Championship land yacht fuselage goes fast forward or backward
by Russ Foster 17 Mar 2014 00:15 PDT
12-19 July 2014
Alan Wirtanen, Aptos, CA (yellow) and Bill Dale, Pewaukee, WI (white), in similar land yachts designed and built by Wirtanen, at speed during the 2013 America's Landsailing Cup Regatta © NALSA
Alan Wirtanen's long, sleek yellow land yacht has won its share of U.S. landsailing regattas during the last ten years in NALSA Classes 2, 3 and 4, with maximum sail areas of 120, 79 and 59 square feet of sail, respectively. He has competed in the smaller classes simply by changing sail sizes.
This championship machine, however, has a unique distinction unlike any previous land yacht: it became the inspiration for a winning gravity car. In the late 1990s/early 2000s there was a high-profile charity event in Northern California's Silicon Valley called the Sand Hill Challenge. Prominent venture capital (VC) firms and high technology companies competed vigorously in a gravity-car competition down a long, steep stretch of famous Sand Hill Road. The vehicles were highly advanced and push-started by extremely fit Olympic bobsledders and other strong, fast athletes. The competition was intense.
In 2000, as Wirtanen was fine-tuning his land yacht on dry lakes, he and current North American Land Sailing Association (NALSA) President Dennis Bassano were contacted by Compaq Computer and asked to build the ultimate vehicle for the Sand Hill event. They agreed and decided that the land yacht fuselage could be the basis for a very streamlined, long, tear drop-shaped, low-drag vehicle. Using Wirtanen's mold, they made a dedicated fuselage for the gravity car. For this vehicle, however, the fuselage was reversed from its original land yacht orientation and also turned upside down. Push-started by members of the San Jose State University rugby team and piloted by a driver Compaq provided, it swept to victory in the prestigious 2001 Sand Hill Challenge.
This summer Wirtanen, of Aptos, CA, will be sailing his land yacht in FISLY Class 2 against strong international competitors during the FISLY-NALSA 14th Landsailing World Championship, which will be held July 12-19 at Smith Creek Playa in Northern Nevada near the town of Austin. Entrants from four continents and 15 countries are expected. NALSA, the U.S. affiliate of FISLY, the International Federation of Sand and Land Yachts, will host the regatta.
Dennis Bassano stated, "it appears the fuselage on Alan's yacht is fast in any orientation: forward, backward, right side-up or upside-down; it doesn't seem to matter." On a more serious note, Bassano added, "I truly believe it may be the fastest course-racing (around-the-marks) land yacht in the world. We'll find out in July."
www.nalsa.org/Worlds2014Splash.html