Newbies looking for a bit of help

Gidday all,

Last time I played with land yachts was in '79 with scouts- so I am just a little out of date!

I am looking for a bit of advice as I need a set of plans for us (my 11 year old son and myself) to build a simple land yacht, probably using a windsurfer sail and off the shelf components.

I would prefer steel tube chassis as I can work with arc welders, (I am no good at welding with aluminium) and I have a pet toolmaker who can do my lathework and milling for us.

My plan of attack is to collect all the components and for us to have a "land yacht building blitz" in the next school holidays, as my RDO's from the mine coincide with most of the school holidays.

We are in the northern suburbs of Perth, and the landy will mostly be used in industrial sized carparks, and the oval across the road to start with- graduating to beach/ saltlakes/ possibly huge dry tailings dam at the mine if the boss lets me.

Any advice greatfully accepted!

thanks,

Stephen.

G'day Stephen
Welcome to Seabreeze, You will find all the info you need for your project within this web site. I am starting to build a Class 5 and will be posting all the construction and details of building for all to see/watch begining this week. Hhmmm, so you have a pet toolmaker hidden away who can do all your machining. Grab him/her, and nail his feet to the ground so he cant get away. He will be absolutely invaluable when you start building. You will have by now discovered the plans and building instructions posted by Landyacht and the other dedicated builders. You can build big or small to suit your own requirments and if you decide to build a little bigger, the Class 5 may interest you. You will find lots of info both from landyachts' postings and my own that will start soon. Keep us all posted as you go along and dont hesitate to ask questions. Take your time in deciding what to build and do lots of homework on materials, costs etc. Some parts can be difficult to find. May you enjoy the web site.

Kody

Hi Stephen, make you life as a landsailer as simple as you can. I suggest you contact Murray Turner 95282720 (work). He has a workshop in Rockingham, he is also on the building commitee of the Sandgropers Landyacht Club, Safety Bay.
He is the best in the West, and is very helpfull.
Good luck

Oops sorry about the repitition but I didn't think the post was working. Never mind you get the message.

Thanks for the heads-up everyone, I had a quick look at the lefroy mini building pages and it has been a huge help.
I will be starting to collect bits and pieces this week and hopefully have one built and sailing before winter is over.


expect to hear frantic calls for help sooner or later!

Sounds promising to us- I am home for the last week of the school holidays, and we live in marangaroo which isnt too far from Carine!

We are heading to Fremantle for the long weekend, so while we are there I might have to hit the garage sales and see if I can scrounge some sails and masts for the project.
Probably sneak away to a marine chandlery to check out pulleys and stuff too if I can.

I have often thought that the swanbourne rifle range would be good for landyachts if it wasnt for the shooting mounds every 100 yards being in the way! it sure gets enough seabreeze there to make shooting pretty difficult...

I will start checking out some of the bigger carparks in the area for suitability, many of the carparks have anti-hoon speed bumps which I think would tend to bend landyachts a bit.

All the best,
Stephen.

Deleted twin post

Bit of bad news there . wifey has brought to my attention that I cant afford to go to perth as I havent worked hard enough ( been going sailing too much) and will have to work through the holidays. A concrete Kerbing job has been booked for that week, AND shes booked the train for my daughter to go backto school.
Sorry about that . There was heaps of fun stuff Id planned to get done too
cheers Paul

No drama's Paul- maybe we can catch up next time you are in perth, meanwhile we will try and collect whatever stuff we can, I might even build a 2 seater from stuff I already have in the shed.

I am thinking on making the 2 seater so it can survive bouncing over speedbumps and kerbing in carparks- so all the wheels and hubs are off a suzuki hatch.
The suzuki wheels are 10 x 3 1/2" rims, with 145-80r10 tyres.
My pet tool maker/ machinists are going to give the suzuki hubs a drastic weight reduction by removing a lot of unwanted metal. The tyres will be lightened and cleaned up by mounting the wheels on the hubs and attacking the tyre tread with a belt sander to create slicks.

We will most likely follow the principle and basic dimensions of your mini-yachts, so it can be broken down easily.

All the best,

stephen and brodie.

sounds like Landyacht has a wife just like mine!!

Hi Stephen,
How is the yacht building going?

We have just had contact from an old landsailing friend who lives up Joondalup way and is interested in getting back into landsailing. Have you guys found any empty carparks or similar to sail on on a Sunday afternoon yet?

Susan

So far we have been roughly following the LLMLY plans, using 61.5mm galv tube, but as I had a set of suzuki hatch 10" wheels and hubs in the shed we are using those- and I think they might be a bit more kerb and speedbump tolerant than wheelbarrow wheels!

The axles were made/modified at work by our drill rig fitters- had some fun getting them in my luggage for the flight home...

The suzuki hubs are currently at a mates workshop in osbourne park having the brakedrums removed in an effort to lighten them.

I have 3 sails that were given to me by a fella from kallaroo- a 3m in brand new condition, a 4.2m in real good nick, and a 6.5 that only needs a bit of stitching reinforced. An upholsterer who happens to be in my rifle club will be visited on my next break!

I still have to find a mast and booms, pulleys and make a seat- but I will try and get to our local recycling center when I get back to perth in a couple of weeks to see what we can find. If I cant find a proper mast, I might cobble a temporary one together from plastic pipe
(2 m of 50mm swv, with 3 1/2m of 40mm cl9 slipped inside it- and about 5m of 40mm swv slipped into that)

A bit heavy- but should be ok for a bit of fun until we find a real mast.

I am checking out a lot of carparks in the area- but many have a lot of kerbs etc which would be a nuisance. still looking around for bigger and better carparks!