Well I'd been driving around with 3 wheels in the trailer since March, and that was as far as things had got. After our local regatta things moved on as far as this...
One week at the worlds - met up with Paul, Lyndon, Alan, and Enrico from this 'ere forum. Paul had actually built his packing crate with the elusive 35x35 tube as bracing in the bottom plus some 30 x 30 (any Brits struggling for this tube PM me as I have some extra I can pass on). Thanks Paul. The tube was then brought back from France in the GB team vehicle (big white van). The upshot of all this generosity and inspiration....I pulled my digit out and got building...
The crucial bit in that back axle
Then to add to the party a £4.00 ($5.94AUD) sail from EBay
All coming together but still a full mast short of a land yacht (or is that me?). One of my friends spotted I'd started building and I'd mentioned that windsurfing gear was useful. He'd taken a load of gear in exchange for an unpaid tyre fitting bill but still had it after a year taking up space in his shed. Upshot was that I helped sort through some of it and for the princely sum of £25 ($37) came away with this lot which was a very small part of what was there..... how many fins does a wind surfer need
So things are looking good. Not sure I'm going to be competing with Sabydents bodywork for this one, as the plan is build it, sail it, repair it (confidence in my welding there), strip and galvanise it (or military grade powder coat, same as the other yachts wheels), then re-do the bodywork fully in GRP. Whilst all this is going on I'm still tinkering with 'Test Bed', the old white job, and started thinking about the next one(s)
Cheers Col
Wow lucky you
That red bull sail looks like it doesnt need much work at all
Hard to get sails like that here secondhand
I just noticed you have a Blue Mast there.. Is it old Fiberglass? If it is, from perspective, be careful of what you put it on. I little mini may get away with it but the Larger units just may bring it down around your ears. My Glass Mast is sitting in the shed with about a meter snapped off the base just above the Wood Plug "BUGGER!" Anyway the remains will make a good boom.
Ron
Yep, that's blue fibreglass, but more likely to end up cut up and shoved up the other two masts. The white land yacht has a nice aluminium mast so these are not likely to get anywhere near that yacht. Failing all that, I've just found where 'Yorker' land yachts are...less than 10 miles up the road and Dave is thinking about starting up again, so a nice aluminium mast for the LLF Mini is easy to get as well now if needed
Cheers Col.
WE#LL THANK YOU VERY MUCH! for that Col
You do know how to cut a man -------Don't you?
"T6" is expensive here ------If you can find the crap..
Sounds like you "Have it together"
Ron
Thanks Ron
Only taken a year, a trip to France, Facebook, several forums, marshalling a 2 day regatta, and some determined blagging to get the contacts established. Even after that it's just taken me 4 weeks to locate some tube for the mast step at nearly the right size. Having said that everything has fallen in place a bit over the last few weeks. Once the chassis and bodywork is done I can borrow one of the clubs masts and sails off one of their minis for test runs. I'll keep you posted.
Cheers Col
Fantastic effort on your Land yacht, Construction Fabrication is second to none. You are right about 35x35mm Box Section Steel i have been looking on internet in UK. Ireland they do seem to stock that size. Would 30x30mm do the same job with bit more bracing? Trying to source all the components is what is holding me up at this time.
cols set up with the 40x40 and 35x35 will be better for weight carrying and better for a bashing. it should work great on his airfield.top work col
Just checked. Defo on 35x35 with 30x30 for the outer axles, with 25x25x3 bits to hold the 3/4" round bar. If it flexes too much I'll just run a 10x3mm strap under the main tube to each end of the centre bit at the rear. Plan is to bung it in the boot of the car and run up to Redcar beach with this one between airfield sessions. Keeping nearly on plan to get a feel for it, then I have a few changes to try later.
Thanks Paul. Had one or two head scratching moments - mostly weld spatter going over the top of my face shield Only problems have been due to odd materials being hard to find in the UK - mast tube is 60.3mm x 3..... which is no problem as I think to race it I need a 8m sail and a class 5 mast.
Cheers Col
Bit of a go slow with work and the weather.
Lot more work left to do as well.
Cheers Col
Bit of tidying, bit of bracing, bit of paint and that's the majority of it done. Amazed at the strength of GRP over plywood
Think I'll be needing a headrest But it's quite comfy as is.
Cheers Col
Looks awesome. how did you bend the wood for the seat? Is it just plywood? What thickness?
Steve
3.6mm external plywood, bolted to the chassis and slowly pulled into shape. Sides are cut to suit the bend then 'stitch and glued' to hold it better. The grp over the outside top and bottom. Still got some details to work out but it's about there. May need to redesign the front corners as they get low on turning, and add a bit of bracing (paper rope and a few layers of glass create a really stiff rib).
Cheers Col
Hey! Col,
The front part of your seating is very much the same as my Occum's Razor was and like you say it did get a little low and began to gring along the ground.. Solution, again as you say , cut away from the Chassis tube and up and out (not a hell of a lot) to the outside of the seat then I fitted a piece of Ply and Glassed it in place.. Works a treat..
Ron
Cheers Ron. Looked ok pushing it about...then one of my American friends spotted the corner. Bit of a 'doh!' moment. Should be trying it out this Sunday and I'll go from there. No bother if that's the worst of it. Occums Razor pointed me in the right direction to make a comfy seat half way between the flat ply and the full grp one - also a bit of filler to get the release angles right and I can use it as a 'buck'.
Thanks One and All.
Cheers Col
