Greetings from the North coast of Scotland!


Living 2 minutes from a 3 mile beach and having sailed for 28 years (plus having a degree in yacht design) my thoughts have turned to land yachts. I'm looking to build one and having read a lot of great threads on here I had a few ideas that I wondered if anyone had tried....

Idea 1 - I seen a few threads on here about weight balance and light steering. Has anyone thought about installing spoilers either side of the main beam in front of the seat? I'm guessing they could be plywood boxes with a variable pitch plywood panel to generate down force. This would obviously increase down force as speed increases?

Idea 2 - on the Optimist dinghy the mast rake is changed using a mast cup on a threaded bar and slide on the sole of the boat. The mast is supported further up by the thwart. Would this work on a land yacht? Guess you would need some sort of space frame to support the mast where the top of the tube would have been.

Idea 3 - this is my favourite but also the most whacky.....has anyone tried fitting ski's and wheels on their yacht? I' m thinking it would be fun to have a similar set up to planes that have the ski's with the wheels poking through. I'm thinking that if you're on the beach you can go into the shallow water and plane on the ski's then drop off on to the wheels back on the sand? Do you think that would work?

Just getting my shopping list together then the build will start!