Hi to all, been reading this forum for around a week and have convinced myself that i need a LLM in the garage, the construction of the chassis seems pretty straightforward and i will follow the plans (almost to the letter)for ease of build, have my welding gear and have built stitch and glue power boats before.
The one thing i am not to hot on is the sail/mast, i have managed to pick up a alloy laser mast and a windsurfing sail from the tip, could i use this? i know that the sail will need the pocket recutting for a straight mast, time is on my side but alas a budget is not!!

Thanks in advance Phil

I would like to post a drawing of my mast which I designed using the drawings by Paul. This design would simply fit right into my base piece and allow my to retain everything else on my land yacht.



(If there are any issues with reading the drawing, let me know)

A few questions I have:

1. Is the diameter of the entire mast going to be too small for my land yacht?
2. Is the wall thickness to narrow for this size mast?
3. Is the clearence between tube walls at .0045" [.114mm] going to be a problem? I have some smaller diameter tubing just like this and it slides in very nice. But if there are any imperfections it is very difficult to slide in and out. Not sure what the stresses of a sail will do to this tubing.

In the drawing I show 6061 T6 aluminum. I can purchase all the pieces for $170 US. I can also purchase the same diameter tubings in a 6063 T832 aluminum for only $90.00 US. But I am not exactly sure how much softer the 6063 is, and what the difference is in the temper.

And my last option and possibly best option would be to simply re-design my bottom mast section to allow for a larger diameter tubing. I was also considering using the smallest diameter tubing in a thicker wall all the way through the mast.

Here is a link to some photos of my land yacht: webshots.com/weekly

Total weight: 140lbs / 64kgs
Mast height from frame: 18ft / 5486mm
7.0m sail

Thank you in advance for any comments and suggestions on helping me re-design my mast. I am very excited to get back out and start sailing again.

Terry