Sand Ho! : Land Sailors Set a Thrilling Course Across Desert

Tall, sinewy Phil Rothrock, 44, lay on his back inside the enclosed cockpit of his yacht Zephyr. He cranked a control handle, shifting the 20-foot sail overhead. A cloud of dust kicked up behind him.

Cloud of dust?

The Zephyr is a land yacht, and Rothrock’s sailing territory is the flat-as-a-billiard-table Ivanpah Dry Lake bed on the California-Nevada line.

The only sound that knifed through the desert silence was the whirring of the three rubber-tired wheels on the wind-propelled, two-seater yacht. Sun rays danced off the glistening aluminum of the 26-foot-long craft.

The digital readout on Rothrock’s cockpit speedometer jumped: 30, 40, 50, 55, 60, finally holding at 69.7.

Sailing downhill, the Zephyr was hitting three and a half times the speed of the prevailing winds when Rothrock abruptly reversed directions. The sensation was awesome. It drained the adrenaline.

“Lot of traffic out here,” shouted the Portland, Ore., math teacher. “We don’t want to run over anybody.” He steered clear of the 40 other land yachts maneuvering across the smooth hardpan as the wind gusted to 15 and 20 m.p.h.

Motorists along Interstate 15, which flanks the shores of the dry lake bed not far from this tiny town, must have thought they were seeing a mirage as they sped along side-by-side with many in the flotilla of sailboats.

“Ivanpah’s one of the finest places on earth for sand sailing,” grinned Rothrock minutes later as he brought the Zephyr to a stop.

Half the land yachts in America--about 300 sail boats on wheels--can be found nearly every weekend sailing half a dozen desert dry lakes between Barstow and the Nevada border.

Another 300 land yachts sail on dry lakes in Nevada, Oregon and Arizona and on long stretches of ocean beaches along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

It’s a little-known sport that some trace back to Prince Wilhelm von Oranja of the Netherlands in the mid-1600s when he and 20 others sailed faster than a running horse on a four-wheel land yacht along a North Sea beach.

Sand sailing is more popular on European beaches than on the dry lakes and shores of the United States. It is also a sport enjoyed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Rothrock and his father, Art, 72, a retired engineer, have been designing and building personal land yachts for 10 years. “We’re trying to achieve the ultimate design, to break the existing speed record of 88.3 m.p.h.,” Art Rothrock said.

Most land yachts are smaller than the Zephyr and the sailors sit upright in the open beneath flopping Dachron and Mylar sails. They guide their boats by hauling in or letting out sheet, taming the wind for maximum speed, just as sailors at sea.

Art Rothrock has been a licensed aircraft pilot since 1938. He flew hang gliders until he was 60.

‘It’s Exciting’

“Self-preservation set it. I decided one day while flying off an ocean cliff with the sea gulls that self-preservation did not coincide with hang gliding. I have been sand sailing ever since,” he said. “It’s easily as exciting and a heck of a lot safer.”

The land yacht sailors were at Ivanpah Dry Lake for a weekend of time speed trials. Later that day Phil Rothrock was clocked at 72 m.p.h., the fastest time of the meet.

“It’s a dirty sport,” Iva Todd, 40, a Wrightwood beautician, said with a laugh as she brushed dust off her blouse and slacks after sailing around the lake in her eight-foot boat Twinjammer. “Eating dust is a big part of it.”

Todd said she and her husband, Bob, 43, owner of a refrigeration business, sand sail every chance they get. “Like everyone else in this sport we got tired of going so slow sailing on water,” Bob Todd said.

Many of the dry lake yachtsmen design and build their own vehicles. Others have commercial ones, such as single-place Mantas weighing 70 pounds and costing $895 or twin-place Mantas weighing 100 pounds and costing $1,195.

‘Been Hooked Ever Since’

“I have been an ocean sailor all my life. Race boats. Sailed as far away as the Galapagos Islands,” said Bob Perry, 62, of Riverside, who spent four years designing and building the 32-foot X-Caliber, which carries a 30-foot mast. “But there is no end to the excitement out here. The first time I rode in one of these babies, that was it. I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Perry said he once traveled 168.3 miles non-stop on Ivanpah Dry Lake in four hours. The retired furniture factory manager has raced land yachts in Europe and New Zealand.

“I was a water sailor all my life until I found out what real sailing is all about,” added Jim Braslow, 41, of San Pedro, manager of a packing equipment company and president of the Pacific Landsailor Club, after he finished a solid hour of “smoking along at 50 to 60 m.p.h.”

His wife Shelly, 36, an attorney, said she practically grew up in a boat next to her grandfather. “Gramps was a regular old Captain Bligh. He sailed in rain, sleet, biting cold. I’d much rather be out here on the desert eating dust and ripping across the dry lake bed four times as fast as any sea-going boat,” she said.