Thread: Doug's BETH sailing videos!

Originally Posted by robhosailor

Test skipper - Dave Gentry

Test skippers: Dave Gentry and Doug Minhau. Sorry for my mistake.

That's not fair. They had all those wind generators guaranteeing a steady breeze.

Hello all - I meant to point these out on this forum, but I'm slow. That's me in the last video, sailing Doug Minchau's Beth. Doug is doing the sailing in all the other clips. This was last month, on Mt. Storm Lake which, as you may have gathered, consistently has good winds.

Doug's boat is a little rough around the edges, with a steel pipe mainmast and "interesting" foils, etc, but he's building in a vacuum out there in rural West Virginia, and he's got very small children . . . .
Regardless, his boat still sails just dandy. In fact, despite what I was led to believe by Mik himself, I found her to be quite docile and controllable on almost all points, and I had a great time sailing her. I did find her to be a bit squirrely when running dead downwind (note my awkward pose in the video), but I certainly was expecting worse. Doug's Beth was loathe to tack - or at least loathe to tack like a Laser - but I have no idea if that's typical of the design or just to that particular boat. { I am aware that canoes are traditionally slow in stays } In any case, just backing the main for a moment brought her about much quicker.

All in all, Beth is a design I'd be happy to own and sail - though, as a skin-on-frame convert, it might be difficult to convince me to build one!

Dave