Hi, my name is Twm and I am a first year architecture student at the University of Liverpool.

I have recently been assigned a project to design a Centre for Windsurfing and Land Yachting at Crosby Beach in the north of Liverpool.

I have already started a thread in the windsurfer section of the forums and following some really useful tips from them I'm hoping to gain some more from you guys, or the landies as you are refered to over there!

Firstly I would like to know what you would expect from such a centre. Things you like about exisiting centres, things you despise about them, and additions you think would be good.

Secondly, I would appreciate some insider knowledge on the dimesnions of the land yacht and the methods for storing them. How long are the carts and how wide are they (at their widest points). The same info would also be handy for the sails...can the be roled up as the windsurf sales can for storage?

The land yachts used on Crosby Beach would likely be no larger than Class 5. So the dimension of the Class 5 yachts are the ones I'm most interested in.

I look forward to hearing from you and any help you can provide is much appreciated!

Excellent, thank you hills those were just the sort of dimensional details i was looking for.

You guys can race these yachts around tracks too?! That's awesome!

The layout of the club you mentioned is very similar to what I have in mind. Though I'm thinking the storage area will be semi submerged in the terrain, as this will allow easy access to the beach.

So I will certainly do some background research into Lake Lefroy and any pictures that you guys can show me would be great!

But you see, due to a sea wall, the storage area would have to be dug in to be on the same level as the beach. To avoid flooding I would have to include some large doors/gates to keep the sea water out at high tide. I don't have a budget and the idea is generally to go crazy, with an element of practicality involved.

As for the McLaren Land Yacht, I have seen those pictures before. It's very impressive, and considering how radical the changes are to next season's Formula 1 car's, not all that far fetched.

I will dig up some photos of our old and our new clubhouse/s at Lake Lefroy. Whilst visitors to Lake Lefroy used to love the old clubhouse it is worth remembering that for a small club a clubhouse can also be a burden. Expenses such as maintainance (ours was on an Island in the middle of a salt lake!), security, insurance, cleaning, power etc.
Yacht storage at the clubhouse was also a double edged sword. Yes it was convienent having your yacht at the lake - cut down the need for trailers etc especially for the owners of big yachts however storing your yacht in a clubhouse near a salt lake/beach led to increased corrosion from the salt. Also unfortnately there were issues occasionally with people using/borrowing/taking bits from other yachts when their yacht broke down or worse still when they had a freind visit and wanted another yacht

HoweverHaving showers, toilets, a verandah to sit on and watch the races or wait for the wind was nice

OUr new clubhouse IMO is much better - virtually not maintainance, no security problems as it is open and nothing to pinch except a bit of firewood. For those who have not visited for a while - we have recently put in a small rain water tank, enviro loos and now have a shower block (BYO camping shower pump or a bucket!)
Most importantly it gets used...lots.
cheers Susan

Here's my brief if any of you would like to read it for yourselves:

Windsurfing/land yachting centre
Task

Design a centre for windsurfing and land yachting on a site at Crosby marina
Windsurfing and land yachting are sports which give the user a sense of freedom, speed and exhilaration whilst requiring skill and experience to exploit fully. The task is to produce a design that reflects these qualities and enhances the urban environment. As with all design, the key to achieving a solution which is both architecturally exciting/dynamic and answers the functional brief is to fully understand and appreciate the nature of the activity involved together with a full
appreciation of the site and the context.

Site
Crosby is a town to the north and effectively now a suburb of Liverpool. It is home to Antony Gormleys another place and the Liverpool Freeport container dock, both of which are adjacent to the site. The marina is a long established part of the area and is currently undergoing a refurbishment. The existing sailing club has a new watersports centre currently on site which will cater for dinghy sailing and canoeing.

You may use a maximum building footprint of 20% of the site area. This means that you should design car parking/landscaping for the area of the site not taken with the building.

Schedule of accommodation

In this scheme, the accommodation listed below is definitive and must be provided. Your presentation should demonstrate how the facilities work and each of the accommodation requirements is satisfied.

•Entrance and retail area
Provide an entrance and reception area for course enquiries and a small retail area for items ofwindsurfing boards and accessories, wet suits plus books/videos.
•Equipment store
Provide sufficient storage, drying and maintenance for 15 windsurfing boards and sails, 5 land yachts plus sails. There should also be storage for 20 wetsuits and an adjacent external area for washing down equipment should be provided.
•Class room
Space for 5 students plus instructor to work comfortably at desks (or tables) plus TV/video, bookshelves and wall space.
•Changing/shower facilities
Separate male and female changing area – provide changing space for a maximum of ten people each sex, 2 showers each sex, 2 toilets each sex.
•Small café area
To seat for a maximum of 20. Do not let this grow out of control. You should visit the Library Café in the Sydney Jones library for a guide to the maximum size that you should provide.

Security
You should consider the security aspect of the building which contains an amount of expensive equipment and will be unattended for periods.

External Spaces
Observation area for friends and relatives (internal and/or external), drop-off point for people and equipment including windsurf boards, land yachts and other heavy equipment, loading area. Parking for a minimum of 25 cars laid out to Metric Handbook dimensions.

Research and Precedent study
You are to investigate and communicate detailed information about the functions carried out in the building and find/document an appropriate contemporary building that occupies a similar site (urban/) and proble (sport/activity/maritime/education).

Educational objectives
This scheme builds on the work of the first semester. You should apply the methods from the conceptual workshop and the skill building exercises (drawing/modelling/CAAD) in this scheme. In addition to needing a full understanding of the functional requirements of the building, you will be introduced to site analysis, a key component of a design formulation. You should pay full
regard to the location and the context(physical/historical/metaphoric/social/cultural) in conjunction with the functional requirements in formulating the form and the silting of your design.
you will need to address (amongst others):

•Site analysis leading to design strategies for an urban/seaside context
•Functional analysis of the requirements of the building
•Materiality – appropriate materials for use/site/conceptual basis
•Consideration of environment - a diagram showing the environmental strategy
•Efficient and spatially accurate space planning

Computing
You will be introduced to more computing skills as part of this project. As an integral part of your presentation, you are required to produce a minimum of 4 page Desktop Published document of your precedent study to be presented at the final review. The emphasis is on how well the report is designed as much as what it contains. You should use well-designed books and magazines as a basis for generating your own design. You may use any DTP package, but you may not use a wordprocessing programme such as Word. The Universities managed Network has CorelDraw and Corel PhotoPaint which may also be used. Introductory sessions will be arranged and online tutorials can be accessed from the School’s
web site. You are encouraged to continue using SketchUp for design development.

Site Visit
The site visit will take place on Monday 2nd immediately following the project introduction. Details at project introduction.

Presentation
You presentation may not occupy a wall area greater equivalent to 5 A1 sheets (not including any models/sketchbook etc). You should plan your presentation clearly and concisely to demonstrate/explain the conceptual basis and design process that lead to the presented scheme.

•Site analysis diagram (max 1xA1 sheet)
•site plan at 1:200 showing surrounding area
•plans, section and elevations @ an appropriate scale
•contextual section @ 1:200 (showing adjacent buildings and Marine Lake)
•axonometric @ 1:100
•environmental and structural strategy/diagram
•developmental models and sketchbook
•DTP precedent study
•final physical model of building

Hmm a winch system, that's an interesting thought. I shall look into it.

This is our new 'clubhouse', there is a little lean too section off to the right where we have a sink and bench space. Since this photo we have added gutters to the roof to collect the rain water and a small tank. This gives us water for washing etc


This is the old clubhouse in 1971(photo by Willie Darhman), yacht storage underneath (accessed from other end), clubrooms up stairs, big verandah to catch the breezes, toilet block/showers and bbq area out the back, wash down pad at other end. Not bad when you consider the club of the day fund raised to pay for materials and built the things themselves. The club house was located on an island in the middle of Lake Lefroy. Today it is all gone and a mining open pit is there

I will add a few links that might get you thinking.....
http://www.carstackers.co.nz/
www.parkstack.com/

since you need a carpark ,make the place 5% building,5% grass, 90% carpark, no concrete and you have a 52 weeks a year miniyacht racing /sailing area, which can be rented out as car parking during the week, ie make a profit!!!!!!!!!!!!. set aside an area for the during the week sailors. since the stacking system is for small yachts /windsurfers, look into the racking systems that hardwhare stores use for their rolls of canvas,plastic sheets ,etc. automatic feed on the wall.

landyacht, well the building is allowed to occupy %20 of the land and only 25 car parking spaces are asked for in the brief. I doubt I will use any less of a building footprint than I am allowed...you take these luxuries as they come! ha ha

Thanks Arjay a useful link there, I will definetly look into it. Also I'll look into having a go at land yachting....the windsurfers want me to try windsurfing too. I shall definetly aim to try both sports, although maybe when things warm up a little here.