I would have thought that queensland would have lots of empty beaches where you can sail undisturbed
We do have lots of empty beaches here and lots of four wheel drivers. That can be a problem as exampled by vehicle accidents on Fraser Island that seem to happen with monotonous regularity.
The governing factor with land sailing as we all know is relative wind angle and in my experience (only blokarts so far), land yachts have less ability to climb to windward than water yachts. Also a beach is usually a long narrow track with unsailable water on one side and unsailable land on the other side. Many beaches occur where there is only a tidal range of one meter. Therfore during the limited window of a low tide you might end up with a sailable track of only three meters width. Then you have the question of surface, ie fine hard packed sand or coarse loose sand.
In Queensland the biggest limiting factor is our geography. From Cape Byron in northern NSW to Cape York the general direction of the coast is from SE to NW. Add to this a prevailing SE wind and you get a slower than wind speed run and a long walk back to the car!!!
If the winds were ENE or the coast ran SW to NE, except for rivers and headlands one could sail for a thousand miles in either direction at top speed. Maybe that will happen in the next life
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There are two long beaches in Queensland that generally run SW to NE. The first and longest is the ocean side of Fraser Island. This while not being quite as busy as Pitt St comes under Queensland Transport road rules. If one would sail there, he or she would be well advised to have a current will.
The second long beach is at Yeppoon about a third of the way up the Queensland coast near Rockhampton. This beach is excellent for landsailing. The tides here are among the biggest in Queensland. Some of the spring tides exceed 5 meters. The slope of the beach is almost horizontal which can give you up to 300 meters of width on a low tide. The sand is very fine with a slight mix of river silt or mud. This makes the surface hard and compact but still good for slideys. The beach runs from Yeppoon in the south about 20 klms to Corio Bay in the north with Rydges Capricorn resort about half way along being a good pitstop for a quick beer.
Winds here are very reliable coming in SE to ESE and the afternoon sea breeze usually picking up 15-20 knots sometimes gusting to 30 knots.
All of this is located right at Yeppoon which is a very popular tourist and holiday destination. So at the end of a great day's sailing you are only 5 minutes from pubs, clubs, motels and caravan parks. The other attraction to the area is the Keppel Island group with Great Keppel Island only a 1 hour ferry ride away.
For those that prefer a more secluded venue for land sailing and have a 4WD vehicle, about an hour north of Yeppoon via the Byfield National Park is Five Rocks Beach. Less people and no dogs chasing you on the beach. I haven't been there myself but friends have and they tell me it would be perfect.
There are some other beaches in Queensland that are great for landsailing but Yeppoon is the one I have fallen in love with. Unfortunately it is a five hour drive from where I live in Bundaberg and the real estate prices at Yeppoon are almost cost prohibitive.
For information about landsailing venues near to Brisbane contact Dave at Phoenix Landsailing.
I hope this info is of help to all reading the forum. For detailed info on Yeppoon, Google "Capricorn Coast Queensland".
Live long, have fun and be happy, Cheers Peter.
alright... a lot of help
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