Welcome to Land Yachting in Kent U.K.

Thinking of Building?

The items needed to build a "project" land yacht can be quite expensive, and not always designed specifically for this purpose. If your sole ambition is to save money, you would probably be better off buying a second-hand yacht. The design work and strength calculations will have then been done for you.
Whist we do not recommend the building of land yachts by novices (remember, we have seen some of the results), we realise that some people will want to anyway!
We do get a lot of enquiries from students building their yacht as a school/college project. Remember, you could always consider taking just one part of the yacht and re-designing/refining that.
The yacht has to be balanced so that it is safe and manageable to sail. Various calculations are in place for this, although exactly where everything is set varies from one yacht to the next. There is lots of useful information available on the web to get you thinking. Try the technical pages on the British Federation web site to start with.

Parts

The wheels need to be strong to withstand the considerable sideways forces acting upon them. The following have been successfully used on land yachts: plastic wheel-barrow/launching trolley wheels, plastic B.M.X. wheels, alloy motor-cycle wheels, various car wheels although Citroen 2CV are favourite for large yachts. Do not use wire spokes as they will pop out with the sideways forces.
Sailing dinghy masts and sails are no good. The masts are not strong enough (honestly!) and the sails tend to be too full. Windsurfer masts and sails can be adapted and at least one commercial model training yacht uses these already.
The chassis needs to be strong. The following materials have been used: aluminium tube, steel tube, monocoque fibre-glass, wood.
A set of plans is available (to purchase) from the British Federation. This is for the Fed 5 yacht, a racer/trainer with good performance, strength and durability. The two land yachts pictured sailing towards each other on our home page are both Fed 5s.
If you are building a yacht, our local manufacturer of land yachts, Kirrawee, can supply any parts that you do not feel able to make. These would often be the seat, the front steering fork assembly and the sail.

If you want try landyachting before building one attend one of our Come and try sessions and enjoy a fun packed 1/2 day(4 hours) we will show you how to sail and operate our landyachts under instruction from one of members, our beach at Greatstone is over 3 miles long and 1/2 a mile wide at low tide and offers an unrivaled expanse of hard sand in the South East of England for our sport you will start with friendly instruction of the basics of the landyacht including all controls and the safety equipment. you will then be given a helmet, then taken to a yacht which you will climb into then again running through the controls and how to operate them key safety advice will allow you to stop in a safe manner. Now the exciting part you will sail a small course around two cones with a gently push from your instructor and verbal guidence you will sail several laps of the course returning with hopefully a smile on your face, you will then be able to sail with a small group on your own. The cost just £65 please use the contact form to book or.

Telephone 07727826373

Kent landyacht Club, look forward to meeting you on the beach.