The Wind Wagon Project

This post and the following two videos are for our 4 year old friend Henry. He is into pirates at the moment, but also just got back from Colorado. He was visiting the family cabin, which his great-grandfather built. They didn't see any pirates, nor any prairie schooners or wind wagons.

Of course it was after they returned home that my edition of WoodenBoat magazine came in the mail. There is a wonderful article on traditional rigging (and rigger Jens Langert, starts on page 82, September/October 2016 No. 252).

A little adendum occurs in page 84. "In the Dusty Wake of the Pioneers" mentions how Langert and friends became inspired by Zeb Thomas and others attempts to make wind wagons to move people and goods across the American Great Plaines.

This is what got me thinking of you, Henry. A tall ship rigged wagon sailing across the desert!

So these friends set out to build their own. ASTRAKAN was completed in Sweden, taken apart and shipped to Gerlach, Nevada. There she was reassembled and sailed across the Black Rock desert to Black Rock City for the 2012 Burning Man. They reached a top speed of 43 km per hour (27 mph) and it took them three weeks to get there.

This first video shows them sailing across the desert.

This second video shows the behind the scenes thinking. Yes it is in Swedish, but there are English subtitles. Henry, you might need Mom and Papa to read this for you.

Enjoy.

Blessed be,
Joel

PS - there are some interesting things in this article I will highlight in another post.