The F.L.Y. (Flexifoil Land Yacht) - I broke my GoPro!

Sounds cool Bob, I'm looking forward to pictures.

WG - This is a rough design of the mast base I'm looking to have fabricated. If you right click and "open in new window" there's a high res copy




I used a bunch of colors to make explanation easier, but it's basically all one piece.

As you can probably tell, the grey piece on the bottom is the gooseneck, so that doesn't need to be made but I included it for clarity.

The blue part would be an angled bracket to attach the yellow mast base which I estimate will be about 32" tall.

The green piece would be welded to the yellow mast base, and would support tie backs that would attach to the rear axle and provide support for the mast base. As you can probably tell the attachment points on the green piece are angled outwards.

The orange piece would be an attachment point for the boom. The attachment points are perpendicular to the yellow mast base. This piece would need to rotate freely around the mast base. so left and right rotation as well as variable angle for the mast which would attach to those points.

Aside from that there are 2 attachment points for the main sheet blocks. One just below the green piece, and one on the mast blue attachment bracket.

So that's my plan, hopefully it's something that's easy enough to fabricate. I'm waiting for one more part to come in, which tracking says wednesday, and I'll have the exact measurements I need. I thought in the meantime I'd post my idea and see if it's doable.

So, WG, let me know what you think.

I would definately add a longer axel for this bad boy! I was fortunate enough to ride a blokart and a zooter both at JIBE and though the zooter imho was easier to pilot, the blokart was MUCH more stable. I think the wider axle would help with that

Oh, you will still be able to get a wheel up with a wider axle :P

I was able to get some 2 wheeling going with the blokart, though it was much easier with the zooter. I think what you are aiming for is the perfect mix! The ease of sailing from the zooter with the stability of the blokart....match made in heaven!

Disclaimer: Not saying blokarts are difficult to sail at all, in fact they are quite easy. I just wasnt a fan of the handlebar

I think it would be ok too. Just wanted to make sure in case you hadn't already thought of that.

Got the last part I needed to polish off the design, and now I'm really started to get excited for this project:




The mast also finally came into today, it's 100% carbon fiber, eerily lightweight, really a crazy piece of kit, those windsurfers have some nice technology. I'll stretch the sails onto it this weekend and take some pictures.

Did some mock-ups to get the proportions right

Looks good!

Rigged the sails on the new mast today, come together really nice. It's really cool how rigid the sails are once tensioned, windsurfing stuff is really cool. special thanks to my wife for 'Vanna Whiting the sails". I might add here that she actually encourages these hairbrained projects, what a gal!

Here's the 5.5 m sail:



And the 4.0 m sail:



After seeing both of them rigged, I may look for a 4.7m sail since the size difference is quite noticeable.

Upgrades & Mods make my nerd blood flow

Scott, let's get 1 rig goin first ,then if it doesn't work so well we can make changes. Don't wanna make a pair of mistakes out the gate:o But ,I got no prob buildin ya one.
And I was thinkin' "grandview BUGgy smash.. I mean bash. might be in order.
I'm sorry that was not nice....
But I'm having trouble accepting the fact that some cousin of a freakin #@%$#!roach has more right to that beach than I do. Went and got me a gallon of ortho home defense today Hmmm....... I wonder if......

I wonder what it would look like w/ this on it.

I will look into an axle after I finish the mast.

@ben,
have you had a chance to try out the mast assembly WG made for you. I picked up some sails and masts this weekend and am curious to get WG to weld one up for me if it is working- craftsmanship looks awesome- but of course he is the Welding God
scott

I already have one.

Got the mast base today from WG, and it's a thing of beauty. Fits like a charm and it's perfectly plum on the goose neck. This thing is a lot more robust than I expected, awesome craftsmanship.

Started putting things together this afternoon, I'm waiting to drill the holes this weekend when I can actually use a drill press, but I think things should work well next week once I hit the beach.

Ben , I forgot to ship you a small stainless shackle for that hole at the base . It was to be for a pulley block for the mast control? If you want I can send ya one . Or head to your local west marine,ya might wanna use a block that already has a clevis on it. Anyway that is what the hole in the gusset at the base is for. Glad you like, hope it works.

I actually went to West Marine this afternoon to pick up the blocks I ordered and I picked up a few shackles specifically for what you mentioned, thanks for thinking of it though.

Very impressed with your work, can believe how heavy duty this thing is while still being surprisingly light, the welds are beautiful.

Thanks again!

Got the boom finished this afternoon. Here's a pic of the rigging, you can see the 4 different blocks. I didn't put the sail on because I haven't drilled the holes for the mast base yet, so the rope holding the boom up is just temporary, the sail will hold it up in the future. I used an 8' boom for now, I'll probably shorten it down the road but I want to be able to get enough outhaul on the sail.



Here's a detail of the block on the boom, shows the becket.



As for the stays that go between the mast base and the rear axle, I'm going to use ratchet straps temporarily, as they only need to carry tension. I was thinking about a more rigid stay, like threaded rod and turnbuckles, but the whole rig is a little awkward to get in and out of so I want to ride it a bit before I decide on what I want to use permanently for the stays.

Here's the gallery for the project so far (I haven't posted all my picks on here), I'll keep posting to this gallery as the project moves along.Project Gallery

I'll probably end up with cables/turnbuckles in the end, it will be the cleanest installation. I could even sew up some canvas sleeves make 'em look real purdy.

You may be right about the down tube, we'll see what happens. It only looks flimsy because you're stuff is so heavy-duty

I want a long axle before you go making other stuff for me

Well the Maine coast was a skunk. The tides and winds never aligned in the morning/evening when the beach was empty enough to actually ride. One morning was looking good with low tide and decent wind, so I dragged myself out of bed early, but the wind never showed up, just light breezes barely enough to maintain a crawl. But I got it rigged at the beach and got a short and very slow run on the largest sail I brought.... Seems pretty sturdy, I'm going to put in cables as stay's for the mast base. I don't see any need for these struts to take compression as others have commented, but perhaps that will reveal itself once I get moving in actual wind. Anyway, here's some pics of the (nearly) finished rig.

Like

I just finished up some more mods to the zooter, and I think it's finally complete, first here's some shots from Wildwood:

Day 1, high wind and the smallest (4m) sail I had. Feeling it out, tipped it over a few times but got a good few hours and some high speeds at times. I stole these images from somebody's set at wildwood, don't remember who.....

BTW, if anybody knows what tags to use to get a larger image, please let me know, I've seen it in other posts but I don't know how to do it, these thumbnails are a drag...

Anyway, Day 2 at wildwood, better wind, bigger sail (4.7m - really seems like the sweet spot for this rig) and a lot more confidence:

Finally, the new mods:

First I added another pully to the mainsheet and added rigging to move the connection point above the axle. Before I had a 2:1 pully rig and it was a bear to hold on to the mainsheet while a wheel was in the air, or to just sheet in the sail. I added another pully to get 3:1 and it helped a lot when I took it out to the local field. I don't have any pictures of this mod, because it's not that exciting, but I know a couple of people are trying to build their own so I thought I'd mention it.

Second, I ditched the cable stays. As Krumly mentioned before most other land yachts use rigid struts. Originally I didn't think it was necessary, I thought a tension stay would be enough. After a shakedown though, there is just to much play in the whole body of the buggy when only using cables. SOOO I ordered some aluminum fittings and pipe and rigged up some rigid struts out of 1" aluminum pipe. I used parts from Hollaender Speed Railing system, they are very beefy! I was able to use the original loops that WG put on the mast base for me so the installation was relatively simple. Unbelievable difference in the rigidity of the buggy, I can't wait to get it out again for a try, I think this will make a big difference in the handling and stability of the buggy, plus it feels a lot more secure sitting in it....



Connection at the mast base:


From the rear:


Connection at the rear axle (loop was originally for the cable stays but I'm using it now for the mainsheet rigging:




another view of the connection at the mast base


And finally sleeping in the toy cave:

Looks alot stronger now Ben.

ben,

to get the larger image.. you need to specify the size... like this:

Code:

[img=617x822] your pic link [/img]

Nice! Looks like you need a wider rear axle though :o boom whipping into the ground ... I can see how that'd break a case still, you could try hitting GoPro up for a free one - they're pretty good about it eh!