I wanted to share this most exellent source of landyacht design information with you all. Very curious to hear about your L/W ratios...Topics include

www.rclandsailing.com/design.html#com

PLATFORM DESIGN TOPICS

Wheel Selection
Bearing Selection
Optimum Center of Mass (ballast location)
Expected Loads
Beam Bending Analysis Tool
Speedometer Setup
Generating down force with rear beam
Center of Lateral Resistance
Optimizing Length/Width Ratio for Maximum Righting Moment

Good site in fact I wen't and spent the $10 for a copy of the plans for the LS4 Mr Seluga mentioned that it can be sailed with just wing with out the fabric in higher winds. Pretty interesting stuff. I down loaded all the info even though some of it is to high tech for me. Yes, and welcome. I personaly have learned a book load of stuff from these fine good people.

What a fantastic read!

Thanks for taking the time to document your findings. Excellent stuff.

I think the problem with your speed readings might be the 'debounce' circuit inside the bicycle speedometer. The smaller the wheel, the faster the pulses come in, and in your case the wheel is really small...

The easy solution is to just stick a GPS on your model. These have really come down in price, and give you a convenient way of analysing your tracks. I have found one invaluable in maximising my speed on the water, and I would be surprised if you didn't find one very useful once you figure out how to get it working properly. The garmin models are quite small and light. The NAVI models are a bit bigger and heavier, but are more accurate and less error-prone.

The harder solution would be to add a flip-flop circuit to the sensor, this would halve the speed at which pulses come in to your bike speedo so should double your recorded top speed once you calibrate the speedo properly (just double the wheel size).

If "counter-steering" is a term to describe what I think its describing (and I only picked this up as you mentioned your XR), around here everyone knows it as power sliding. Lean over, give some throttle and the handlebars will have to be pointing (relative to the rest of the bike) in the opposite direction to the turn as you drift around a corner. Lots of fun to do.

As we're now sailing a landyacht; Im guessing your pushing the rear end of the yacht around with the sail in stead of simply steering in the direction you wish to go. The term "counter-steering" has a couple wondering (myself included) what your actually describing/achieving. Am I anywhere close to describing reality here?

I get it now, you've made it wider and longer, with a tortional mast step. I should hope it does go a bit faster
I would worry about the foot position for the steeing.
I try to set up my feet / seat floor so that you heels can get a good base to sit on. Otherwise the yachts are just too twitchy. that woulnt be as much of a problem with the longer wider format.
I DO like the idea of a moveablle mast step on a mini though



Oh no , here we go again