Sailing away

Published 5:00 am Friday, November 2, 2007

Twenty-five years ago, Rich Crnich stood on the beach at the Oregon Coast while his friend took off in a land sailer. The friend turned the sail away from the wind and went up on two of the three wheels, cruising along the beach.

“I turned to my wife and said, ‘I’m impressed,’” recalls Crnich, who had sailed before, but only in a boat, on water. “She said, ‘Oh no.’ I rode all that afternoon.”

And over the next 25 years, Crnich, who lives in Bend, would build 400 land sailers and start his own business, Wind Techniques, which he sold three years ago.

But he still frequently rides land sailers — or land yachts, as they’re typically called. Crnich, a retired UPS driver, is part of a small group of Central Oregonians who periodically travel to the open spaces and firm surfaces of the Alvord Desert in southeast Oregon or the coast to sail across the ground.

Crnich, 64, still owns two land yachts, which consist of a triangular aluminum frame with three go-kart wheels, two in the back of the craft and one in front. A sail, much like those on a windsurfer’s sailboard, is attached to the frame. The rider sits in a seat with a seat belt.

One of Crnich’s land yachts includes a 16-foot-high sail and weighs less than 100 pounds. The other land yacht is larger and includes a seat for two.

“We call it the ‘Lincoln,’ because it rides so nice,” Crnich says of the two-seater.

Riders steer with their feet on a pedal, which is connected to the front wheel with wires. They can pull a rope in front of them to tack the sail. Land sailors can ride for miles at a time and reach speeds of 55 mph.

“It accelerates like you wouldn’t believe,” Crnich says. “That thing’s got a lot of sizzle.”

Wind can often force land yachts up on two wheels (the front wheel and one back wheel).

“Once you learn to handle it on two wheels, it’s a lot of fun,” Crnich says. “People think you can have a violent roll over, but the wind brings it back.”

Land sailers have no brakes, so when Crnich gives lessons the first thing he teaches beginners is how to stop. They do so by simply turning the vehicle into the wind.

“The drag is tremendous,” Crnich explains. “People can learn in less than an hour.”

After that day on the beach 25 years ago, Crnich went to Hood River in the Columbia River Gorge, where he bought three sails. He says he built three land yachts in three weeks — bolting the aluminum parts together because he didn’t know how to weld — and sold them all in one day at the Oregon Coast.

Soon thereafter, he taught himself how to weld aluminum and built seven more land sailers. They were wildly popular on the coast.

“I went to Seaside and down to Florence,” he recalls. “I sold every one before I got to Florence. I had people chasing after me. And I just kept improving the design.”

Crnich says a “mini” land yacht now costs about $1,700, and larger versions go for about $2,300.

Crnich and his wife, Theresa, often travel to different parts of the state for land sailing. He says the Alvord Desert, just east of Steens Mountain, is the “prime” place for land sailing. Hard, flat sand stretches for miles in the Alvord, providing plenty of room for land sailors.

Land yachts can be ridden year-round in the Alvord, but because of the cold weather there, Crnich recommends riding at the coast during the fall and winter. Riding on wet sand near the water with a low tide usually works the best, he says.

“Conditions have to be perfect: right tide, right wind,” Crnich notes.

Other places in Oregon where land sailors like to ride include a dry lake bed called Local Lake near Paisley in south central Oregon, and another dry lake bed near Burns known as Moon Reservoir.

Crnich said he and friends used to ride their land sailers at the Madras Airport, but the activity is no longer allowed there.

While most sailors ride their land yachts for fun, the sport has a competitive element. The 2008 World Championships of Land Yachting will be held in Patagonia, Argentina, next February. The same event has been staged in the past in Primm, Nev., south of Las Vegas.

Land yacht riders have also sought speed records for their sport. The world record for a wing-type land yacht (powered by an aluminum wing rather than a sail) is 116.8 mph, according to Crnich.

The origins of land sailing can be traced to the Chinese in the 1600s, when they used large land sailers to transport troops, according to Crnich. Now they are used for recreation all over the world.

Crnich says he still sells accessories for those who want to build their own land yacht, but the bulk of his current business, Western Metal Art, is golf trophies. He crafts trophies, featuring lots of tree displays, out of old band saws and pipes, and those trophies are presented at local golf tournaments and tournaments throughout the country. He also constructs Western sculptures out of the same type of material.

But land yachts are still a passion for Crnich.

“I won’t build people a yacht,” he says, “but I can help them build one themselves.”