This website will hopefully provide you with lots of useful information about Minilandyachts; provide answers to some of your questions, and inspire you to have a go at sailing on land.
Sandyachting / Landyachting / Landsailing / Dirtboating are all words used to describe the same activity, the sailing of wheeled craft on land.
In the UK we tend to use the term Sandyachting, because that's what we do... sail on sand.
The sport has a long history, mainly because - wherever there is a beach suitable for sandyachting - ie flat, hard and preferably dry sand - someone will have sailed something on it, and they will invariably have been inspired by tales of someone else who sailed something similar, a decade or two earlier.
If you are interested in the History of Sandyachting and it's development in Britain, there is a hardback book with that title, 210 pictures and 201 pages, written in 1990, with copies still available at £20 including postage to mainland UK, direct from the author andy@minilandyachts.co.uk.
The first Minilandyacht was the Windskate, in 1975. It was an immediate success, but the landyachting community are a competitive group of people, in that they generally like to sail faster than their friends, and - as a sweeping generalisation - the bigger the yacht, the faster it will go, so the little Windskate was quickly stretched - for racing purposes - and became Class 5.
The current wave of enthusiasm for Minilandyachts started at The Americas Landsailing Cup event at Ivanpah, USA, in 2000, when Jean-Philippe Krischer of Seagull (France) launched the Ludic.
If you would like to see a selection of other landyachts, visit the Seagull website seagull etc etc
The Ludic inspired numerous copies - of which the Potty Minilandyacht was but one - and, as with the Windskate, the little Minis were then stretched - for racing purposes - until the Sport's International Governing Body (FISLY) introduced a new Class for the Minilandyachts in 2012, with a specification that said the footprint of all 3 wheels must fit with a rope 5.60m long. The Minilandyachts Class was subdivided in 2017 into Sport - Mini Class 5s - and Spirit, the stretched original little Minis. The Sport Minis seem to have died out; the Spirit Minis are evolving quickly, and the original little Minis have been left behind.
The little Minis are much smaller than the yachts that now race in the Minilandyachts Class - and accordingly are hopelessly uncompetitive - but the vast majority of folk who show interest in the concept of the Minilandyachts are not interested in racing... they simply want to enjoy sailing on their local beach, for the sheer fun of it. If that includes you, then you're in luck, because this website is aimed at you.
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