Hello, I am very new to land yachting and figured this would be the best place to look for advice. I have been looking through lots of forums and it has helped me to start off on my yacht, but I could do with some pointers.

I have a very small budget to build my yacht (£200) so I was wondering if anyone could suggest inexpensive materials for building the sail (I am opting for a soft sail) and give me advice on what I'm going to need to do it?

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Look for second hand windsurf gear. There is a fixed section in "sail making" on how to recut windsurf sails for use on land yachts. And it is a great topic.
Also: welcome aboard!

if you cant find a windsurfing sail , look for really big cruiser sails that can give you some big lumps of sailcloth
ps welcome aboard also

thanks! when attempting to recut would it ruin the sail if i tried to reduce the height of the sail?

Look for a windsurf sail that will cut to the size that you want eg 6m to finish 4.5 / 5m. You also need to get a sail that is the right shape and ideally as wide a material panel on the luff as possible.

Keep in mind that as in the case of aircraft wings a long thin wing (high aspect) is more efficient than a short sail with a broad foot

Thanks for the advice!

I'm using a windsurfing sail that I managed to grab on ebay for cheap. I want to be able to determine the best shape for generating lift but reducing the drag force. what kind of calculations should I be using to work it out? Is there a general shape that definitely makes it faster?

can you getup a pic of the saail you have ?

Going to be bringing it down from 4.75m mast and 2.2m boom to about 3.5 and 1.8. Any mathematicians got any suggestions on the best shape to recut? or equations i can use?

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Sail-making/How-I-recut-sailboard-sails-to-suit-landyachts/
this is what I do with that exact kind of sail

Perfect!

Is it plausible to cut it from the other side? Not sure how far my sewing skills will take me if I have to take off the sleeve

in that case take a wedge out of the middle

I just mark out and cut the rear/leech off the sail. (this is what we do with cammed sails, as it's very complicated adjusting the mast pocket/luff with retained camms.)

Resew the trailing edge reinforcement back to your sail.
Unpick the last 150mm of the batten pocket off the "off cut" and slip them back (in the right order so the batten can pass through it)under the batten pocket that remains on your sail. You can just heat seal the Dacron cut with a cigarette lighter, or fold 15mm back under before you stitch it if your fussy) This ensures that all the batten tensioning system is retained and then carefully trim your battens to their new length.

Reuse the outhaul clew eyelet at the back as well.

If possible use "landyacht's" ideas and make the bottom/foot of your sail curved. A 50mm dish downwards in the middle, traps the sail onto your boom in light winds but it can still change sides when the wind increases. Works a treat!!!!
Make sure you allow enough clearance for some mast bend when fully sheeted in for the boom to clear your head.

Very easy to unpick these sails, just lay them along a table, clamp them really tight to each end of a table and gently lift the materials apart and nick just the stitching with a snapblade knife. (once you get started it's easy. You can completely strip a sail like yours in 1/2 an hour.

You may just be able to remove some length off the bottom of the whole sail (Luff/ mast pocket as well) to make it shorter in height.

Hey everyone sorry for taking so long to reply, but just showing you some of the progress I have made with the resizing of the sail. I am just about to finish the arrangement to be sewn on tomorrow and what the final design should look like. Let me know what you think cheers :)

Well it certainly isnt perfect, but it's ready to be sewn. what do you think?

I saw a few land yachts down at the beach this arvo, i only say them using 1 sail. Do they have spinnakers? Or Jibs? they look very fun though! Would there be anyplace around hobart that would have a demo?

Regards, Rob

gday fling cab, we have been slow havent we.No idea who to contact in hobart, maybe go back to the beach and talk to the people who wre on the beach