I've been pondering over my landyacht design theory for a while now and am at the stage of relative despiration, so I came to the forum. 
I have most things down design wise (which I'll run through with the forum at a later date) but the one thing that has me stumped is seating. I want to have a recumbant(??) / laying down posture and cant figure out a way to do this while keeping costs low. Any ideas 
My current plan was to have a suspended seat of canvas construction that hangs hammock style from four or more points, chassis is over the pilot style. The underside would be 'armoured' with a suitable material. Hopefully I'll get a pic up of what I mean. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else could contribute an idea, I'll even read over the expensive ones for those who wish to post 
Catch you all later, Lachlan
the original soft landyacht seat was on a design called the WINDBUGGY by Don Rypinski in the 1960. Afolding tubular frame design too.
If you want more armour why not make a futon style soft seat of thin ply strips
Awesome! No 'your stupid' posts, now I feel better Not sure about the Windbuggy landyacht as I've never seen it. It does give me support to know its been done before to some extent.
The ply strip idea is a good one, I was trying to incorporate alloy or ply 'shields' that were slipped inside the canvas via pockets. Using strips, of other materials if need be, makes a whole lot more sense.
Have a look at the seats commonly used in go karts. They come in different sizes, are usually made from fibreglass and are usually mounted in a semi-recumbent position. Not cheap new with a starting price around $160.
Go kart shops have lots of other off the shelf bits that could be useful on a land yacht too, like struts, brackets etc.
I've never heard of this being done before, but I've just been told someone has made a seat out of cardboard covered in fibre glass. I'll see if I can get a photo. I imagine that would be quite easy to shape the cardboard to how you want it then just add some reinforcing where it bolts on and just cover the whole thing in fibre glass.
That would be really good if you had a couple of pictures hills. I had an idea a while ago to make a polystyrene foam seat and fibreglass it. Ill have to have another look around for the fibreglass gear, think it might have been a little pricey from memory. A cardboard seat is definately worth a look tho if possible.
I'll have to check out the go kart seats cisco, never seen them before or thought about them for that matter. Be nice if they have the type i'd like for a good price.
Thanks for the ideas. Its good to get some outside thought.
No worries, David Rose has it for sale, but apparently someone may already be interested. I'll ask him to post a pic before it goes.
Is this the sort of thing you are after? Paul built this for a kite buggy he started to build until I caught wind of it...nuff said
It unscrews from the chassis and can be put in a parcel and sent via Aus post.
Susan
The seat that promogirl showed you is one I designed for my yet unfinished micro yacht "chicken wing II". the 2 bits wiegh 1.1-1.3 kg and can be posted in Australia for $20 . Promo tells me sell the set for $30 +postage. they havent been used as the yacht chassis collapsed before I sailed it.The bits have a Gelcoat finish. the colours are as you see in the photo because its the leftover gelcoat from making other seats. presently only one set available but I can make them up as ordered
Thanks Promo girl and Landyacht, its not exactly what I had in mind but thanks for the pic. It looks more applicable to my miniyacht, which may need a seat one of these days so I'll keep you in mind.
I will definately work on getting some sketches up here soon. Its hard to draw something that can be 'read' by someone else. I had my four wisdom teeth out 24 hours ago and not feeling too flash so dont hold your breath anyone 
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Wuss! Im using strategy My girlfriend was staying with me so I had many sympathy points to use. I'll miss the feeling of invulnerability, no one yells at a sick person much 
I had four out in the chair. One incised and one buried, the other two were easy. I hate the angle grinder tool that was used though 
I thank you for the well wishes.
Anyway, back to the topic. here's a diagram of the seat design Ive been playing with. Blue area is canvas, green is steel chassis tube, orange is alloy tube. The canvas continues to the front of the yacht purely for aesthetics, I imagine 200-300mm in front of the centre mounting points there would be no weight placed upon the canvas (apart from if legs fell from the steering pedals). Hopefully some light will be shed on the general idea.
And the diagrams here are not no scale 
Certainly looks the goods! Just make sure the sail doesn't obstruct your vision too much. You wouldn't want to run into a cow
I suspect it will want to be wider at the foot pedals, and agree with hills about the boom . Try to sheet straight down rather than on an angle as this stops strain being focused onto the mast and breaking it. I would build wider for that length but thats just me . I do like it so far
Thanks for the input. The diagrams weren't to scale and Im not sure about final dimensions yet; is all depending on the seating situation. No exact idea how long or wide it will be, depends a bit on what Im going to rig it with (hopefully similar to a Paper Tger).
Never actually thought to think about stress from boom adjustment, thanks for the insight. I only drew it in there following the lines of the yacht, no brains involved
My father just said something when i was discussing this with him and asked why I couldn't use a kayak with the rear trimmed? So long as the strength would hold up does anyone think this could work?
Additional question; does anyone have an idea how much a fibreglass cockpit would cost to be made up (rough figures)?
Ha Ha I downloaded those as soon as I got to the forum. I've been into radio controlled vehicles and have had experience planking, I have to say Im a foam carver through and through now. Needless to say though that his work is beautiful. Be nice to see some more pics of the landyacht someday.
Yeah I've made balsa strip plank plugs to turn out fibreglass hulls for RC yachts. I'm sorely tempted to make one like aus230's too, but it was too easy to buy a ready made seat from David Rose for $220 (I think it was $220, better check with him )
One day I'll get a round tuit
This is his finished product, one of the best looking yachts around IMHO!!
$220 Now Im interested I think. Is there a pic hanging round somewhere of the seat design? Or which yacht it suits?
EDIT (In like 20 sec): Jeez your fast!!
EDIT: Or a mind reader.
EDIT 3: Yes, I'd have to agree, thats a pretty nice seat design. Now I really have food for thought.
Sorry there's too many photos to do it in 20 secs now
I'm sufing the web for a new bike in the other window, decided I need a carbon fibre one now
This is a pick of my seat, its for a Pacific Magic:
Thanks for the pics Hills. I think I'll send David a message to see whats going on, I'll blame you for dobbing him in The more I look at AUS230 (theyacht ) the more I want one. I can dream on.
Do you have a rough idea how much your Pacific magic seat cost to make? I wouldn't probably make one myself at this stage due to lack of knowledge but curiosity has the better of me (as always).
Sorry, no idea, but I was surprised David could do it for the price he did. There would be a bit of cost involved with making the mould, but I guess its just glass matting, resin and labour after that.
Thanks for the info guys. Especially the bit about using a kayak hull Just looking for Davids email address, I know Ive seen it around the forums before.
Hello again everyone. Been continuing the quest for my seating issue and have a new question, query to be exact. A little background first though.
Where I sail is often covered in grass to some extent and to reduce drag I want the chassis to be as high off the ground as possible, ie OTT design. Then I came across this picture again in the photo section and thought it looks a lot cheaper (less fibreglass) than a capsule cockpit. Does anyone know more info on this yacht? How successful it (the seating arrangement) was?
the "Richard Land Yacht" courtesy of Adelaide LYC
Looks like it would be hair raising to be so exposed while at speed Definately a seatbelt required!
Thats a CLub 88 seat from Stan Sharp and Paul Day circa 1987. The new Promo seat that we made vlast year used the same original body measurementsfor its basic shape. They are a bit of a bugger to lay up in a mold due to the tight size. and the club usually makes them without gelcoat . they also tend to be a bit heavy due to a lack of stuctural engineering , relying on lots of resin and glass instead
