Kite Powered Land Proa

Inspired largely by this Instructable, here is my rough, quick and dirty attempt at building a sailing beach toy.

Step 1 Frame

The photos explain this fairly well. Some scrap Pinus Crapiata and 9mm exterior plywood make up the basic frame. I assembled these parts using self drive wood screws, a couple of roofing screws and some horrible, sticky, black polyurethane adhesive.

When you build yours, either go with a triangular structure or the same Tee shaped frame I have done, but with hollow box beams of larger section than I have used here or just better timber. While this frame seems adequate for my weight and mild conditions, the torsional stiffness of both the longitudinal and lateral members is slightly lacking. It is mildly disconcerting to have your seat twisting around as you sail along. I reckon probably the best way to go for most people would be a triangular structure welded up from steel RHS.

Comments

[The nerdling]

10000\5 awesome

[teslafan100]

cool 5/5 im try to make one :)

[TSC]

Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AngusNotSoYoung]

Where do you find a kite big enough to pull it and how much does it cost?

[kd1uc]

There are probably more than 100 kites you can buy over the counter to power such a rig, however, many are not cheap. To list a few Quadrafoil, Flexifoil, Revolution and others I cannot think of right now. You would be surprised how small of a kite you need if the wind is right but a six to eight foot wing span has quite a bit of pull. I go sand-surfing with a 6 foot Quadrafoil in a 12 MPH breeze. Into The Wind kite company is one source but look around, you might do better.

[AngusNotSoYoung]

thanks

[Leon Close]

I sewed the kite myself, it's really easy and fairly cheap if you have a sewing machine. A decent set of lines is the expensive part. Search for nasawing or NPW or NPW5 or NPW9 for instructions. The kite I used here is actually pretty small, only 2.4m^2.

[your dog]

 could u use paracord?

[Leon Close]

Not sure, I've never used paracord. If it's polyester braid then possibly, but the strength of it is probably overkill for kites like this. That makes it heavy and draggy, which means the kite won't fly well. Most people prefer the lightweight and low-strech fibres like spectra and dyneema.

[AlexTheGreat]

you should make a kite propelled air cushion vehicle.

[ak49er]

It would only go down wind. It needs wheels to move cross wind.

[BorisTheSpider]

Wonder if you could use a single (or a row, like from in-line skates) wheel on a caster in the middle of the underside. It wouldn't technically be riding solely on the air cushion, but it would allow better steering (including cutting cross-wind) and I assume only the purists would take offense.

[maxpower49]

how big of a kite do u use

[The BeastSpawn]

OMG i would LOVE to make one, maybe I will. I wud make mine of alluminium I have everywhere, then I would do jumpys. I dont have a kite tho... That wud be so kwl. Im gonna start designin right away.

[Leon Close]

Definately do it, you'll be glad you did. But have a go at making a kite, it's not that hard. Try a nasawing for your first kite, probably about 3 square metres.

[BobertXXL]

how fast does it go

[Tool Using Animal]

I'd love to see an NPW construction tutorial.

[Leon Close]

Good idea, though that's pretty well covered elsewhere. Search for "nasawing" and "npwbill" for some good info.

[Tool Using Animal]

Actually, in the last three days, I've read myself to death on the subject, and downloaded all the programs. when I've finished my wifes bookcases, a smallish npw9 is my next "big" project. Def. "big" have to buy something. "small" all the parts are in my junk box.

[Leon Close]

Sounds good. I have a 4.3 metre NPW9 on the go at the moment. All my others have been npw5 so it should be interesting to see the difference.

[wombat7]

cool

[theRIAA]

whats you longest/fastest run?

[Leon Close]

Dunno exactly, no speedo on this thing yet. I'd guess I didn't get much past about 25km/h but I had a clear reach for over 800 metres which was nice.

[Wade Tarzia]

Definitely neat. I was once published a science story whose end featured land proas (though I didn't know they were proas way back then), and I've been fascinated with land proas ever since. So wheels that size will go through hard sand, OK, good, but do they dig in and capsize you in the soft sand, should you be blown onto soft sand unavoidably, or should you need to veer away from romantic walking couples?

[Leon Close]

The wheels are pretty marginal really. They're fine on hard, wet sand but bog down quickly if I leave the narrow strip near the water. It's just going to stop in really soft sand rather than capsize. Bigger wheels would help but I wonder how far this can go? A more efficient kite would be useful to provide a bit more vertical lift to get past soft spots. As far as romantic walking couples go, the best plan would be to see them coming a long way off and land or park the kite. Kite lines are by far the most dangerous part of this setup to bystanders.

[PetervG]

Neat