I pose this question to Paul, Cisco and who ever wants to add their 10c Worth.
Would it be safe to assume that a more flexible mast would be suited to beginners? and as you become more accustom to the foibles of the wind go to a stiffer Mast?

If I have learned one thing from my small sailing experience and from driving. It is that one cannot afford time to think and react it has to in fact be the opposite, one must react (Correctly) to a situation and then think about how you saved the day later. Anything in the beginning to allow time for correct reaction is a boon to the beginner (Softer Mast).

I think a softer Mast is probably less efficient to our sport in Speed Racing but would have a beginner over before they knew what was happening.

In the last week I have had 2 young ladies sail Occum's Razor successfully, I believe because it is a heavier land yacht with a more flexible mast and as the picture.


the Razor (Perhaps I should call Phydaux) because it can lift it's leg Perhaps a more rigid mast would have hag her over as well.
Ron

Nikrum said...
In the last week I have had 2 young ladies sail Occum's Razor successfully, I believe because it is a heavier land yacht with a more flexible mast and as the picture.

I have put young ladies in my landyachts too and they invariably squealed with surprise, pleasure and delight!!

Did they do that for you too??

cisco said...

Nikrum said...


I pose this question to Paul, Cisco and who ever wants to add their 10c Worth.
Would it be safe to assume that a more flexible mast would be suited to beginners? and as you become more accustom to the foibles of the wind go to a stiffer Mast?

I think that is about the way of it Ron but suck and chew it first and see how it mushes. It is not necessarily gospel in all cases.

As anything involving Humans there would seem to be a general Rule of Thumb and some Fuzzy Logic involved. I was suggesting based on "All things being equal"
Ron

Richard has similar on top of Greenbird wing

Paul
I guess that depends on what industry you are in and who has devised the Additions but I guess Truncations would be more accurate and in the case of a Sailing Vehicle, Double Truncation. No matter what their name they all serve that same purpose, to deplete the Efficiency Loss via tip Vortex. That is why a wing designed to sweep forwards is more efficient than the std swept back wing. Actually it would be interesting to see the effect on Occum's Razor when it's sail lays over in heavy gusting. I should think the more rigid the Sail/Wing the better it would function. As for my Mast I am not sure how to or weather to Stiffen it as under some of the heavy gusting I have experienced OR surges heavily increasing a great deal in speed when least needed. It would be more than likely to want to do the Phydaux thing and get one leg up Hopefully not at a post, Tree or Building etc. What are your thoughts on this sort of thing.
Because The Strip has a couple of largish buildings up one end Winds from the SW offer a Wind Shadow then clear for the last 1/3 of the strip giving acceleration when you really should be looking to back Off.
Ron

Paul
As for my Mast I am not sure how to or weather to Stiffen it as under some of the heavy gusting I have experienced OR surges heavily increasing a great deal in speed when least needed.
I am sort of considering stiffening the Razors Mast (That sounds Bad,bad,bad)but I don't want to ruin a CF Stick if it doesn't work.
Ron

Nikrum said...

Paul
As for my Mast I am not sure how to or weather to Stiffen it as under some of the heavy gusting I have experienced OR surges heavily increasing a great deal in speed when least needed.
I am sort of considering stiffening the Razors Mast (That sounds Bad,bad,bad)but I don't want to ruin a CF Stick if it doesn't work.
Ron

sounds like you need a softer mast

hey guys im a bit stuck, im in the process of designing my first "wind warrior"(please tell me if that was sad), the frame fabrication is the part im confident about - just got to lay out a floor plan to tailor to my height. its catching the wind correctly that puzzles me (apart from the basic physics) im struggling to understand the basis of how the setup of the mast sail and rigging mechanisms work (basicly need to know what does what and where it goes). thought you could point me in the right direction (diagrams, drawings, jargon busters, etc) cos google is like a mass of noise

thanks in advance
andy

Nikrum said...

I just had another thought.. Terrible things as they seem to get me into Hot Water.

It is said that an Aircraft wing that has it's wing tips set forward of the the Wing Root is more efficient though a bit more unstable in flight. Mind you with computers in control they could make a Brick fly straight these days. The other thing they are doing is applying a Stall Pack/Truncation to the Wing Tips. This stops Air from the top of the wing from spilling over to the bottom side decreasing the lift potential of the wing. High Pressure area spilling into Low Pressure area. With the Squarer Sail Head type sails Has anyone given thought to using a similar type setup to improve efficiency at the Sail Head?? If you look at a Long Range Passenger Jet and the recen Learjet's from front on the Wings look a bit like an "L" on its back where as I was thinking more in the way of a "T" from front on. This would allow the effect to be effective from both sides of the sail preventing any air transfer from one side to the other. Just a thought and probably well flogged anyway??
Ron

Funnily enough, the 'fat head' on modern windsurfers sails does exactly that -- far from just flapping around doing nothing (which is what it looks like) it actually improves efficiency of the lower parts of the sail. It also depowers the lower parts of the sail in a gust.

As for whether to use softer or harder masts -- the general rule of thumb is to use a softer mast for lighter weight sailors, stiffer masts for heavier sailors.

bumbadin said...

hey guys im a bit stuck, im in the process of designing my first "wind warrior"(please tell me if that was sad), the frame fabrication is the part im confident about - just got to lay out a floor plan to tailor to my height. its catching the wind correctly that puzzles me (apart from the basic physics) im struggling to understand the basis of how the setup of the mast sail and rigging mechanisms work (basicly need to know what does what and where it goes). thought you could point me in the right direction (diagrams, drawings, jargon busters, etc) cos google is like a mass of noise

thanks in advance
andy

Hi Andy here is a link that you might find useful to get you started...
http://www.lathingstodo.com/landsailing/groundschool.htm

Sounds Like you're getting all Teckanogicle about it, but better sure than sorry bumbadin.

Paul or anybody. How did this page finish up out front in the search strings on the WEB?
i.e. I was searching through dogpile.com for pages on Land Sailing and Low and behold there was this page on Mast Construction.
Ron

last year if you googled landsailing you would have got seabreeze forums right at the top. the top of the lists seems to have become blokart orientated.
a few years ago blokarts insisted that they were not landyachts, but now it seems they are and all the dealers have some variation of the word in their business names. . maybe they get more customers that way

Test pilot 1 said...

Web site pages with the most usage refering to the search word or phrase go to the top of the list

So does that mean if I start 10 new threads titled land yachting and typed in land yachting into each thread 100 times, it would put this site up as the first five search results on land yachting on Google??

Test pilot 1 said...

Only if some on ls did not do th sam

WTF??? And you picked on my spelling??? Damn! Talk about double Standards!!
Ron[}:)]

Well get a new Keyboard. 'samaddayou

Ron

Toy??
Get a real PC [}:)]
Ron