Hi guys,

First off, what a great online resource this place is!! Its so interesting to read up on what you guys are fabricating next! I love the home build ethos, it seems the right attitude to my mind to be competing on who can do it cheapest !!

I am a Nube to the world of sand yachting; I live in a village called Westward Ho! North Devon and I predominantly spend my free time surfing. During the winter months we get allot of onshore wind that has a tendency to turn any surf to mush so I’ve been thinking for a while i should have something stashed in the garage for such days.

We have a pretty big tidal range (approx. 8-9 m depending on which chart datum you look at) and the beach is totally covered twice a day leaving lots of flat hard sand to play with. Even though I'm a Naval architect and work in shipbuilding im no metal worker so I am "trying" to build a 5.6 mini out of wood, luck and hopefully minimal duct tape.

It’s based upon some plans that I got from Stevenson Projects in the US. It’s called a Vector Landsailer. I thought working away from a proven design would give me a better chance of it being tough enough. I have made some modifications to the design;

The original has wings next to the cab for "hiking out" witch i am not going to fit.

Having looked over the mini designs on the forum the mast positions seems to be approx. 65% length between wheel centres so i have moved the mast position back from the original. The drive for this is because I'm using re-cut windsurf kit so as this is a marked departure from the original.

Anyway ill stop chittering on and put some pictures.