After five years of running up and down soft black soil farm tracks only when the wind blew hard enough from the right direction to get us rolling, we have taken a huge step up and have permission to use a hard claypan 45 minutes away. Suddenly all the comments about handling, cornering traction, sail trim, apparent wind and pointing ability are making sense. Not needing to take a particular line to keep on the narrow track has opened up a wonderful world where gusts can be used to accelerate rather than tip and we can pass each other now when you get a good run going. Even better is the interest a few others have taken in our goings on, with luck more minis are on their way. Four on the go at once is our current record with number five in the workshop getting a safety belt and an attachment for a tandem seat welded to its chassis. The area is about 500m long by 100m - 400m deep with a couple of raised islands to go around. A few lines of soft soil run across the area and the difference between wheelbarrow and golf cart wheels really shows here. Now we have to think how to arrange a course to hone our skills. With room to turn it might be viable to build something bigger than an LLM now.
Looking forward to some windy weekends.


On two wheels into the sunset









Even the old battenless sail could get things going when trimmed right.




About to fly past dad.

Well the wind has finally picked up and each week our speed records tumble. 4 years ago 47 kph was our best which held for a long time until being brought up to 49.9 in a gale last year on the two seater with a sail far too big for the conditions. . Shifting to the hard claypan got us up to 54.0 a few weeks ago, being limited by our 200m reach. This was with the ancient Hammond non battened red white blue dacron sail. Last week we swapped claypans for one that gives a longer 250m reach with westerly winds and promptly wound up to 57 kph with a hastily cut down 1980's red / yellow dacron wild winds sail. Shortly after our best to date was reached with a 5.0m2 mylar Arrows Manitou sail rescued from Darwin tip fitted to a 40mm diameter 2 way radio aerial that was bulked up with some slit 40mm PVC and loosely fitted into a length of 50mm fibreglass tube. 65.6 kph. As expected this dodgy mast did not make it through the day with the 50mm tube eventually splitting above the boom attachment ( the boom rope help keep it together for a while) and at the base. The radio aerial is still intact so a search is on for something that will fit the base more neatly. Its flex suited the sail well in the 50kph gusts. The cut down pink kids sail continues to impress, for something only a couple of metres in size, as old as the hills, sun faded and at the end of the day holed and battenless it consistently pushed their tandem to the mid 40's and on a single seater later in the afternoon got the adults up to the low 50's.
Surprisingly not a huge difference in overall speeds between the various different minis we run. Acceleration and ability to point upwind is definitely better with the two mylar sails but cross wind the smaller sails could be driven hard without worrying about wheel lift and really turned well (front wheel had traction!) compared to the bigger sails. The battenless sail took on a strange shape as the speed increased with the leading edge beginning to loosen off when the rear half of the sail kicked in and pushed hard. It was a balancing act keeping the leading edge happy for lower speeds and acceleration and the belly and trailing edge clean for top end.
Another front expected this weekend so time to think about a course which means we will have to brush up on the rules of the road and hone our gybing skills.
Dependent on wind, what sort of speeds can reasonably be expected on a 250m reach with soil that sinks about 3mm under the wheels?


Four at once



Battered but not beaten, our baby sail.




The Kids getting stuck into it on the tandems.






Getting some air with the Manitou.




The roughest sail in town, still good for 60+