Its winter and so I'm doing a bit of landyachting.

Today I test sailed a golden oldie that had been collecting dust in the shed. I had refitted it last weekend.

It is very similar to the Blokart, although this Stighter was made in the early 80's.





Wind blowing hard out on the beach and the surf was blown in far, washing over the firm plane that we use for landyachting.

I remembered that was a parking lot right behind the row of dunes and I decided to ride there instead. The dunes obstructed the wind significantly but still this oldie reached speeds up to 50-60 kph (30 knots). I put is down to the hard concrete surface. Bloody good fun.

So why am I saying this. Well I got thinking. A new blokart costs what ? In France (incl high EU taxation) a new blokart costs 2175 Euro's. In the USA (no taxes) this is what ? 2500 US$ ?

If the kids today are so hooked on speed and adrenaline rushes then this landyachting in parking lot much be the most promising way to get these kids sailing.

It is FAST, relatively inexpensive and you only need an abandonned parking lot and some wind. Only additional gear needed is a helmet and some common sense.

You don't want to run into a concrete wall at these speeds.

Later in the day I saw a family with blokarts and they had two-seaters where the parent drove with the kid in the next seat. Looked like a ball.

Maybe we are doing this all wrong. Maybe we need to get out of the water and get into landyachts and then when they get hooked on outdoor windsports bring them back into fast catsailing. For these kids will never ever consider slow monohulls after having done landyachting.

Like I said it is a wild idea but so much more practically, inexpensive and accessible. Even in waterless area's. And they are alot easier to home-build as well, if that is your thing


http://www.blokart.com/

Here some video's showing what I'm talking about :

http://www.blokart.com/movies/8v29.mpg

http://www.blokart.com/movies/9v49.mpg

http://www.blokartfrance.com/images/gallery/videos/mpegs/blokart_360spin.mpg

Even truckers like to do it during their lunch breaks

http://www.blokartfrance.com/images/gallery/videos/mpegs/2002java.AVI



Wouter