My attempt at converting a windsurfer mast and sail for use on a mini landyacht
inspired by landyachts posts on this forum
The mast is a 4.6 metre part carbon one that I procured second hand for $30
some time ago This was cut into three pieces and joined using Australian bluegum
as joiners The mast was also reinforced at the joins by a wrapping of glass tape
and epoxy resin A stiffener of Western red cedar was inserted in the base



The sail That I recut is shown here on top of a class5 sail for comparison


This photo shows the sail after the luff and foot has been cut off



The sail after resewing the luff and foot adding the reinforcing to the clew etc
The sewing machine used was a domestic Janome which handled the job very well
operated by my longsuffering wife [she wouldnt let me near her machine] We broke three needles but this was only when we hit the seared webbing ends The machine would have been better at this job if it were geared down slower but was quite adequate overall I obtained some 5mm plastic and made some batten cups on the drill press instead of the original webbing ones
The wrinkles at the batten ends I hope will come out when proper battens are fitted I ripped down some timber and fitted temporary unshaped ones to the pockets for the photo and to see how the luff looked
The final size came out at 4.4 sq M and 3.8sq M with the reef in
Shown here fitted to the class5 I hope to try it out on
The total cost of mast and sail after alterations to both is $92 without battens
Many thanks to landyacht for his great advice and inspiration

You're doing some good stuff there Hiko. I think I see a sewing machine in my future somewhere.

Bravo Hiko!
I too am interested in how your newly cut sail performs.

The wooden bits for your sectional mast; Did you turn them on a lathe or use a hand plane like Paul?

No problem Hiko...
The Lone Ranger is used to taking a ribbing now and then!

Much of the US thinks we here in the west are just a bunch of cowboys. For the most part they're right. Still funny when they ask us questions like "do you have internet out there in Colorado"... assuming we still ride stage-coaches and get into shoot-em-ups at the local saloon.

That's one of the quickest ways to spend the night in jail. Plenty of people do it anyway. I don't think they would care if you rode your horse plastered, as long as you weren't running people off the sidewalk.

Looks grouse Hiko. Can you give us some more detail on how you did the front forks? Material, method, aligning etc

The front wheel and forks came from a bike in the skip at the local dump
I cut the original steering tube off and welded a shaped 4mm plate across the forks where the front brake used to mount and welded the new steering tube
[25x2.5 SS ] on an angle to that It has a short piece of 20 mm tube inside in the lower part
I drew out the geometry according to landyachts instructions but it took me three attempts to get it right Small errors have big effects The tube that holds the bushes is 38x2 and the bushes were machined from a chunk of pvc bar from the offcut bin at an engineering plastics outlet
The machining of the bushes was done on my drill press as I dont have a lathe
A drill press can function as a vertical lathe of sorts with a bit of thought
The build has been rather slow as matierial in small quantity was one problem
and making up my mind about the seat was another
I had lots of ideas regarding the seat but in the end decided to keep it simple
so altered the frame yet again
Have enjoyed the project so far

My mini seat under construction I used the stitch and glue method using 6mm
Meranti ply Quite splintery wood! The shape is basic slightly flared out sides
narrower than the plan and higher to give good security for children
The temporary formers are made from scraps from a kitchen factory and held with drywall screws

nice work again. a few years ago when I was building my schooner I used some of that maranti ply , your right it was pretty bad. the gabboon was much nicer, but if you want really tough and nice to work , look out for hoop pine marine ply. its really stable and you can soak it, bend it and dry it out with the bend intact.
doesnt want to split or delaminate.
that lovely tool was the mystery item on a show called "the collectors"

Hiko said...

This is the gadget I used to hold the parts of the forks for welding
I picked up this ancient piece of weaponry some time ago in a second hand shop
for a good price as no one knew what it was
Its very good for this kind of job saves the wife from arc flash and burnt fingers
and my ears resulting thereof Holds it steadier too

I like it. I will have to make one or I will give you $20 for that one.

I was going to do a bean bag thing for Diablo but after checking out bean and bag prices I opted for a patio chair cushion from K-Mart for $35. It is a bit light though and if there is a decent breeze it tends to get blown out before I can get in.

I am now thinking small high density foam pads covered with vinyl and permanently fixed at the pressure points ie bum, hips and lumbar.

Sorry cisco but i have to post this.......LOL

What about padded shorts? cyclists, dinghy sailors use them.
but might look interesting under Pauls "Blue Super Suit"

You really have a nasty streak in you gizmo!!

whats the go with Kiwis and Grey! is it a camouflage for those black sand beaches?
It looks like another sweet mini there Hiko

I made a boom fitting for my mini today I had a piece of unidirectional carbon cloth
laying around and I have always wanted to make something useful with it
The boom on my mini is quite low so getting the blocks and sheet internal seemed like a good idea I bought two 60mm sheaves from a local chandler for $5 each and designed the fitting around those

I cut piece of timber 24mm x 24mm and 300 mm long and taped it to the boom
to form the shape for the fitting and then wrapped the timber and boom with 3 layers of gladwrap film and laid one layer of woven fibreglass one layer of the carbon with the strands going over the boom two strips of carbon running along the boom where the sheave bolts are and then another layer of fibreglass cloth over all
I wet out the layup on a flat board with aprox 70mls of resin and then placed it on the boom and covered it with more gladwrap some rubber sheet and clamped it all
up in the vice and left it overnight to cure
Here is a sketch of the layout of the fitting


Today I cleaned up the fitting and inserted the aluminium cheeks and sheaves
The spacers were made from a small piece of stainless tube
here is a pic of the final setup


I tried it all on the yacht today and it looks like it will work well and is very light

There is nothing amateurish about the work you do Hiko.