Dear All land-yachties
Happy Christmas to you all.

My son and I just finished a welding course and decided (as our 1st project) to build a land-yacht of sorts! We were motivated by the remarkable projects shown on this site. Attempting this project makes us appreciate the magnificent craft that you seasoned campaigners show us on this web-site!

We took our craft out for its first spin - on a wide beach near Wilsons Prom in southern Victoria. The breeze was very light, and although we managed to limp along, we didn't break any speed records! We attach four photos: one of the landyacht sailing, two of the mast set-up (and detaild of the twisted plate), and a third of the wheels and bearings. We would very much appreciate some advice about:






a) the general 'set-up' of the yacht - e.g. whether the mast is too far forward, how we have the wind-surfer sail set-up.
b) how we should make the mast step. Note the bent plate at the base of the mast support - and this was from a light wind. Note that we are using a narrow one-metre mast pole stepping up to wider aluminium wind-surfer mast extension, then all slipping into a wider base-tube. I can't see any pictures on the web site of how you all manage to support the huge forces at the base of the mast.
c) The bearings of the wheel-barrow wheels that we are using, all ceased-up with the fine sand, and stopped all together! How should we deal with that!

Any advice would be warmly received
Ian R.

Dear Hills
Many thanks for the speedy advice! In relation to the mast braces, do they help much with the lateral force on the mast (which seems to be the main problem as force along the axis of the vessel is OK)?

When you say that you use good bearings, does that mean that you replace the ones that come with the commercial wheels? I am wondering how to do that, as you can see from the photo that the bearings bolt onto these wheels on a plate.

Ian R said...

Dear Hills
Many thanks for the speedy advice! In relation to the mast braces, do they help much with the lateral force on the mast (which seems to be the main problem as force along the axis of the vessel is OK)?

Yes it will help with the lateral force.

Ian R said...
When you say that you use good bearings, does that mean that you replace the ones that come with the commercial wheels? I am wondering how to do that, as you can see from the photo that the bearings bolt onto these wheels on a plate.

As per Joe's post above you punch out the bearing. You have to give it a good hard bash to get them out, but they do come out.

Also when you get the new bearing take off the rubber seals that protects the ball bearings and wash out the grease that they come with and replace it with fine sewing machine oil. I am able to spin my wheels and the will continue spinning for well over 100 revolutions before stopping.

The boys got it right. bin the wheels. the way they are designed they are not suitable to carry any kind of side load. add the manufacturing quality and they are not even fit to go on a trolley.
. save the tyres for replacements.
we have used this size wheel on Hummingbird, a tiny toddlers yacht, because the slow the yacht down to a speed that young children can react too.
If you are going to go out and buy good quality wheels I would suggestyou go up to 4.00x8.
Keep in mind that the good wheels cost the same as the unusable rubbish.
Te sail and mast set up youve started with is a great start, but ( here we go) since youve learnt to weld, Have a go at scrounging the materials for a Lefroy Mini and give it a go. the design is aimed at beginners like yourselves, and the yacht you will end up with will be a cracker.
dont be put off by some of the fancy seats that some of the builders have come up with , you could use a plank of wood if thats all you could manage.

Gentlemen
Thanks for all of the excellent advice. After Christmas I will get new Fallshaw wheels, new bearings, and perhaps some mast stays!

But I am a bit confused on wheels. Everybody recommends the 8" by 4" plastic Fallshaws, but these seem to be the same diameter wheels as the ones we already have (about 200mm) - or does the 8" refer to the inside diameter? On the Fallshaw wheel website you can get many sizes of the red plastic wheel - would 275mm or even 300mm diameter be even better?

BY the way, the beach that we are sailing on in the photo above is a long, isolated beach between Venus Bay and Cape Liptrap, in Gippsland, Victoria. There are 5 - 7 km stretches of good sand, and fierce winds. Only problem is that the only way in is to carry the yacht in in pieces! No roads.

Hi IanR,
Just a little correction to what I said about bearings for the Fallshaw wheels. I just bought three of the wheels on Xmas Eve and immediately went to BSC to buy precision bearings.

The wheels come with 2"x1"x1/2" deep groove bearings. These are quite cheap at around $5 each. The best price I could get on the same size precision sealed bearings was around $18 each. There is a little bit of debate on whether a yacht will perform better with tight or loose bearings. Not resolved yet.

A further comment on the construction of your yacht. If you take off the bicyle steering head and frame tube and turn it upside down, reattach, and of course put the forks in the other way, your steering geometry will be approaching the layover steering as used on most yachts these days.

I seriously doubt you will get a Fallshaw wheel into those front forks though. What I have seen at our local bicycle shop is a black plastic spoked wheel fitted with precision bearings which is sold as golf buggy (hand pull variety) wheel for $35. It takes a 12"x2 1/2" tyre and tube which will cost another $12-$15.

This is the same size wheel and tyre as fitted to the front of the blokarts. An alternative to the Fallshaw wheels for the rear of your yacht are the older style blokart wheels. These are 6" rims with 4" or 5" wide tyres. Enmach Industries here in Bundaberg import them from NZ and fit them to their plastic trailers for ride on mowers. I have been buying the wheels from them for around $55 each with tyres. The wheels will take 6202 precision bearings on just under 15mm axles with 14mm thread for retainer nut. The bearings are clamped onto a spacer sleeve between them in the hub. The bearings are 35mm O.D.x 15mm I.D.x11mm W. These bearings are very common and I have been buying Taiwanese made ones for less than $5 each.

Now we've REALLY got you confused. Cheers Cisco.

P.S. Second edit correction on axle and bearing sizes for the blokart rear wheels as above.

Ian R said...

Gentlemen
. Only problem is that the only way in is to carry the yacht in in pieces! No roads.

I could do that