I'm a student doing my thesis project on landsailing and have a few questions (by the way, I've never land sailed before, only sailed in water). First off does a landsailer handle wind and steering the same way as a sail boat (i.e. points of sail such as broad reach, beam reach ect)? Does the sail need to be turned perpendicular to the wind when it's behind the sailer? If there's a different way to handle wind, could someone please direct me to a site that explains it or doodle a quick picture? Much appreciated.

I'm looking for a land yachting equivalent of this:




Unless steering is handle the exact same way.

Here is a link that might exlain how it all works....

http://www.lathingstodo.com/landsailing/groundschool.htm



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_faster_than_the_wind

Tabeling said...

If the case of a solid sail that pivots in the center (like the ecotricity greenbird) does the sail always point into the wind? The "sail" on the greenbird has a "tail" on it that looks like it keeps the sail pointed into the wind (to the point where you would normally be luffing). Am I seeing that right or am I way wrong?

I can assume the tail is for possibly 2 reasons.... to provide some stability to the wing in a tack as solid wings get violent and scary at times by flicking side to side, or to adjust the wing angle to get maximum lift.
If the wing is straight on to the wind it is effectively luffing and gives zero forward force.

The tail plane also had a forward facing counterweight to dampen the wing wanting to build up an fatal ossilation.
the actual little wing could be finely adjusted to set the angle of the wing to the wind. there was no "sheeting "as such , just the winglet adjustment.