G'day All,

As I've built the odd 'yacht or 2, I was just curious to see if anyone would like to see some of the development of the last 35 years or so that I've had something to do with.

I'l only ramble on if someone is interested.

Yes, count me in, I'm all ears and eyes.

Joe

you may now commence rambling,dont be shy

G'day All,

My first landyacht was built by my father (Pat) in Jan 1972, when I was 15 (Yes, I was sailing B4 I could drive). The design was a local development that was the basis of a number of 'yachts in the original Adelaide Landyacht club of the late '60s early 70s.

It was about 14ft long & around 10ft wide & had a full size quick-cat mainsail of some 130sq ft. It was a bit on the heavy side, but it had a holden bench seat (adjustable no less!) suspension on the rear axle (by means of a pin through axle & a rubber block on the inner end inside the axle tube). Sheeting was by winch & a cable direct to the boom & was a real handfull in a decent wind.
The wheels were industrial with high speed bearings & 600x6 aero tyres.

It took a bit to get going, but at one stage we got 45 mph out of it while following in a car.

It was a good 'yacht of it's time, but the mast used to come crashing down when Dad's home invented stay fittings let go, and it was very heavy & cumbersome to cart around, however it kept me going until 1974, when together with Chris Malcolm, I built my first design, the 'Eliminator'.

G'day again all,

The 'Eliminator',

This yacht was built by myself & Chris Malcolm in their driveway. Chris lived in Morphet Vale right next to the school & had a big landyacht (I can't remember how he came by it) that he used to keep in the corner of the oval next to their place. He was still too young to drive at the time I first met him, and so I took my yacht up there & drove up to join him for a sail on the weekend.

Both our yachts were big & cumbersome to handle, & the oval was a bit small for them. I decided we could build a smaller yacht that was easier to cart around & so I came up with the 'Eliminator'. This yacht was about 10 ft long with an 8ft axle. Most of the tube came from the local dump for 40c. & a plastic kitchen chair was scrounged for a seat. The front end was simply the biggest jockey wheel with fork I could afford & it was mounted bolt upright as it came on the front of the main chassis tube. It actually worked suprisingly well, considering all the fork geometry was wrong!

The first sail I made for it was on an old sewing machine out of poly tarp. It was about 4.5 sq metres (I'll go metric from now on!) and was a bit small for the yacht. We had more success when we used it with the jib from Chris's yacht, but I eventually got some sailcloth and made a sail of about 5.5 sq metres.

We also kept bending masts ( made of steel tube) which were dropped into the mast step like today's class 5s & so we ended up shortening the mast step & putting stays on it.

Chris & I also made a second one for one of the local kids, but we didn't see it often.

The Eliminator was quite successful & the smallest yacht around locally that we knew of. It pre-dated the arrival of the Manta copies (1974). Unfortunately for my old yacht, we had used it's back axle stubs & wheels for the Eliminator & the wheels & axles I replaced them with were bigger & heavier. The old yacht never went very well after that & ended it's days crudely converted into a trailer. At least the back end did - some time later I built a small yacht using the old yachts front end as well.

The next yacht I built was an American yacht called the Mirage....

Which carpark was that last photo taken at?

Come on Bill, we are waiting for the next installment...

Ahh , move on Bill. Have a look in the sailmaking thread!