land sailing yacht facts

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• Land Sailing

We prepared a comprehensive guide for those who would like to discover all the details of land sailing. You can find below all the necessary information on what is essentially land sailing and how to do it with a detailed equipment list. The most popular spots in Türkiye and from around the world to embark on land sailing experience are also enclosed for you.  

What is Land Sailing?

Land sailing is an amazing fun sport that basically involves racing on a wheeled yacht that is powered by wind. Land sailing also known as "sand yachting", "land yachting" or "dirt boarding". Land sailing or "wind-driven carriage" has been around as a way of transportation and recreation since the 6th century BC, but it became a sport during the 1950s Europe. The sport is especially popular in the United Kingdom and the United States. 

How to do Land Sailing?

For the first-timers, land sailing is one of the easiest alternative sports to start. The sport itself does not require much prior experience and can be practiced for everyone aged over ten. There are many build-your-own land sailing kits available with global shipping options. After you get your first kit, you should start practicing for your wind handling and riding skills in a safe environment such as an empty beach. However, there are some additional tricks to contemplate for those who would like to discover all the details of land sailing from the very beginning. For instance, the sailing surface holds particular importance to be able to ride in a small sail board on beaches or dried lakes.  Additionally, the type or classes of land yachts determine the course of the competition. Class 2 are very large in size which in return may limit their speed. On the other hand, class 3 yachts are the most popular group. They can reach up to 113 km per hour due to their smaller size. Class 5 is much smaller and imposes a specific stance for its driver. It is still required to sail it lying down, the pilot uses a seat which is suspended from a steel chassis. 

Before You Go- Stuff You Need to Know

• Land sailing vehicles usually do not have brakes, so you need to control them by easing off the sail or turning it against the wind.
• The most common cause of injury in land sailing is speeding. It would be best for you to keep your speed in check.
• Building a land sailing vehicle with a kit is a great opportunity for a family project.
• Land sailing is an environmental-friendly sport and encouraged by many organizations around the world. 

Land Sailing Equipment List- What Equipment is Needed for Land Sailing?

Land sailing only requires three essential pieces of equipment; the sail, the vehicle and the safety gear. 

The sail is there to ride the wind and give direction to the vehicle. You need to rotate the sail with your feet to the best possible direction to gain more speed.    

Most land sailing vehicles are meant for one person and have three tires with one on the front and two on the back. They are pretty light to increase overall speed and come with various types, especially in professional racing. There are more than six vehicle classes in competitive land sailing races.

Safety Gear 

Land sailing can be considered as a safe sport in comparison to other speed-oriented sports but you still need to wear a safety gear set including a helmet, knee and elbow protection.  If you are planning to travel with your equipment, there might be additional costs. You can click here to check the extra services price table. 

When is the Best Time for Land Sailing?

Land sailing can be practiced in every season but dry terrain and windy weather are much more preferable for the sport.

Best Locations for Land Sailing in the World

Most of the land sailing locations in the world are in Europe where you can either enjoy yourself a nice holiday or attend to land sailing tournaments. Below, are listed the most popular locations for land sailing in Europe:

The United Kingdom is one of the most prominent countries that practice land sailing. There is a federation in the country that governs the competitive and recreational sailing of land vehicles. If you are into land sailing, a flight ticket to London is a good way to start finding people that share the same interest with you. Towns of Royston and Hoylake are among the premier destinations to practice land sailing in the UK.  Hoylake offers its visitors great options for land sailing. There are various yacht clubs that arrange workshops and activities almost during the year. In Royston, there are also tournament areas and yacht clubs, but these clubs offer land sailing courses for children too. 

Land sailing is a common recreational sport in Manchester with many enthusiasts. There are many designated vast areas in the city’s outskirts to enjoy the sport. Book your flight ticket to Manchester to enjoy the city and land sail.

Amsterdam is home to many recreational sports and land sailing is one of them. “Wind ‘n Wheels” is a good place to enjoy land sailing in a safe and fun environment. The facility is located in the eastern part of the city center. You can buy your plane ticket to Amsterdam to discover the city and its amazing outdoor activities.

Modern land sailing vehicle was invented in Belgium and has been practicing on the shores of the North Sea, especially in De Panne district. You can buy your flight ticket to Belgium to enjoy the country and the sport.

If you are planning to travel with your equipment, there might be additional costs. You can click here to check the extra services price table.

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Home > List > Sailing > Land Sailing

Land Sailing

Land Sailing is a sport in which land yachts (yachts with wheels) are used to race on land. The land yachts are moved by maneuvering the sails along the direction of the wind. Land sailing was mostly used for recreation until the 1950's, after which it slowly evolved into a competitive sport. Land sailing is currently popular in the United States and Europe.

Land yachts are typically three wheeled vehicles that vary based on the size of the mast and sail used. Yachts used for racing divided into different classifications based on the size. Races are conducted separately for different classifications during competitions. The classifications are, Class 2, Class 3, Class 5, Standard Class, Miniyachts, Class 7, and Class 8. The class 3 yachts are the most popular ones used for racing.

Races are conducted on specially designed courses, at locations that have abundance of wind, mostly on beaches. Yachts easily travel in excess of 100 mph during races. The fastest speed ever recorded was 126.1 mph, when wind speeds were recorded between 30 to 50 mph.

Many national and local competitions are conducted in several countries. The most popular international competition for the sport is the European Championship, which lasts for an entire week. The Landyachting World Championships held every four years is the next major international competition for the sport.

Similar Sports

• Land Windsurfing — similar to traditional Windsurfing though performed on land rather than water, using a four-wheeled deck to travel across the surface. Also known as "Terrasailing", "street sailing", "land sailing" and "dirt windsurfing"
• Kite Landboarding — using a kite and wind power to manoeuver a huge skateboard-type board over land.
• Ice Yachting — sail boats called ice yachts are used to race on frozen lakes and rivers
• Sailing — a sport that involves moving a boat by using the power of the wind.

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How Land Sailing Works

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Imagine this: You're in your small sailboat, skimming along at speeds that top 50 or 60 miles per hour. The wind whips your face. Exhilarated, you skillfully guide your craft, moving the sail to adjust your speed. The landscape is a blur until you gradually head up into the wind and allow your sailboat to slow to a stop.

Then you step out of your boat, smiling, and walk over to the shade where your friends have been sitting, watching you sail.

No, you aren't walking on water. You're participating in an extreme sport called land sailing .

Some historians trace land sailing back to ancient Egypt and other cultures that used vehicles with sails for land transportation. Drawings exist of land sailors on the beaches of Belgium in the 1500s [source: Bassano ]. These days, land sailing is popular in Europe, where it's called sand sailing . Boats race along sandy beaches at low tide, and racers may attract big-name sponsors. Land sailing also is popular in New Zealand, Brazil and other places with wide, open spaces.

In the United States, land sailing gained popularity in the late 1960s and has been growing and evolving since. Racing dominates the sport, with events like the annual Americas Landsailing Cup regatta. In 2010, the event will take place March 21 through the 26 in Primm, Nev. But enthusiasts also enjoy recreational sailing.

Most racing happens on the dry lakes (playas) of high deserts. Land sailors also can be found on some beaches and even on sports fields and in parking lots.

The North American Landing Sailing Association (NALSA), an organization of individual land sailing groups, was formed in 1972. NALSA affiliated itself with the older International Land and Sandyachting Federation (FISLY) in Europe, which had developed rules and standards for its races [source: Embroden ].

Mark Harris, NALSA treasurer, said regular land sailors in the United States number in the hundreds, as compared to the thousands in Europe [source: Harris ]. But NALSA leaders expect more people to take up the sport, because it's relatively inexpensive, safe and environmentally friendly. Prices of popular models such as the Manta start at less than $2,000 [source: Wind ]. You don't need a dock, and the boat uses no fuel.

And best of all, land sailing is thrilling. Interested in trying your sea -- make that land -- legs? Read on to learn more about what makes land sailboats go.

The Physics of Land Sailing

Land sailing conditions, land sailing tips, land sailing safety.

Sailing on water and sailing on land have some things in common, but they also have a lot of differences. In fact, a land sailboat is really more comparable to a glider on wheels than a sailboat [source: Weber ].

Land sailboats usually have three wheels and one sail. They go too fast to use jibs or spinnakers. (Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsails, or sails used in front of the mainsail, on sailboats.) Made by several manufacturers, land sailboats range in size from a sailboard (sort of like a surfboard with a sail) on wheels to a huge land yacht.

In smaller boats, the sailor may sit or lie on the frame. Usually, sailors steer with their feet, moving a T-bar , which basically is two pedals. You push with the right foot to turn left, and with the left foot to turn right. Steering with the feet leaves the hands free to use a rope (also called a line or sheet) to maneuver the sail. The sail is used primarily to adjust speed, not for steering. For some maneuvers, such as going around a racing maker, the land sailor will use the sail, but mostly just to adjust the speed to allow for accurate steering [source: Bassano ].

One brand, BloKart, uses a hand-operated tiller, so disabled people can sail.The tiller is a lever that helps steer; on a BloKart, it's attached to the wheels, while on a sailboat, it's attached to the rudder underwater that steers the boat [source: Blokart ]. In larger boats, the sailor may be enclosed except for the eyes and top of the head in a long, low craft. These sailors look like they've been stuffed, in a reclining position, into a close-fitting rocket ship or experimental aircraft with a sail. In racing, rules in some classes say that standard boats cannot be modified, while open classes regulate only the size of the sail and allow sailors to experiment with designs.

What attracts many people to land sailing is the speed. The speed record, set by Richard Jenkins in March 2009 at Ivanpah Dry Lake on the Nevada-California border, is 126.2 miles per hour (203.1 kilometers per hour). The wind that day was 40 miles per hour (64.4 kilometers per hour) [source: NALSA ].

The physics at work is the same as in water sailing, but the results are different because the conditions are different. Forces make things move, and forces can slow or stop moving objects. In sailing, the forces causing motion are the push of the wind on the sail and the pull of the air passing over the curve of the sail, creating lift much like on an airplane wing (but imagine it turned sideways). The forces holding back a water sailboat are the friction of the water on the hull and some friction of air on the boat and sails.

Land sailboats can go faster because their wheels face much less friction on dry surfaces. Because the whole boat is exposed to the air, land sailors meet more air friction, but that doesn't slow a boat nearly as much as water friction [source: Brinson ].

Land sailing isn't just sitting back and letting the wind push the boat, though. Sailors must move the boat side to side to maintain that lift.

What's it like to go land sailing? Read on.

If you try serious land sailing, you're likely to be high as well as dry. The most popular places for land sailing in the United States are on dry lakes in the high deserts in California, Nevada and other Western states.

Dennis Bassano, North American Landing Sailing Association (NALSA) president, estimates that about half of land sailors started out as sailors on water. The rest of them are often people who ride motorcycles or all-terrain vehicles or people who try other sports on America's high deserts and happen to see land sailors while in the area. People see how fast land sailboats can go and want give it a try. There's also a lot of crossover with ice boaters, who in the summer switch out their runners for wheels and take up land sailing.

The primary season for land sailing is March through November. In between, rains make the dry lakes muddy bogs. The federal Bureau of Land Management allows land sailing on some public lands and even encourages it. Powered only by wind, land sailing has less impact on the environment than many sports do [source: Bureau of Land Management ].

Some popular land-sailing sites include:

• Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conversation Area in northwestern Nevada
• Ivanpah Dry Lake, on the California-Nevada border, near Primm, Nev.
• The Alvord Desert in Oregon
• El Mirage Dry Lake near Victorville, Calif.

People who don't live near dry lakes sometimes sail on beaches at low tide, although most American beaches are too regulated or populated. Some people with smaller boats sail on athletic fields, in parking lots or on airstrips, when they can get permission. It takes more skill to sail in these smaller areas, where the boat is more likely to run into an obstruction.

On the dry lakes, the atmosphere is likely to be dusty, and the temperatures can be high. Sailors won't notice the heat once they get going, of course. Unlike in Europe, land sailing sites in the United States tend to be remote, without many amenities. Many people combine sailing with camping.

Read the next page for some tips on land sailing.

Take it easy, matey. If land sailing sounds interesting to you, don't just rush out and buy a dirtboat. Do a little research first:

• Rentals and charter trips are available, especially in the Western United Sates, for those who want to try before they buy. Such trips can be a fun vacation as well as a way to decide if you're serious about the sport.
• Attend local land sailing events to see what's involved. Many events are held spring through fall. The North American Land Sailing Association's Web site is a good place to learn about events and clubs in various locations.
• Talk to land sailing enthusiasts. Most are passionate about their sport. They love to talk and want the sport to grow.
• Investigate the various kinds of boats. They range widely in size and price. Land sailing is less expensive than water sailing.
• Attend the annual America's Landsailing Cup to get a good look at the different types of boats in action.
• Think about your goals: Do you just want to have fun, or might you want to get into racing? If you like to tinker, you might want to work with your own design in the open classes where the only restriction is the area of the sail [source: Harris ].

But with those high speeds, can land sailing be safe? Keep reading to find out.

Land sailing is a little like real estate: Location, location and location. People who live near or visit the high deserts in the American West with their dry lake beds find ideal conditions. But land sailing enthusiasts in less ideal locations sometimes have to be a little more creative, heading for airstrips, large parking lots, stadiums and other open expanses. One of the most unusual sites ever used for land sailing in the United States was the cornfields in Iowa owned by a farmer named Randy Harmon. Back in the early days of the sport in America -- the 1960s -- sailors would launch their boats in the fields after the crop had been cut. As Nord Embroden writes in his article about the history of land sailing in America posted on the NALSA Web site, the "corn stubble provided an adequate but bumpy surface" [source: Embroden ].

Land sailboats often go four to five times the speed of the wind. With a minimal wind of 10 miles per hour (16 kilometers per hour), you can be racing along at 40 to 50 miles per hour (64 to 80 kilometers per hour). When the wind speed is higher, boats may go two to three times the wind speed. Speeds of 80 miles per hour (128.7 kilometers per hour) are not unusual.

If you're flying along that fast in a boat with no real brakes, you could run into trouble. But land sailing is usually one of the safest of the extreme sports, if sailors use common sense. The first bit of common sense is using protective gear. Land-sailing tours and rentals insist on its use, and most land sailors use it as a matter of choice.

The main types of protective gear are:

• Helmets: a top priority.
• Seat belt: Those who go land sailing on beaches usually don't wear seat belts for fear of turning over into the water and becoming trapped. But in the United States, where they are sailing on dry lakes or other hard surface, most people do buckle up.
• Goggles or other eye wear
• Pads: Knee and elbow pads are usually good. The need for other pads may be determined by the type of boat and the position of the sailor -- what body part is likely to take a beating. Some people use shin pads; some use back protectors.

The larger the area for sailing, the safer. On a huge dry lake, there's little to run into. If you have trouble figuring out how to slow or stop the boat, you have room to figure it out. So, how do you stop the boat? Essentially, you stop it by steering it directly into the wind. Coming to a complete halt may take quite a distance. Sailors in smaller boats may drag their feet to help when the boat has almost stopped. Larger, enclosed boats have something like a parking brake to bring the craft to a stop once its speed is down to 4 or 5 miles per hour (6.4 or 8 kilometers per hour).

Those who sail in smaller settings take more risks. In parking lots, sailors can run afoul of light poles and curbs. Problems can arise in popular land sailing areas. If too many boats are sailing close together, some are likely to run into each other.

One of the obvious safety advantages of land sailing over its water cousin is that land sailors are unlikely to drown. If something goes wrong, a land sailor can get out of the boat and start walking.

Until your skills are well developed, it's a good idea not to sail too far from camp or vehicle. If you injure yourself, you don't want to have to trek a long way across a dry desert lake to your vehicle [source: Bassano ].

For more information on sailing and other sports, check out the links on the next page.

Lots More Information

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• About Go Landsailing. (Dec. 15, 2009)http://www.golandsailing.com/?gclid=CKHjmMHr7J4CFUKZ2AodegryJw Go Land Sailing.com
• "Alvord Desert." U.S. Bureau of Land Management.  http://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/site_info.php?siteid=5
• "An Introduction to Land Sailing." Sailing Ahead. (Dec. 21, 2009) http://www.sailingahead.com/information/land-sailing.htm
• Bassano, Dennis. President, North American Land Sailing Association. Personal interview via telephone. (Dec. 19, 2009)
• "BloKart: Best Toys on the Planet." BloKart. (Dec. 21, 2009)http://www.blokart.com/about.php
• "Book a Trip -- Get Blown Away!" Land Sailing Tours LLC. (Dec. 22, 2009) http://www.golandsailing.com/reserve_california.htm
• Brinson, Lloyd. M. Ed. in Physics, UNC Greensboro. High school physics teacher, retired. Personal interview. Dec. 22, 2009.
• "Description of Land Sailing." Wind Chaser. (Dec. 21, 2009)http://www.wind-chaser.com/about/about-landsailing/landsailing-description.html
• Embroden, Nord. "Landsailing in America." American Landsailing Federation Newsletter May 12, 1998. Reprinted on http://www.nalsa.org. (Dec. 15, 2009)http://www.nalsa.org/landsailing_in_america.htm
• Harris, Mark. Treasurer, North American Land Sailing Association. Personal interview via e-mail, Dec. 19-20, 2009.
• "Introduction to Land Sailing." Landsailing.Net. (Dec. 15, 2009)http://www.landsail.net/introduction_to_land_sailing.htm
• "Ivanpah Dry Lake." U.S. Bureau of Land Management.http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/needles/ivanpah.print.html
• "Manta landsailers." Windpower sports.com. (Dec. 23, 2009)http://www.windpowersports.com/landsailers/
• North American Land Sailing Association. (Dec. 15, 19, 21, 22, 2009)http://www.nalsa.org
• "Off-Highway Vehicle Areas & Trails." U.S. Bureau of Land Management.  http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/recreation/off-highway_vehicle.html
• "The Sirocco, Sirocco Spring, and Sirocco Twin -- Great Fun, Outstanding Performance." Sirocco Land Sailer. (Dec. 21, 2009)http://www.windline.net/sirocco.htm
• Weber, Robert. Southern vice president, North American Land Sailing Association. Personal interview via telephone, Dec. 19, 2009.
• Weber, Robert. "Water Sailing vs. Hard Surface Sailing."http://www.modellandyachts.com

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Land Sailing in Nevada

January – february 2013.

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By MATTHEW B. BROWN

Nevada has many claims to fame, and you can add one more to the list: land sailing. In fact, I was interested to learn recently that the Silver State is arguably the premier land-sailing destination in the United States.

“We have the dry lakebeds, the hard mud,” says nine-time national champion and current treasurer of the North American Land Sailing Association, Mark Harris. “Nevada is a very popular location because we can go the fastest.” Nevada also has wind galore, which is as valuable to a land sailor as fuel is to a racecar driver.

Land sailing, also known as sand yachting or land yachting—or as Harris likes to call it, “dirt boating”—has evolved primarily into a racing sport in the last half century. Its roots can be traced as far back as 6th-century China. Centuries later, some European royalty used land yachts for entertainment, and they were even used hundreds of years ago in the U.S. to transport goods.

Today, however, they are used primarily for competition. Land-sailing events are held internationally from the vast beaches of Western Europe, Ireland, New Zealand, and Brazil to the dry deserts of the U.S. It’s no surprise then that the arid sands of Nevada have become the epicenter of the fiercely competitive dirt-boating world.

OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. “It’s friendly competition,” says Harris, an electrical engineer for the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. “The Europeans are big on entertainment, so that tradition has carried over to the states.” The sense of community and family is strong in land sailing. Harris says a group of spectators and racers, which rarely exceeds 100 at most events, will enjoy potluck dinners, fly remote-control airplanes, hold stargazing parties, and socialize around bonfires.

The next major Nevada event is America’s Landsailing Cup (this and most others are open to the public) on March 23-30 at Ivanpah Dry Lake, just south of Primm—a shopping and entertainment destination known for its Primm Valley Resorts and Desperado roller coaster.

Richard Jenkins set the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle (126.2 mph) there on March 26, 2009 in his yacht Greenbird. The previous record of 116.7 mph was set at Ivanpah in 1999.

While Ivanpah is technically in California just over the Nevada border, it’s still largely considered a Nevada event because Primm is the gateway. Other Silver State terrain used primarily for land sailing includes Misfits Flat, just south of Stagecoach; Smith Creek Valley Dry Lake southwest of Austin via State Route 722; and Diamond Valley northeast of Eureka via S.R. 278.

On the NALSA website there are images from the 1998 “Holy Gale” event held in the Black Rock Desert. The Thrust SuperSonic car (jet-powered in this case) famously bolted across northwestern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in 1997 at a world-record speed of 763.035 mph, or 2 percent above the speed of sound.

The annual Holy Gale has since moved to Smith Creek Valley, which is Nevada pilot Lester Robertson’s favorite event. Robertson is the owner of the aforementioned Misfits Flat land—where much of the famous 1961 film starring Marilyn Monroe was filmed—and the Carson City company Complete Millwork Service.

Robertson loves the competition of land sailing, but he also cites, “the silence of the desert; just setting down these contraptions, accelerating, and seconds later flying along at 50 mph in a cloud of dust,” he says. “The dust subsides, and you will find yourself five miles from camp without a breath of wind, hoping for the next puff to come in and take you home.”

Robertson, who heavily promotes youth land sailing, also speaks highly of the camaraderie that is such a big part of the sport’s makeup. “A lot of guys and gals have been friends for years—the same bond you find with the rock hunters, rocketeers…all of us waiting for the next year’s trips to the heart of Nevada, the Great Basin.”

Black Rock Goes Soft

The Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada was once a premier land-sailing destination, but that’s not so anymore. The key, believe it or not, is moisture—or lack thereof. “It has not flooded since 2000 or thereabouts,” says Nevada pilot Lester Robertson. “Four years ago the surface went from so hard you did not leave imprints with your motorhome tires to so soft and crumbly a 250-pound dirt boat would sink so deep you cannot sail.”

According to Robertson, the Black Rock needs a substantial flood covering after which the water would soak deep into the subsurface. “Perhaps this will be the year we get the type of snow and rain we had when the Truckee River flooded and the Helms pit became Sparks Marina; that’s what it will take to repair the Black Rock Desert,” he says.

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