The Greenbird in it’s final stages of assembly at Lake Lefroy.

Richard Jenkins being congratulated after setting new world record for wind powered land vehicle, Ivanpah California

 

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Back to dry land

Filed under: Land Record — Tags: , , , — Richard @ 4:12 pm on March 20, 2009

Sorry for the radio silence! But we’ve been using the time to move our focus from the ice and back onto the land record.

This is because the ice surface never recovered at Canyon Ferry and on March 1st it started to break up in the warming weather.

So it appears that the only possible window for an ice speed record is during the time between when it freezes and when it snows. I sort of knew this before this year’s efforts, but hope springs eternal, right?

Anyway, the ice yacht is packed up in its trailer near the lake awaiting next year’s first freeze. I will be back there in early December, waiting for that first ice.

Thoughts now turn to the land version of Greenbird, waiting for me in storage near San Francisco. The America’s cup landsailing Regatta starts at Ivanpah (near Las Vegas) this weekend – and I plan to be there.

It is the biggest land sailing event of the year, encompassing the Pacrim (Pacific rim) Regatta, so there will be land yacht pilots there from Japan, New Zealand, Australia, etc.

It is not only a great event, but it is the same time of year that the current land record of 116 mph was set – at the same location, 10 years ago.

Believe it or not, I have been trying to beat that record every year, at different locations around the world since then, but opportunities are very few are far between.

Let’s hope it is a 10 year weather cycle!