Design of a Land Sail/Land Yatch

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post & I indeed am glad to be a part of the network here!

I am a student from India, novice in the art & science of boat design.
I am looking forward to designing & constructing a simple land sail for my college project.

I would like to request for some guidelines with which I can proceed right from the conceptualization stage.

In particular I may need help in areas such as land yatch dynamics & sail design.

Looking forward to your responses!

Thanks & keep up the good work!!

Regards,

Aeronaut

 

Hi Aeronaut,

A land yacht is the same as an ice boat, dynamically, especially if it is to be used in open spaces. Therefore I recommend you look into ice boat design 9especially sail design) instead of sailboat design when studying design on your own. Obviously, the apparent wind is much farther forward on ice boats and land yachts.
Interesting project. If you use sails you can't go in all directions, but if you use a propeller, you can, which has been proven on boats.
What kind of areas do you have to run it? No problem if you only build a scale model, of course.

Alan

 

There's a bunch of references and links here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_sailing

 

Hello Alan,

I will go forward as advised. I plan to test it on typical open expanse of land associated with land yatchs. Have zeroed down on an airfield at a nearby flying club where we can expect decent wind. I intent to build a quick scale model to start with but one of the project goals involves building a rideable vehicle. I am confident of taking it to fruition with the kind of resources available with me, but it is only the initial design activity of land sail that I am not acquainted to!

Umm, I had not so far come across a propeller being used on any such machine on the net, but it is a valuable idea! Thanks! By the way do you have any opinion on the use of an aerofoil wing a la the British WindJet?

Best Regards,

Aeronaut

 

Thank you Sam!

Regards,

Aeronaut

 

I don't know the WindJet, but I'll check it out. I have only seen propellers on sailboats, which allows them to sail directly into the wind. This would allow a land yacht to use railroad tracks, for example, no matter what direction the wind came from. With an airfield, you can tack, so normal sails can be used.
I don't suppose the land yacht design would be used for anything but sport, unless you happened to live on a desert that had a hard surface. Would make a good beach machine, on some big beaches.

 

There was a show on the tube a whle ago where a team took a bunch of sail powered land 'yachts' across the Sahara or some other desert. Big balloon type tires, but a lot of the desert was surprisingly hard packed.

 

That's wild. Imagine that. A lot of the American prairie is (was) flat and hard enough. There were some intrepid souls back then who sailed some real prairie schooners. Some rigged "boats" on railroad tracks too. Not a real safe method of getting around.

 

Talk about wild, I wonder what a sailing wheelbarrow looks like.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheelbarrow-Across-Sahara-Geoffrey-Howard/dp/0586213775