Probably one of the most informed and knowledgable on the subject in the motorcycle field is Tony Foale, he has written a lot on the subject over the years. His stuff on sidecars is probably the most relevant although an asymetrical,side car set up is not identical to a trike the principles are the same. I'm sure he has some stuff on line.
What you have will steer, just not particularly well. As you get above a walking pace and loads on the front tyre increase, especially when turning at any speed, I predict it will become very interesting.
Castor and trail are the same thing, the topic has been covered well in these forums, there are normally 3 other variables (assuming there is no suspension) in a single front steer wheel configuration, these being steering head angle, fork rake ( not always the same) and fork offset from the steering head. The combination of these variables is almost infinite.
Thanks for the info!!
I have had a read around the topic and its all realy interesting. I can see why the set up as drawn is going to be pretty bad. I'm most of the way through building it now so i figure i might as well finish. The summer restrictions get lifted off the beach at the end of this month so thats when i really want to have the first sail. I have sketched out an alteration (see pick) to have a more conventional style stearing arrangment and use the same internal set up i have.
Progress has been pretty good of late. I have got the first coat of primer on, filled and rubbed down. hopfully now it will be a few more coats of primer then top coat :-).
run the line of the steering head down to the contact point of the tyre and you will have it right
Just to clarify a little....." Run the line of the steering head down to the contact point of the tyre where the tyre touches the ground" That contact point is vertically down from the axle. The same alignment requirement is necessary for any angle you choose to lay the steering head. Good luck with the coming trials...Wok
Hi everyone,
Its been a while since i posted anything. Most of my time lately seems to have been spent on cars but I have been painting. No photos of interest (unless your super interested in pictures of rubbing down). I got the first coat of top coat on the other night so here it is at the moment.
A rub down and the final top coat and Ill be in to final fit out :-)
All the best
Dave
I'm still mostly farting around with cars but i have started the assembly of the yacht now.
Fitting the rails has turned in to a two man job, one person (me) with head and sholders down inside with an alan key holder out side.
I had thought about putting a hatch in the for deck infront of the mast but i decided that it would ruin the look of the thing is i went for form over function. fitting the stearing bar is going to be a similer job.
All the best
Dave
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the kind comments.
It has three wheels and some stearing!!
Just need to wait for pay day to buy some blocks and some sutable weather conditions and Ill take it out for its maiden crash :-)
All the best
Dave
im rather worried by your mast step. that fine edge is saying "snap me " rather loud. I would personally be putting some kind of sleeve into the body.
if the mast doesnt snap the mast will breakm its way through that thin ply with ease ( I think) 
Hi Guys,
Searunner - the steering set up sparked some debate earlyer on in the thread. Its not the best by a long shot and the guys pointed out some good resorces for reading on the topic of stearing thats worth looking at.
Landyacht - I fitted a 12mm doubler under the deck in way of the mast step to try and spred the load out over mast. In total there is 18mm of ply at the deck and the mast foot is 36mm deep. I read on one of the other build threads that its a good idea to stiffen the bottom of the mast up so i cut the top of a spaire mast and glued it up there using the gorilla glue. putting a lot of fath in this glue :-). What do you rekon?
Thanks for the comments.
All the best
Dave
Ive rigged it all up and it seems ok :-)
Just waiting for the somewhat elusive combination of a sutible weather window + lack of jobs.
I'm hoping to get out in it this festive period.
Some of the kids in my close came running over the other night asking if its santas new sleigh.....
Hi All,
I managed to get it down to the beach last weekend.
Typicaly when i got it there the wind was just a fraction to light. I did have a lot of fun for 2 hours pushing it around trying to get it to go. It went really well when i fell over pushing it and it sailed away up the beach. The sand was very wet as well (we have had alot of rain) so i susspect this contributed.
Anyway below is a picture of it rigged.
We have no wind again this weekend plus the tides are all wrong. But maybe next weekend ill get another go.
Fantastic ,well done, I find it difficult to understand how patient you have been over a long build, now you really do need time to test and tune. Landyachts are great fun but if you are restricted to beach sailing and have to work getting the right combination of time tide and wind can be frustrating. Look forward to the next test, take care!
Did you ever get that yacht sailing? How did it work? It looks quite nice by the way.
Select to expand quoteSaltylips said..
Westward's steering system on this unique looking land yacht 
It looks like this bloke stuck to the "Vector Landsailer" plans as originally drawn - Westward simplified his version a bit to suit himself.
stephen
Hi Guys,
After a few times of dragging it down to the beach and finding that it was either too windy, not windy enough or the tide was in I got to sale it last week!
Unfortunately I don’t as yet have a sports camera (though one is now on order) so no pictures or videos of it crashing around the beach.
It went well, however I haven't sailed any other sand yachts so I don’t have a benchmark to compare against. It was really fun and I'm now truly bitten by the bug. I didn’t have any trouble with the steering (that i know off) and it flew a wheel pretty much the whole time i was sailing.
It didn’t go to windward very well but that is down to rig tuning. I need to improve my down hall arrangement and lash the sail to the boom better. I’ve got some running repairs to do to the tub but nothing let go and it seemed to hold up to the rigors of the test.
I capsized quite a few times, one time going at a fair speed but nothing fell off me or the yacht :-) Got chased by a couple of dogs as well....
I'll get some photos of the mods I’m making to the rig when they are done. I'm currently embroiled in a fit of decorating that I’m hoping to finish in the not too distant future so I can turn my attentions back to the yacht :-).
All the best
Dave
Hi All,
I've finished faffing around with decorating and car maintenance (for the time being) so I've made a start on the old crate again.
I’ve reinforced the mast support at main deck with a pair of aluminium rings.
Next is for a much improved down hall arrangement.
Hi All,
Well I've finished Mk2 of my downhaul arrangment and fixed the outhaul that snapped on my last run.
Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more tention in the rig now and flatten off the sail.
It hasnt come out in the picture very well but I've tried to arrange it so the lines are all sloping towards the mast to try and force the boom in to the mast.
All ready for another run at the beach. Ive also got a knock off GoPro so there may be some photos of it sailing around.
All the best
Dave
Hi All,
I managed to drag my self out of bed early enough to have a bash on the beach before the dog walkers got there.
Mk 2 Down hall has gratly improved the sail shape. When i sheet in the sail looks flatish and taught with no wrinkles. Went to windward much better and this time nothing broke :-)
According to the GPS i managed a top speed of 25 mph in 15 mph winds, the sand was pretty wet, I was covered by the time i finished. Would you lot consider this speed at all competative for a mini? What speeds should I be aiming to acheave? Its probably way to heavy to be very competative.
The stearing arrangment does work, the crate truns resonabley well but it does scrub speed if I try and take it too tight.
All the best
Dave
Hi Guys,
Question for you all.
The wheels i have are pretty unbalanced, have any of you come up with a home brew method of balancing wheel barow wheels? i figured that id get some fishing weights and do it by trial and error on the bentch sticking them on with gaffer tape to begin with then bonding/ screwing them down when sorted.
Any thoughts??
All the best
Dave
Tryed out the windsurf sail i had kicking around the garage this morning. It seems to be a touch more forgiving and seemed to head to windward much better, perhaps the shift in center of lift forward has helped. Managed 24mph in 11 mph winds.
Select to expand quoteWestward said..
The wheels i have are pretty unbalanced, have any of you come up with a home brew method of balancing wheel barow wheels? i figured that id get some fishing weights and do it by trial and error on the bentch sticking them on with gaffer tape to begin with then bonding/ screwing them down when sorted.
I use self-adhesive lead automobile wheel weights. I don't know if you can get them in the UK.
When I don't have a balancer available (or I'm too lazy to remove the axles) I use the simple technique of spinning the tire slowly and waiting for it to stop.
If you have decent bearings the heavy point will always end up on the bottom.
If I'm unsure if the bearings are letting the wheel rotate freely, I'll try it a couple of times to make sure the same part of the wheel is always down.
"Jiggling" the axle/wheel while it's coming to a stop can help overcome the last little bit of friction.
Once you've found the heavy point, fix some weight opposite it and repeat the process until the wheel spins without vibration.
Some people just inject a few ml of water into the tire/tube for dynamic balancing.
It works great at high speed, but less so as you slow down.
Cheers,
Geoff S.
P.S. Here are some photos of the wheel balancer we use.
It works by hanging the wheel on steel point with a bubble level on top.
You add weights to the wheel until the bubble is centered.
If it scrubs turning at higher speeds, try shifting/sliding forward in your turns to put more weight on the front wheel and make it bite in and steer more effectively.
When looking at the steering from above, you will notice that wheel foot print is longer turning left and shorter turning right making it easier to turn right(smaller turning radius) 
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the tips.
Ive bought some stick on balancing weights so ill give your method a go Geoff. I like the PVC pipe rig :-)
I cant really shift my weight around a huge amout Test Pilot but ill defintaly give it a go. The next set of early morning low tides are comming up next week and the winds are forcast to be a touch stronger :-).
All the best
Dave
