Just found these photos in the photo's section from Hiko. Great looking landyacht!!
His comments were:
"The class 5 that I built 4 years ago Stainless steel frame 26inch glass wheels design by Auckland land yacht club \"Rocket5\" with a few of my own modifications [front suspension] Graeme Faulkner NZ717"
Those proper Cl 5 yachts are a sexy thing arent they. priced that front wheel If it is the carbon version $599 Aus. no wonder Im building minis. D like the yacht tho. At least its not black or grey like all the other kiwi yachts
Thanks for the nice comments on the class 5 The yacht cost around $2000 all up to build The two big items were the seat and the sail which were purchased The front wheel is a 20 inch plastic bmx that sell for around $90 The rear wheels are homebuilt fibreglass a lot of time but not a lot of cash
The stainless frame was made from scrap and the rest is aluminium tube from a merchant I am still learning to tune and sail it properly and am happy to say I am improving all the time but still not up there with the local hotshots I wish I had got into this sport a long time ago I am having so much fun I actually live about 10kms from where the blokarts are made but building my own was the big appeal of class5 for me Good to see so much homebuilding going on over there enjoying reading about it Hiko NZ717
how has the plastic wheel performed?. i trialed the same wheel here, at $130 Aus and it would distort too easily. Only got as far as asking the price of the carbon version. Thanks for adding some colour back into the sport, i hate seeing black or grey Kiwi yachts beating me
Its nice to know that a class 5 can be built without breaking the bank. AUS230 has cost around $1500, some what less than a blocart (not knocking blocarts) and providing we have the time and build ouselves the cost is not that high.
I have been using the same plastic front wheel for 2 years and have had no problems (Lay over steering could be the reasion that there has not been a problem)
The fiber back wheels cost about $110 each with the tyre(tyre from Ebay) Lot of time making them as with the body, can not put a cost on time but it was a great learning experiance plus satisfaction of building my own yacht. Cheers AUS230
Thanks Hills for straightening the photo I tried to do that but computers and I dont get on sometimes The plastic front wheel has been fine and it has hit some really big holes at speed at times Most of the yachts over here have some form of front suspension though Usually bungees The wheels are made by satelite USA The bike shops sometimes have specials on parts The Diesel MTB tyres on the rear I got for $35 each on special Aus230 is right these class 5s can be built at a reasonable price mine cost a bit more as I bought the seat The frame was built from scrap 2" sch 10 304 stainless with 2 1/2" sch 10 304 flattened for the mast step saves painting or galv too! The rear wheels came out at 4kg with bearings and tyres and they too have stood up Some of the other guys have lighter wheels than this by using carbon etc I saw my first land yacht on Facing island near Gladstone Q in 1982 and always wanted one It has finally happened! HIKO NZ717
