + sail from a wind surfer, and has asked if I could help him build a land yacht.
With no hard plans to work off, just a mast and sail, it was off to WWW to see if I could find some info, plus some simple plans to work off. Of course, these would also be limited to availability of salvaged materials, a very limited budget and hopefully advise/input from members here with the experience and knowledge.
Now a machine that has really caught my eye, is the "Seagull Silence" (no plans available), and with the Lake Lefroy Mini (LLM) (which there seams to be plenty of info + plans available here on Seabreeze) similar in size, I thought I might be able to use the overall length/width + angles etc to build a frame similar to the Seagull.
Main reason I am leaning towards the Seagull styled frame, is the light gauge salvaged steel I have on hand. It's 1.5mm x 42mm diam gal tube from a circular trampoline frame, Please don't hold back, open to all comments
My two main concerns are:
(1) the light gauge
(2) the punctures along the steel lengths, where the springs were inserted.
Main reasons to use this steel:
(1) the light weight
(2) to make use of the nice curves
(2) to use perforations and springs, to make a trampoline style seat base, inside the frame
(3) gal protection.

Steering: I am hoping to use the steering neck from a salvaged bmx, will remove the bearings and replace them with bushes machined down from either polyurethane skateboard wheels or old nylon wheel salvaged from abattoir carcass hooks.
While on the subject of steering, I have read that suspension softens the performance of a land yacht; is that aimed more towards rear suspension which I am guessing bears most of the wind load?
While a completely different designed land yacht to an LLM etc, I note the good experiences of AUS230 with front suspension here. I am curious if anyone has tried, or has an opinion about Girder fork or Front Link suspension on the front of a smaller land yacht?
I guess it is also worth mentioning/asking now, as I have mentioned suspension. I think it was Gizmo who tried using ski's as a rear axle, found 1 set was too soft, so doubled up with a second set. Since reading the thread when I first started my search, I have not been able to find the thread nor the outcome of his experiment. Would love it if someone can reacquaint me with the thread, or if Gizmo can chime in with his findings.
Well I guess that will do for a start and thanks in advance for any help/advise.

Gday Hiko and thanks for the reply.
Could you tell me if you glued the two ski's together or just clamped.
Not sure if it is overkill, but I have been toying with the idea of fix mount the bottom ski, then with use of a spacer (at the mount) and slotting the top ski so it can then move in/out. Would then weld stub axle to to two pin shackles and that way could adjust wheel camber if needed. To help stop the top ski from moving, I thought a full thread bolt with a tube nut could be dropped into slotted ski between the fixing bolt, that way (while fiddly) the bolt/nut could be adjusted in length and the ski under load, could not be pushed inwards adjusting the camber.
Any thoughts?

I never thought of a ski up front, you may have something there!

As for the TIG welding, buying a good tig does not make thy a good welder. Will do my best. One thing for sure, will need to clean prep well and weld with good ventilation. Can think of better things than welding gal.

Hi Elm
My two ski minis have the axles held on the inboard end with two 10mm studs welded to the chassis and the axles held with two flange nuts each side The outboard ends have stub axles welded to a plate and two 8mm setscrews pass through a plate underneath through the skis and are tapped into the top plate and stubaxle which is one welded unit
Hope this makes sense. All fastenings are along the length of the skis.
The skis are permanently joined together at the stubaxles but are only held together at the chassis when they are mounted They work exceptionally well and give just the right amount of flex for me [around 100kg] but would suit a wide range of weight I think
They have been on there around 8 years now
I did originally try a single ski but it proved to have too much flex
Cheers Hiko

For the beach I'm set up with 20 x12 slicks, not quite as fast as wheel barrow wheels but I can keep going in the wet and soft stuff. I have had the tyres a long time as they just don't wear on the beach, I think they are sold as all terrain buggy tyres.