Huge land yachts

The very good leeward resistance of wheels is the big advantage of land sailing... See this vid of a Duo Quest with a kite... (thanks for the link to the blog CatBuilder..!!)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bU43RCIVw


BTW, when I was biking in the Ardens I saw a Duo Quest useing a parachute as an extra brake when going downhill...

I found a vid on YouTube of it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImNqILCx9jI

Cheers,
Angel

 

First of all: WOW. Thanks for your extensive help. 14posts in not even a day - you're great, thanks.

I came across the 'Zeilwagen' but the distance with the Dutch mile was new to me - roughly 45km is fast and very impressive.

I also found an article on George Pocock and his 'Charvolant' - maybe the first 'kite buggy'.

"n 1826, he patented the design of his "Charvolant" buggy. This used two kites on single line 1,500 to 1,800 feet (457–459 m) long to provide enough power to draw along a buggy carrying several passengers at considerable speed, similar to the modern sport of kite buggying. In his book, The Aeropleustic Art or Navigation in the Air by the use of Kites, or Buoyant Sails, Pocock records that it performed at the rate of 20 miles an hour (32 km/h) over considerable distances and that a mile could frequently be covered even over heavy roads in 2¾ minutes. A group of three Charvolants made a trip of 113 miles (182 km) together, and on a run between Bristol and Marlborough one of the buggies sailed past the mail coach, which at the time was the fastest passenger transport."
(Wikipedia - here the link to the complete article).

To be honest - I am an Industrial Design student and just about to do my thesis work. And of course my first question has to do with that. I want to try to develop (focus on the design/no functional modell - too little time) such a land yacht for 2-3 passengers who can drive with it for 4-5 days (like a caravan/RV) through the wilderness of e.g. Mongolia, the Outback, some vast places in South America or (with extra insulation) some days in Greenland. It is not gonna be a substitute for a car - so the aim is not to go fastest from A to B, but it should be a hole different way of travelling. Travelling for the sake of travelling - just giving the passenger time to gaze at the nature, just some days away from anything stressful (allthough 3 people 5 days on one vehicle - some stress might occur^^).

So any further infos or suggestions or feedback happily welcome!

 

And don't you forget it

 

OK, now we know the ± distance... But I don't know how accurate that time was measured in 1602 . .

Good Luck with your project..!!

Keep us posted... and don't forget ‘‘/h’’ :idea:

Cheers,
Angel

 

Just made the beach ride Scheveningen Petten with an opisometer over the map. It says 78 km. So I overestimated the curve in the beach a little or I mismeasured the lineal distance, taken from the screen, a bit.

Only the two hours mentioned seems to be a bit rough for time measurement and rendition. So if the time was well measured and rendered, the 'Zeilwagen' drove an average of 39 km/h on that 1602 beach ride.

BTW, the ride is now impossible in one lap because some canals and ports have cut the beach in parts...

Cheers,
Angel

 

http://mathsforeurope.digibel.be/Stevin.htm says:

[Stevin] also invented "a sailing car". With this sailing car he reached at the beach of Scheveningen , with 25 passengers and a favourable wind, a speed of 35 km/h.

Wikipedia has a vague and unreferenced erm, reference to the sail car being 'faster than horses'; if that's 'average' horses at a gallop, it would be in the ballpark of 40km/h, maybe?

The Wp article makes up for vagueness with a splendid picture of the sail car:



There's also a video on youtube (I think the sailcar bit starts about 3.30mins in) But its in a language I don't know!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07SVRRG07ec

 

Despite the words 'all terrain,' this doesn't appear to be more than big wheels on a fairly conventional land yacht - no active suspension or noticeably rough terrain in view...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUvW1xolVc

 

Thanks for the info Tiny..!!

On screen we see ‘‘RAJ news’’

That gives... RAJ news 'The voice of Telangana' in Andhra Pradesh, India. Which corresponds to the appearance of the lady

‘‘Official language Telugu -- More than 90% of Telangana people (30,987,271 in 2001) speak the Telangana dialect of Telugu...’’

So my guess is Telugu or maybe the Telangana dialect of Telugu.

But then the language... I couldn't understand it either

Cheers!
Angel

 

Enjoyed reading this thread - especially as I am on a similar quest! Did you get anywhere with your project?

 

When I was about 13 there was an article in National Geographic about soeland yachts sailing across the Sahara. I was very intrigued. I cobbled up a chassis from 2x4's and used 26" bicycle wheels with 3/'8" allthread for axles. No rig. I went out and pushed itto the end of our street(the top of the hill) and shoved off. No idea how fast I was going but once it got some speed up the axles folded and the whole thing disintegrated. Got some pretty good road rash. Fast dorward a few years and I built a land yacht from plans in Popular Science that was about 2/3 the size of an Opti with wheelbarrow whells and a Sunfish rig. We would take it to mall parking lots late at night and to Bolsa Chica Beach in So Cal. The beach was usually a reach both ways and we were able to get into the 30's with it( as verified by a Chippies radar gun. The u turns were tough. Great fun. If I still live out west I would certainly be land sailing.
http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=Y3Dkp0Pi0FkC&pg=118&query=sail car plans

 

Thanks David, very interesting

And still a nice kids project today . . . .

For convenience I've looked up the magazine on google books, if you go to page 118 the article can be seen full screen . . . .

Cheers,
Angel

P.S. - Here's the link to page 118, use the ‘‘+’’ button to go full screen...

 

Great fun!

The web has some interesting snippets on the the Saharan '67 exped/race that David mentions.





http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=44517

I'm looking at an expedition in a similar location and gathering as much information as I can. I guess Kite sailing makes more practical sense for undulating natural terrain as the buggy/yacht can move more independently from the 'sail', but I'm keen to build/adapt something with a mast.

 

Land Yachter, second pic in above post doesn't show*, I guess this one was meant....


click pic for source

Cheers,
Angel

* caused by page URL used with ‘‘

 

Thanks Angel - that's the one.

 

I've read some interesting comments on a Dutch forum about the kite used on the Wind Explorer in post #3, #5 and #16.

Here a quote of these comments plus a google translation with some minor adjustments of translation errors caused by the jargon...

Good luck with your project..!!

Cheers,
Angel