Steve,
I’m not sure about Ian’s design, but my wingmasts are 68" long. The chord dimensions are 4" at the base tapering to 2.25" at the top. The airfoil section is NACA 0020, although I’ve been playing around with slightly thicker (0021,0022) sections as well. The foot of the “soft” sail averages around 13".
Finished weight comes in between 150 & 200 grams, depending on layup. I’m finding that a lighter layup which allows significant lateral mast bend has better ability to absorb gusts.
Steve, The Land Yachts come in classes, each with a maximum length,width and height. Nice and simple.
Three wheels is the way to go.
Use inline skate wheels, sail area smaller than wet yachts as less friction and less righting moment means less drive needed to stay upright and accelerate.
lots of fun but a bit frustrating to start with, till you get the balance and technique right.
I still havent done much on my latest version. I need a good kick in the ar*e.
Yeah Ian, you still need a kick in the ar*e. But that is one of the nice things about you.
Seriously mate , there is a definite prob with these land yots. Basically there is only one club that I can find in OZ. They are out in the desert somewhere near South Australia. Fat lot of good thats going to do me 3000kls away.
The basic problem is two fold, at the moment: firstly , I can see they will be a prob sailing them. Secondly , the people I have asked about the parameters of the “things” point me in the direction of bloody classes. Classes mate , is what (at this stage) I don’t need. We need something basic to see if we can actually do this. This is probably the reason why Sydney is NOT inundated with these things. For it is a bit like showing space ships to the swzahili, if you get my drift.
Your saying (I think ) that there is a nak in sailing them.
I talked to my other mate about these yesterday, he said and I agreed that we will start with something basic say 1 metre long by one metre wide with a steerable wheel in the sharp end. With a mast leaning back about 50 deg. and a overall height of 1.5 metres. pocket luff for the mast and a pocket for the boom. And see what happens. Winch and servo steerage.
Steve,
You point out a problem that is inherent with a hobby in the early stages of development. Those of us in the upper midwest of the US have to drive several hours to get together for a regatta. I know the are several blokes from Down Under playing with these things. You might post a note on the IRCSSA Yahoo forum ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IRCSSA/ ) to see if there’s any activity closer to home.
“The basic problem is two fold, at the moment: firstly , I can see they will be a prob sailing them.”
They’re actually pretty easy to get a feel for.
“Secondly , the people I have asked about the parameters of the “things” point me in the direction of bloody classes. Classes mate , is what (at this stage) I don’t need. We need something basic to see if we can actually do this.”
The IRCSSA classes are simple “in the box” dimensional constraints. There is total freedom of design & innovation within these limits. Actually, the box sizes give a decent representation of the general proportions found to be successfull over the years. The main advantage to staying within a class is that it will facilitate racing in the future.
“I talked to my other mate about these yesterday, he said and I agreed that we will start with something basic say 1 metre long by one metre wide with a steerable wheel in the sharp end. With a mast leaning back about 50 deg. and a overall height of 1.5 metres. pocket luff for the mast and a pocket for the boom. And see what happens. Winch and servo steerage.”
It sounds like you’re off to a good start. I like the idea of the sleeved luff, as it’s simple, eliminates the hassle of a slot or groove & can provide an aerodynamic shape if done properly. My only suggestion would be to stretch the length to closer to 1.5 m. The 1m beam already puts you into the Class 3 box (see Ian’s post in the landyacht section ), so you might as well take advantage of the larger platform. I’ve seen “short” landyachts have a tendency to “trip” over themselves, similar to a multihull pitchpoling.
Yesterday, during our regular midweek evening sail at the lake, my fellow club members and I were lamenting the fact the we can’t sail all year round (on account of the lake becoming rather solid during the winter months).
The idea of building some land yachts came up (we hadn’t even been drinking). Our ice here in the Denver/Boulder area is not always thick enough for walking on - so the wheeled variety will be the way to go.
We’ve got the building skills, and would like to build from plans. Bill K - your K-1 looks like it could be an option. I’m thinking we’d probably go for something that fits into Class 2 or Class 3, - most of us own ODOMs and I’m guessing the sail servos will transfer across nicely for the season. Once we know what to do, we’d probably build a half dozen or so as a club project.
I don’t think any of us have experience with land yachts - small or large.
Any suggestions for a bunch of softwater sailors who don’t want to go cold turkey over the winter?
We were also talking about how to attract new blood into the club. Numbers are down this season apparently - since my arrival. I’m hoping nobody concludes the obvious from that.
The sight of a few Class 3 landyachts blasting around the carpark might help pull a few people into the sailboats too.
They probably thought he was a “hired gun” brought up here by someone to show us all how it’s done !
Actually, if you went with one of the smaller class yachts, - something with roller blade wheels, and not too expensivve, if you can get a few sailing, start selling the used ones to new interested sailors, and use revenues as seed money to build another. I found within the multihull interests - there is a lot of “wind and hot air” but few building projects under taken. We get a “hot one” who is going to build this and do that, and soon they seem to disappear. Sometimes I think someone from “down under” is spiriting them off to some strange land on the bottom of the world ! Most want to buy - not build (to me an unfortunate decision).
Muzza,
Welcome to a world of sailing faster than you’ve ever done before!! One big difference is that you’re never sailing directly downwind, because the boat speed is faster than true wind speed. As a result, the apparant wind is always forward & you’re sheeted in tight most of the time once you get “hooked up”. In many ways, it’s more like flying (on 2 dimensions of course).
Besides building from scratch, there are a number of good kits available ranging from a collection of cut parts to those that can be put together in an evening. Unfortunately, the IRCSSA website server crashed recently, so I can’t point you there as a resource. At the bottom of my webpage is a list of suppliers:
( http://www.iceboat.org/RCBoats/rc%20boats.htm )
Another source of information is this Yahoo forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IRCSSA/
In your area, Steve Lang ( http://rclandyachts.com/ ) from Evergreen, Colorado has been involved in developing the hobby for several years & handles a line of very nice kits designed by Robert Weber. Robert is sort of the “Grandfather” of rc landsailing going back to the 80’s. Steve also happens to be the AMYA Class Secretary of the RC Laser.
Your ODOM sail servos would be plenty strong if you wanted to switch them out, although I’ve found the Futaba S-3802 works just fine & is more compact than the S-3801 I’ve got in my ODOM.
I’m in Madison, WI on business this week, and Bill K was nice enough to invite me over to his house last evening. It was a pleasure to meet him and see his work. Unfortunately no wind for playing with boats, but I got a close look at K1 and was very impressed. I’m planning to build one this winter…hopefully in time to see some action on the ice. From what I saw, Class 3 looks like a good size to work with, and I don’t think you could go wrong building from his very complete set of plans.
