Cool, a buddy at work wants to build one of these, piccies would be good.
Do you use skateboard trucks for "axles"? Or another setup?
Brett

the board Ive been playing with is up to V4, and this weekend I got it fired up.
the early boards hadsome monster wheelwobble issues. on this new board Ive lowered the hieght of the board, shortened the wheel base , made the axle width narrower. the board now goes where you want it and cruises up to 36.9kph without a wobble. I seem to using my feet to get it to go upwind and the sail to make it go downwind. .
mods on the next board will be trying to get better turning ability from the front end, a central raised bar to hold my boots to the deck, and a flatter sail that doesnt luff at only 36.9kph . the length of the board ended being shortened as I found you needed to have 1 foot right back on the rear wheels to get the rear steering to work.
with the narrower rear axle width I dont get tangled in the rear wheels when "dismounting".
managed to sail all weeknd with runs up to 3kms without a single fall or scratch.
photos later tonight

afew more ideas, an some history here
www.seabreeze.com.au/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38787&whichpage=1
and in a parrallel universe
www.seabreeze.com.au/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39065&whichpage=1

now he tells me !!.
I finished the new board today. its alot simpler and more compact in the truck design. there is an improvement in the turning , but I suspect that is due to the better rubbers Ive made. the old machines had a stack of layers of rubber, this new one has a solid block of polyeurathane front and back. *hint- when cutting large blocks of rubber with a knife drip on some washing up detergent. and it will cut very easily*
Body is shorter with a 1330mm x 450mm wheelbase.the board is 190mm wide at the front and 140mm at the back..
clemco was right about the width at the front. I intend to make a set of "wing" steps at the front to help with tight turns. the problem is making something that wont clog with wet salt

this time , rather than a spring board Ive made one that is fatter in the middle ( think of the shape of an unsprung longbow)
my thinking is that the springy board is killing the steering rather than helping we shall see

You're an inspiration to us all, Landyacht

I wanna make one now... gotta be something we can do with these pesky easterlies!

nebbian said...

You're an inspiration to us all, Landyacht

I wanna make one now... gotta be something we can do with these pesky easterlies!

you'll have to get like the lads in Australind and get out on some carparks and footpaths. .
Its nice to finally get to a stage where Ive got a nice stable board for speed, that can manage a turn . I can only assume that I will now proceed to hurt myself again. statistically each board has come with a increase in top speed of 10kph, with the same sail so I might start packing the little 4m.
plan is to take a set of different rubber bocks to the lake and trial the different sizes. I suspect small block for tight work and big block for speed.
. by the weekend I will have 2 complete boards , so that means a race!!!

I reckon something this size and profile would be about right.
BUT whilst sorting these 2 boards out I was short 1 base fitting .since we couldnt identify the brand , a mate machined 2 new alloy fittings to replace the worn plastic. now he's told me to leave him alone as he needs to machine all the fittings for a trolley which will carry his NEW lathe.
when that is done we can move his old lathe, for which we have already sealed the deal, to MY shed.
basically , Im broke AND banned from spending. for the rest of the year so expect to see photos containing some really ancient sails traveling at stupid speeds never achieved in thier previous lives .
maybe I could convert a landyacht sail to a sailboard sail
or make a bulkybag sail from scratch
I checked my list this ones actually version 7

Hiko said...

Hey!!!!
Convert a landyacht sail to a sailboard sail!!! Now theres a twist!

Twist is, indeed, the issue

The perceived wisdom is that modern sails have a much bigger wind range, so are more stable when that unexpected gust hits you... that doesn't mean that you can't rip around on old dacron sails though! I'd be keen to rig up one of my newish sails, as well as one of those old ones, and try the two back to back... yes that does mean a race

However, regardless of whether you're on this year's sail or something that's 20 years old, the important thing is to get out there and give it a bash

This all looks like too much fun. Looks easier to cart to the beach than that land yacht, but my biggest problem is that the weather hasn't been kind, the beach is north facing, and we rarely get northerlies this time of year.
Something like this looks like the go.

Do you have any more photos of your latest "prototype" ?

Got a bargain yesterday - a 6.1 Gaastra sail, and fibreglass mast to suit. $20!
+ 4 12" kids bike wheels for $8 (good ol recycle centre). What to build......
My wife is going to kill me

Does it ever snow at Kambalda in winter??? pity

www.dailymotion.com/video/xcix00

agreed, my thinking at the moment is for a simple steel frame underneath and the deck could be in 12mm ply with some strategic re-enforcing along thedges.
the stiffer board is a lot more responive that the flexy one.
I do like the thought of a board that can be tuned for tighter steering.by shortening it and putting a smaller rubber block in the front. the new board can get around a carpark, with care

there were a couple of thes at lefroy in 2007/08.
interesting set up.
they really didnt have a good wind range , and mainly reached.
BUT on the last session we saw them it was really blowing and the last yacht standing was TP1 in his 5 and they were keeping up with him upwind.
the technique(on land) seems to be to use very little of the available power to doodle along , then with a twitch , you jump up in the air, and perhaps land again .
i didnt see them traveling any great distance, and they wore lots of padding.
the wing itself was quite complicated, with lots of prebent carbon parts, so you would be doing well to replicate it out of crap.
seemed slow to set up , even compared to a windsurfer rig. I felt that it didnt use its potential. felt like it needed to have one end fixed to th deck...............
I still find a mini, or 5 is quicker to rig and uses far more of the sails potential