Thread: New season of my BETH started ;-)

Looks like a fun day! The boat looks great, and it sure looks nice and sunny. I hope it's the start of a good summer of sailing.

Originally Posted by Andykane

Looks like a fun day! The boat looks great, and it sure looks nice and sunny. I hope it's the start of a good summer of sailing.

Yes, It was really fun day!

More of photos there:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1112394...gatyForumiane#

Thank you for kind words of my boat!

***
You can see reef taken on mainsail. It was due to my lack of training on BETH. She is great boat for well-trained sailors.

Hello Robert,

Your Beth is looking very sharp indeed!

Nice photos showing Beth's sophisticated elegant lines: isn't it just an extremely good looking plywood box?

Happy sailing this new season!

Joost

Very Nice!

Just looking at the sails Robert, they look very full. Next time you are sailing can you put the boat on her side with the sails up and the sail on the underside of the mast and take photos from different angles. Normal mainsheet tension tied off.

Just wondering if excessive sail fullness might be causing the heeling. Are you using a lot of downhaul? It should really be bending the yard as soon as the wind is reliable enough for good speed.

Beautiful pics!

Hey ... that other boat called Mazu - In Taiwan traditional culture she is the one you pray to to protect you from the sea. From a woman and her brothers that used to rescue people. Two boats with Chinese based names!

MIK

Originally Posted by Joost

Your Beth is looking very sharp indeed!

Nice photos showing Beth's sophisticated elegant lines: isn't it just an extremely good looking plywood box?

Happy sailing this new season!

Joost,

Thank you!

Many years ago my brother found at the internet info about BETH:

"Beth is simply the most elegant small squareboat we know. She was given the "kamikaze" label by those who watched her soar out over Lake Alexandrina in a big wind, with a white rooster tail matching the white knuckles of the white-faced Michael Storer on his first major proving run.

What that run proved was that all the cynics were wrong! Beth and Mike appeared at the other side of the Lake unscathed and untroubled, and early. Here's the Storer description of her....." Tim Fatchen

http://www.ace.net.au/schooner/sbhome.htm

And inspiring photos...



A boat so pleased him that soon he made contact with the Australian designer Michael Storer and bought the plans. He was going to build it, but life turned out differently. Ever since my brother showed me BETH's building plans, she liked at first sight to me also - with its elegance and simplicity, as well as the expected features of the sailing.
A few years later my brother gave me BETH's plans to build. In April 2009, build began my sailing canoe in my tiny garage. The whole time I was by Internet in contact with Michael Storer, who on his forum and private gave me some useful advices. The boat was a really inexpensive and simple to build. Building was possible singlehanded and using a very modest set of tools. After several months, just before the onset of cold weather definitive construction was interrupted for the winter, and then resumed in April 2010.
My BETH Sailing canoe was launched May 28, 2010 in Gdansk (Gorki Zachodnie), ...
1001 Boats: BETH Sailing Canoe

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Just looking at the sails Robert, they look very full. Next time you are sailing can you put the boat on her side with the sails up and the sail on the underside of the mast and take photos from different angles. Normal mainsheet tension tied off.

Just wondering if excessive sail fullness might be causing the heeling. Are you using a lot of downhaul? It should really be bending the yard as soon as the wind is reliable enough for good speed.

Yes MIK,

I noticed that unless the sails are too full. You're right - it could be the cause of higher heel.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Beautiful pics!

Hey ... that other boat called Mazu - In Taiwan traditional culture she is the one you pray to to protect you from the sea. From a woman and her brothers that used to rescue people. Two boats with Chinese based names!

Yes, beautiful indeed! Thank you.

So I will ask the owner of "Mazu", is the name his boat from Taiwan. Probably - yes! And you are right!

So...

Last Sunday (Jun 24 2012) I did sailed with my BETH "Yuanfen" on Zegrze Reservoir again.

I changed separate lashing of main sail to yard and boom - there is a one rope at present and it looks a bit better. Mainsail a bit less of full.

Only two photos - last resting on a beach near ruined "Mazowsze" Hotel:





IIt was beautiful sunny day with irregular/jumpy wind gusting from Force 1-2 up to Force 4-5 in Beaufort scale. One reef on main sail was taken...

I am very pleased with the use of Lazy Jacks (topping lifts) - They are very helpful in the discharge of a sail when boat on the water - handy to have, among other things, when towing up the river. In addition, it is possible to hoist a sail when boat on the water, along with tensioning the correct of halyard, but still better and more convenient to do it on the shore. You only need to be careful that Lazy Jacks were not too tight during sailing, because they distort the profile of the sail...

Separate lashings of sail to the boom and yard was simple and easy, but single rope is better - sail looks a bit less of full than previously.

I'm trying to do slab/jiffy reefing system - capable of operation when the boat on the water. It is a bit like this:



Jim Michalak's Boat Designs/The Index

This requires a bit of improvement, and adjustment, and training/practice to work for unstable BETH if really squally day is... but it is better than it was - I can unreef mainsail on the march.

Hi Robert,

It is definitely worth playing with. I had all sorts of fun loops in the sail running up and down in line with the reefing on the 1870s boats that BETH was based on. In the end I just found it easier to drop everything in the cockpit and do it manually. In a strong wind I didn't want my weight and the sail's weight too high.

But I did always kick myself because the first few times I didn't have a good way of tying down the reef at the tack of the mainsail. It is a long way forward in the boat.

I do think a permanent reef line there makes sense. The back (clew) is easy to reach so can be tied manually.

Just be a little bit aware that yacht type systems might be incompatible with a sailing canoe. But I am very interested in reports on how they go.

In terms of lazy jacks ... I would often tie the mainsheet around the dropped mainsail - without taking it out of the blocks. And then rehoist the bundled sail. That way the sail was out of the cockpit for good weather paddling or just to look neat on the beach overnight. It looked like lazy jacks but no lazy jacks.

Keep the feedback going ... very interested to see what you find out!

Best wishes
Michael

Originally Posted by Boatmik

But I did always kick myself because the first few times I didn't have a good way of tying down the reef at the tack of the mainsail. It is a long way forward in the boat.

I do think a permanent reef line there makes sense. The back (clew) is easy to reach so can be tied manually.

Present configuration:

There is a small block on the boom at the tack and reef line from reef tack trough this block down the boom to the cleat near clew. Another little block is on boom near the clew. Another reef line is from clew reef trough this block to the same cleat. Both lines are trough the hole in a cleat and tied together. For take a reef you needs easy the halyard ( drop the sail which is lying on the boom between Lazy Jacks) and pull both reef lines and tie them together on a cleat. It sounds simple and easy, but if boat is on the water and wind gusting you need two hands for it and... third hand for controling the tiller.

hehe.

With Mizzen tight or near tight she does sit head to wind. Actually it is best not to have the mizzen too tight. Direct head to wind means you get wind from one side then the other. It is actually more restful to have a slightly loose mizzen so she is near head to wind but definitely with the bow to one side of the wind direction.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

With Mizzen tight or near tight she does sit head to wind. Actually it is best not to have the mizzen too tight. Direct head to wind means you get wind from one side then the other. It is actually more restful to have a slightly loose mizzen so she is near head to wind but definitely with the bow to one side of the wind direction.

Sounds good, and it is easy but if wind irregularly gusting, the balance is unstable and boat can set a broadside to the wind...

Practice, practice, practice!!! (...taxi driver responded it to the customer, who asked him how to get to concert hall)

Separate lashings of sail to the boom and yard was simple and easy, but single rope is better - sail looks a bit less of full than previously

Could you explain in more detail what you mean here? Are you talking about the end lashings like this?



I'm currently working on the rigging for my boat and I'm having trouble making it functional and tidy.

Also, for the boom to mast connection - in the online GIS rigging guide the boom is tied to the mast with a short length of line, but in the Beth plans the downhaul seems to be rigged to haul the boom down and keep it tight against the mast. Any comments on which way to use? The GIS way seems simple but means you can't pull the boom back to the cockpit to reef or anything wheras with the Beth way this would presumably be possible.

Originally Posted by Andykane

Could you explain in more detail what you mean here? Are you talking about the end lashings like this?

No, this is good if made by few times very thin braided cord (2 mm for example) for better tension.

I wrote about fixing the edges (head and foot) of the sail to the yard and boom - single rope passing through the eyelets and around the spars is better than separate lashes, which I used earlier.

Originally Posted by Andykane

Also, for the boom to mast connection - in the online GIS rigging guide the boom is tied to the mast with a short length of line, but in the Beth plans the downhaul seems to be rigged to haul the boom down and keep it tight against the mast. Any comments on which way to use? The GIS way seems simple but means you can't pull the boom back to the cockpit to reef or anything wheras with the Beth way this would presumably be possible.

I am using the method shown for GIS - downhaul is a purchase 3:1 and separately and in addition another short rope as a boom parrel:


DSC02478 by klonersi, on Flickr



Yes, it is not possible draw tack end of the boom into the cockpit.

Oh thanks, that's fantastic! Those photos answer a lot of questions.