Hi there
Our school is miles from the sea so we decided to get into land yachting.
We have had heaps of fun designing and building these contraptions. Most of the bits have been sourced from tip shops. Our kids are getting really expert at sailing.
Congratulations.... well done an ideal school project, I hope you also include the theory of sailing and how wings / sails work
Be insistent on safety gear, helmets and closed shoes. (as your picture shows)
Now that is great to see, Congatulations looks like they are having a great time.
Cheers
aus230
Well done!! Lots of good skills to be learnt from designing building and sailing these
Maybe you could set up interschool regattas and really spread the word
Yep!!!, thanks kid's great adventure in science, you must have
excellent and interesting teachers down there. 
I recon there
will be many schools just a wee bit jealous.......Happy sailing 
Hi again
Thanks for the support and nice comments.
The troops are on a very fast and fun learning curve.....some of them are getting very skilled. We would like to get other schools involved and have some inter-school sailing days etc.
As you can see from the photo we have progressed??? to running with a jib. After looking at some skiff sailing some of them want to try using a shy kite as well! I don't really think this is pratical though.
We are now in the process of designing and building our third contraption. Each has been an improvement on the previous one.....the 2nd one is so much faster and easier to handle than the first. We have obtained plastic seats from stock cars which have now been banned for use in competition. Combined with full racing harnesses they offer a high degree of protection.
When I have mastered the use of applying photos etc to the forum I'll post pictures of the design and build process as we go along. (if anyone is interested!) I'm a regular ludditewith computers, consequently this may not be very successful.
Great stuff!! We're definitely very interested, please keep us updated with pics and details!!
If there was interest in "Inter School" meetings, maybe a "standard" yacht might be the answer... (the LLMini would be ideal).
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/Build-a-Landyacht-Lake-Lefroy-Mini-Yacht/
which these kids have realistically earned a degree in Landyacht design from the Lake Lefroy International University Of Landsailing
which these kids have realistically earned a degree in Landyacht design from the Lake Lefroy International University Of Landsailing
I don't believe that going with the LLM is a good thing, as it narrows one's
thinking and development. Going in ones own direction is the challenge and
maybe you eventually come up with some new age thinking that blitz's the
world as it now stands, [nothing personal here to LLM or BC or others] .
oncoming changes around the world will need plenty of people who think freely
and differently. All The best to all.
I think that the research, design and construction aspects of the process have been both extremely enjoyable and educationally sound on multiple levels. It has allowed the group to experience an activity which has facilitated both communication and rapidly assisted in developing new skills. The sailing and subsequent evaluation was not just exhilarating, I'm sure it also fostered a very pleasing degree of innovation.....This allowed us to produce a far superior machine in the second one and also highlighted defects in the first which have been easily remedied. Both will out perform certain factory produced models from NZ. I do need to clarify one point though....coming from a very long background of sailing has been a key to the success of the program. Consequently some schools may well benefit from going down a different path and adopting stock plans.
Just keep a close eye on the spoked rear wheels they DO collapse or the tyres roll of at the worst possible moments (just past personal experience) ...OUCH !!
Metal spokes tended to snap suddenly, plastic spoke wheels the tyres seemed to roll off then the rim snaps or is damaged.
Hi Gismo
They look like fun.
Had an interesting experience with some "carbon fibre" wheel chair wheels. One of the troops liberated them from a tip shop, said they looked the go and put them on. They lasted perhaps 100 m before we found out they were not carbon fibre, the resulting crash was more spectacular than harmful and provided us with a source of endless ribbing for test pilot Justin.
We are in the process of fitting a set of plastic wheels from a "Dogg Bike". I told the distributer I needed a set of indestructable wheels so as we could keep the kids somewhat safe. He said these were tested to 2 Tongans (whatever that means!) They seem pretty good. We are quite open to advice on wheels though as we have found them hard to find.
The ones we are using at the moment are from an old pram found on the tip...we have cheated somewhat by installing good quality sealed bearings. The front wheels are just as you see them.....from kiddies' bikes....we have "sealed" the bearings using silicon bathroom sealant....we have driven them into the sea on numerous occassions and they still spin freely. I am loathe to fiddle with them or look inside while they still spin smoothly!
Yeah I can see J Murrays point of view. Innovating, experimenting, testing and improving would definitely be a part of the enjoyment and learning experience. Well it would be for me anyway. 
You're doing a great job, well done!!
Thought I'd better resurect the contraversy and explain where we started and why.
We were heavilly involved at CDHS with sail training on "Kristina" but found Tas.Education Dept. guidelines rather restrictive. Our small staff and lack of enough people with the required expertise ment that we were unable to sustain the activity to a satisfactory degree. Enter the land yachts......we are situated in a dry and windy part of the state, somewhat more suitable for this activity. Lots of sails and booms had started appearing at local tip shops ....so we cornered the market and snapped up lots of bargains. $5 for a mint condition sail seems pretty good. We had seen some Blocarts but had found them too expensive, some internet searching led to come up with some ideas for our first attempt. This was such a success that we launched into research, design and construction of our second one in quick succession.
It has only been in the last few weeks that we have really become engaged with this excellent forum. The wealth of knowledge available will be greatly appreciated as we continue with our program. At this stage we are not fully convinced either way......but are leaning more towards innovation and learning from our mistakes and successes.
Sail training is such a wonderful way for people to develop, I went to an all boys technical school, the school couldn't get a football team on the field but we could get 12 boats on the water for sports days. As a students we were involved in making sailing several boats and canoes for school use, I often look back with very fond memories of those times.
I am aware that you wish to get the students to design land yachts from scratch and that's great to get them sailing but personally I feel it would be better to stay within some very simple design and size parameters to create some uniformity within the yachts rather than be open slather.
Over the years the people on this forum have tried many many combinations of wheels, sails, construction techniques and designs and have ended up with what you see in the construction thread of the LLMini.
For example in a school cooking class would the students follow a basic recipe to bake a cake / scones, or in woodwork and the project was a chair would there be some design parameters or would it be an open slather project?
Any which way to get people land sailing is a positive..... well done !!!
Hi there
I thought I might include some pictures of Human Powered Vehicles that our school has been involved in. We design, build and race these fun things. They are not so far removed from land yachts........and we intend trying to combine aspects of both in our next project.
HEY !! what a great school, do you need any mature aged scholars ?
If only my school days had been so interesting. It stands to reason that you
will produce individuals, M+F who will challenge throughout their life, there are
enough sheep within Aussie [see Tassi] That's a great education, strong
enough to lead instead of following. They will by their failures learn humility too.
Congratulations to all the staff and a flying kangaroo stamp to the young
engineers. <<<the mob at school>>
teachers
Hear hear Joe! I'm tempted to move my family down to Tas so my sons can go to CDHS!!
Tell your students they're very welcome to join this forum and tell us how they're going, like Bodie and Joe have. I'm sure we can learn a lot from their work too!
We promise we'll try and keep the language appropriate - right guys!
... Guys?!?
It is about time kids were encouraged to get away from these Computers and get out there, use their heads for other things besides beating in nails.
We shouldn't restrict them to much other than the foot print thing and we should encourage research and development and not to reinvent the Wheel (As it were) But to build a better one. Encourage them to source and experiment with new and exotic materials (If they are at hand) to "Take up the Artists Pallet and use the full gamete or colors" To create something that could be a World Beater [SHRUG] or a total failure, in the end it is theirs to learn from. So what are a few skinned knees and scratches?
"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and feed him for a life time".
Would that those words were mine as they have a beautiful sentiment.
Ron
