Land sailing

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Land sailing, also known as sand yachting or land yachting, is the act of moving across land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail. The term comes from analogy with (water) sailing. Historically, land sailing was used as a mode of transportation or recreation. Since the 1950s it has evolved primarily into a racing sport.

Vehicles used in sailing are known as sail wagons, sand yachts, or land yachts. They are typically three-wheeled vehicles that function much like a sailboat, except that they are operated from a sitting or lying position and steered by pedals or hand levers. Land sailing works best in windy, flat areas, and races often take place on beaches, air fields, and dry lake beds in desert regions. Modern land sailors, generally known as "pilots," can go three to four times faster than the wind speed, because of Bernoulli's principle. A gust of wind is considered more beneficial in a land sailing race than a favorable windshift. A similar sport, known as ice yachting, is practised on frozen lakes and rivers. Another variation is the Whike, which combines land sailing with bicycling and can therefore also be used in everyday traffic because it does not fully depend on wind.

Contents 1 History 2 Land Sailing Speed Record 3 Modern land yacht classes 4 Competition 4.1 European Championships 4.2 North American Racing 4.3 Blokart Racing 5 Land sailing Locations 6 In pop culture 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

The earliest known use of land yachts was in Ancient Egypt, where they were apparently built for leisure. The Chinese had "wind-driven carriages" since the 6th century AD, during the Liang Dynasty, and eventually mounted masts and sails on large wheelbarrows.^[1] The precursor to the modern land yacht was invented in the 16th century by the Flemish scientist Simon Stevin in Flanders as a commission for Prince Maurice of Orange. It was used by Prince Maurice for entertaining his guests. In 1898, the Dumont brothers of De Panne, Belgium, developed a land yacht whose sails were based on contemporary Egyptian sailboats used on the Nile River. The first races were held on the beaches of Belgium and France in 1909. Land yachts were also used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to transport goods on dry lakes in the United States. The modern land yacht, a three-wheeled polyester/fibreglass and metal cart, often with a wing-mast and relatively rigid (full-batten) sails, has been used since 1960.

[edit] Land Sailing Speed Record

The world land speed record for a wind powered vehicle was broken on 26 March 2009 by Richard Jenkins in his yacht Greenbird with a speed of 126.1 mph (202.9 km/h).^[2] Wind speeds were fluctuating between 30–50 mph (48–80 km/h) at that time.^[3][4]

The previous record of 116 mph was set by American Bob Schumacher on March 20, 1999 driving his Iron Duck vehicle. Both records were set on Ivanpah Dry Lake near Prim, Nevada, USA.^[5]

A previous attempt at the record by Britons Dale Vince and Richard Jenkins at Lake Lefroy in Western Australia in their carbon-neutral vehicle, Greenbird, failed on 12 September 2008.^[6]

[edit] Modern land yacht classes

There are a number of basic types, or "classes", of land yachts. Because of the very different nature of each class, they compete separately in races. The largest class of yachts are known as Class 2, which may have masts as large as 8 metres (26 ft). The massive sail area provides significant power, although the speed of Class 2 yachts can sometimes be limited by their large size. These are sailed mainly in continental Europe and not sailed at all in some countries such as the United Kingdom.

The Class 3 is probably the most popular yacht design, almost identical to the Class 2 in appearance, but significantly smaller. Class 3 yachts are generally made from fiberglass, sometimes in combination with other high-tech lightweight materials, such as carbon fibre, Kevlar, or various composites, with a wooden rear axle. They are capable of reaching speeds up to 70 miles per hour (113 km/h).

The Class 5 is much smaller than the 2 and 3, and is in a very different shape. The pilot still sails the yacht lying down, but unlike the 2 and 3, he lies in a seat that is suspended from or cantilevered off the chassis, rather than inside the body. The chassis is usually made of steel and aluminium, with a fibreglass or Carbon/Kevlar seat. Class 5 yachts are capable of reaching speeds up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h), and some have been faster, closer to 70 miles per hour (113 km/h).

While Class 2, 3, and 5 yachts must meet certain guidelines, the specifications are flexible to an extent.

The Standart Class is unique in that all yachts are required to be identical. Similar to Class 5 in shape and function, they must follow a special design supplied by the French manufacturer Seagull. This class is popular because it means the outcome of a competition rests entirely with the pilot, as the yacht itself cannot provide an advantage or disadvantage.The Standart Class is a truly International one design popular with sandyacht pilots from Argentina to Ireland (www.ipksa.info ) and beyond.

Mini Class land yachts which are a new style of yacht aimed at the leisure and family pilot. However, any type of land yacht can be raced and the identical nature of these yachts make them ideal fun racers. This style of yacht uses a sail board rig but supported so that the pilot is able to sit in a conventional way and control the sail with a simple main sheet. These are the smallest and lightest yachts available and are tremendously safe and easy to sail. The definition of a miniyacht is "Any assembled land or sandyacht that fits inside a continious loop of rope 5.6m long is a miniyacht". They can be carried in the back of most hatchback cars. They can be sailed equally well by small children and large adults and have the added advantage of going on grass as well as sand or concrete. (These yachts are mainly sailed in Ireland, UK, Australia where they are a truly fun inexpensive class for all the family )

Class 7 yachts are built like skateboards with a sail, much like a land-borne windsurfing board. These are often not permitted as part of sand yacht clubs and are maintained as a hobby rather than as a full-fledged part of land sailing race culture.

Class 8 Land Yachts - also referred to as Parakarting, or kite buggying - differ from other classes in that the sail is replaced with a large traction kite, usually flown on 20 - 40m quad lines. The buggies are also considerably smaller and more maneuverable. This relatively new class of the sport is still undergoing rapid development but has become popular in recent years due to its portability, relative low cost and flexibility. Kite buggying also uniquely offers the pilot the possibility of getting real air time as buggies are sometimes launched into the air by the traction kite. Class 8 activities are generally grouped under racing, using large kites and very large and heavy buggies to accelerate to over 70 mph (110 km/h), freestyle where smaller, lighter machines perform freestyle tricks such as airs, spins, wheelies, reverse flying, etc, and endurance or cruising where distances of hundreds of Kilometres are covered in trips lasting several days. Look under Transat des Sables and Gobi Kite Buggy Challenge.^[7]

Blokarts, like the Standart Class, are of identical design as supplied by the New Zealand manufacturer. Blokarts are steered by a tiller using the hands, rather than with feet. This allows disabled people to be able to use them and compete with able bodied competitors. Blokarts are capable of speeds up to 62.5 miles per hour (100.6 km/h).

[edit] Competition

• Land yacht competitors are spread over all continents: from the vast beaches of Western Europe, New Zealand and Brazil, dry-lake surfaces in the USA, Argentina, Australia and Africa to frozen lakes in Canada and Scandinavia (using skates instead of wheels).
• National landyacht associations are united in the international landyacht federation called FISLY. This organisation sets up the racing rules. Every two years, world championships are organised. Besides that, there are lots of local races and competitions every week and annual European and Pacific Rim championships.
• Racing yachts are divided in four classes by FISLY: Class 5 and Class Standart have a tubular steel or aluminium frame and mast with a glassfiber seats. The bigger Class 3 and Class 2 yachts have a lightweight glassfiber hull and wing-shaped mast and (mostly) a wooden rear axle.
• Racing yachts speed up to 120 km/h (the world speed record is 202.9 km/h (126.1 mph), set by Richard Jenkins in 2009^[8]... breaking the previous record of 188 km/h (116.7 mph) set in 2001 by Bob Schumacher, USA). Even at very low winds, racing yachts ride at up to three times the wind speed, reaching easily 70 km/h. Due to the lightweight and aerodynamic build, racing yachts boost to top speed in about 5 seconds. Turning markers are usually taken at full speed.

[edit] European Championships

One of the largest international events in the sport are the European championships, in which competitors of all classes from all over Europe travel to a sand yachting venue for a week long competition. The Wirral Sand Yacht Club, on Hoylake beach, hosted the event in September 2007.^[9] Attendees included local politicians Esther McVey and Stephen Hesford, alongside the Mayor of Wirral, the Head of the International Governing body for Sandyachting, and at least some of the 150 competitors from Argentina, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK.

[edit] North American Racing

In the US, annual competitions are held by local clubs and by NALSA, the North American Landsailing Association. The largest regatta is regularly held the last week of March on the playa at the California-Nevada border near Prim Nevada. The classes sailed in the US include several one-design classes, international class 5 (5 m² class in the US), and open classes solely based on the sail/wing area. The European yachts sail with the appropriate US open class according to their sail area.

Promoting international competition, there are periodic regattas including FISLY and other landsailing nations, mostly on the Pacific Rim. The host and venue of this regatta rotates, and the 2009 event will be hosted by NALSA at the March regatta.

A history of sailing in the US can be found at Nalsa.org.

[edit] Blokart Racing

Blokart competitions are run using rules as set out by the International Blokart Racing Committee (IBRA) and are not part of FISLY. The IBRA rules are designed to work on a small course like blokart heaven, to larger beach and dry lake venues. Blokart had its inaugural world championship at Blokart Heaven, Papamoa, New Zealand in October 2008. Blokart events are held around the world, with events such as New Zealand Open, European Open, Australian Open, and the Ivanpah Open in the US.

Blokarts are sailed as two classes – production and performance, where additional performance parts from the manufacturer are allowed such as carbon fibre mast sections and an aerodynamic shell. Other modifications allowed in performance are adjustable downhaul and modification of the sail battens to alter the shape of the sail. Blokarts have four standard sail sizes, 2 meter, 3m, 4m and 5.5m, with sail size choice being dependent on wind strength and weight of the sailor, with heavier sailors requiring larger sails, and smaller sails being more efficient in stronger winds.

[edit] Land sailing Locations

• Hoylake, Wirral Peninsula^[10] UK
• Newborough, Anglesey, Wales, UK
• Greatstone beach, New Romney, Kent, UK
• Many beaches in England, Belgium, France, and along the east side of the North Sea. Saint Peter Ording beach on the North Sea coast of Germany has miles of wide flat beaches where land sailing is very popular.
• Many dry lakes in the western United States (Ivanpah, El Mirage and the Black Rock Desert^[11] are the most popular.)
• Beaches in New Zealand, with 90 Mile Beach, Auckland’s west coast beaches, Waikanae, Brighton and Oretri, being popular.
• Blokart Heaven – a purpose built track in Papamoa, New Zealand.
• Salt pans such as Lake Lefroy (near Kambalda), and some beaches in Australia. The Australian Blokart Open was held in 2009 on the beach at Yeppoon, Queensland.
• Beaches in Argentina
• Pampa del leoncito Argentina
• Salinas El Convento Chile
• Beaches and airfields in Lithuania
• Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands

[edit] In pop culture

• Land sailing is featured in Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novel, Sahara, and also in its film adaptation. It also featured in The Amazing Race 13, in episode 4.
• Sand sailing is featured as a means of desert transportation in Avatar: The Last Airbender, in episodes 30 and 31.
• The term "land yacht" is also used derisively to describe any large vehicle.
• Land sailing is featured in Neal Stephenson's novel Odalisque, the third in Stephenson's eight-book Baroque Cycle.
• In The Dreamstone, The Urpneys used a Land Yacht twice, in 'Trouble with the Miners' and 'The Jolly Bird.'

[edit] See also

• Ice yachting
• Kite buggying
• Kiteboarding
• Land windsurfing
• Wind-powered vehicle

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Land sailing

• kent Yacht Club and kirawee land yachts (UK) - a club for land yachting and training via kirrawee school;
• Anglia Land Yacht Club (UK) - a major club for land sailing and training; and one of the few based on an airfield circuit
• Auckland Land Yacht Club (NZ) - Sailing/Racing Class 3 and Class 5
• British Federation of Sand & Land Yacht Clubs (UK)
• Parakart Association (PKA) (UK)
• Carmarthenshire Land Sailing Club (UK) - land sailing club sailing at the Cefn Sidan (Pembrey) and also Pendine beaches
• International Land and Sandyachting Federation
• Midstates Land Sailing Association (USA)
• NALSA (USA) - the North American Land Sailing Association
• Wirral Sand Yacht Club (UK) - A major land sailing club in Britain (based at Hoylake); hosts of the 2007 European Championships
• Kent Land yacht club (UK)
• Landsailing in Chile (Chile)
• Photo website (Belgium)
• FFCV French Sand and Land Yachting Federation (France)
• Seabreeze.com, "Free Land Yacht Plans", "Australian Land Sailing Forum" sailing & construction information.
• New Zealand Blokart Association - Includes the IRBA rule book.
• Blokart Heaven - A purpose built land yacht track in Papamoa New Zealand.
• Blokartersuk.com (UK)
• Class Action Racing US blokart website.
• Wind Sports in Canada Landsailing in Canada.
• Blokarting in Wijk aan Zee (Dutch) - Dutch organisation for blokart clinics.