Thread: There's Something About Beth

I'm currently building a Beth and I was drawn to it for similar reasons as you. I'll be interested to hear what responses you get about the sailing characteristics - that's still a few months away for me.

I was looking for a sailing boat that could easily be put on top of the car for an evening sail or for venturing longer distances, and I wanted something that would provide the pure delight of well mannered sailing. I remember the first time I sailed a laser: a couple friends and I set out from the club on the beach 5 minutes walk from my house and spent a few sunny evening hours sailing to and fro in the bay in winds that I would hardly have noticed on my 20' cruising sloop. The sailing was so simple and actually made me interested in improving my, until then, strictly utilitarian sail trim skills. I wanted something that could give me that pleasure - not to mention the fun of building.

I gather that Beth is rather more stable than one would initially think. While only 32" beam, that beam is carried right down to the bottom, which probably makes it as initially stable as a wider more conventional design. Under sail I would think that once you're at the point of requiring body weight to keep things up that hull stability would become less important - the buoyancy becomes more of a pivot point than providing any righting arm.

I think the plans mention use of a single paddle - that's my plan at least. I think to use a double paddle effectively it would have to be extremely long (my 28" wide double paddle canoe needs about a 110" paddle to be comfortable) which makes it difficult to store. The single paddle can be bungie'd to the side in the cockpit where it'll be totally out of the way but always ready to be used. With the rudder (and daggerboard if needed) tracking shouldn't be a problem even with a single paddle.

As far as building, there is really nothing to prevent a novice from doing an excellent job. The plans (which are actually a full building manual) are extremely detailed and go through the whole build with step by step instructions. They are also full of helpful tips for those with limited tools. That being said, it's no 3 hour canoe type project. I've got about 100 hours into my build over 3 months and I expect it to take about another 80. There are a lot of little pieces necessary to get the weight down while keeping everything strong. I've got a spreadsheet showing my hours and costs at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...=1&output=html

Hi Andy .. did I contact you about that there was an error in the centreboard width in some of the plans.

I tried to dig up everyone. It looks like the plan was correct but something went wrong with the printing and scaling an unknown time ago.

Contact me by email or talk about it here.

Cheers
Michael

Hi Alrotch,

About the weight ... I'm trying to remember how much my ex and I came to. We did a fair bit of sailing two up and it was OK.

I think she was about 8.5 stone and I was about 10.5 at that stage. 19 stone or 266lbs.

The boat sails Ok in all directions at that weight but isn't anywhere as fleet as singlehanded. It kindof has a yacht like feel with the narrow beam and bigger weight.

It was OK to sail here like that ... but I think it would be a waste to sail her most of the time like that. Like it says in the blurb ... she is a 1+1.

Old time purveyors of british sports cars would know exactly what this means as many were sold as 2+2. It means that two sit in the front seats happily. But there are proper seats in the back but with almost zero legroom. So the front seats need to be sqeezed forward uncomfortably to fit 4 for a short trip.

I idea was to give friends a lift back from the (very local) pub.

Beth is better than that ... but really I would be expecting to sail singlehanded about 80% of the time to make it worthwhile.

Oars are impractical ... the normal rule of thumb is that their length be a little bit shorter than twice the width of the boat. So the oars for Beth would be about 64 inches minus about six inches. Four foot six or slightly longer oars would be strange to use I think.


When I went to the USA there were four boats I wanted to see. A Thistle, A 110, a Lightning and a Windmill. The Windmill being plywood and the US boat most in line with Australian/NZ weights and performance.

Hope this helps.

Michael

Andykane, I've so enjoyed and your detailed build photos and your commentary on the various ins and outs, and appreciate your reply and encouragement.

Boatmik, straight from the horse's mouth is such a cool thing: thanks for your remarks and all the thought it seems you've applied to your boats!

Allow me to be the first to correct myself in referring to the "Uffa Fox Windmill" since I keep forgetting Windmill was designed by a different fellow named Clark Mills. It's a beautiful, beautifully proportioned sailboat, crazy fun with a couple of athletic crew. I spent more time than I would have liked sailing her alone and finding myself overpressed with saiI. I hope you got to check one out!

It makes perfect sense to me that Beth would just go slower with two people: nothing terribly wrong with that in this case, since together we'll just be making picnic sails and I'll be showing her what it's like on a small craft since she's interested but unfamiliar. On my own I'd tend to want to sail a bit differently...either taking short camping trips or just enjoying a little fast sailing.

Thanks both of you for your comments and both of you keep up the great work!

Originally Posted by alrotch

So here are my questions for any and all, especially those who have spent some time sailing and using a Beth. The first and foremost is I'll want to bring someone along sometimes, pushing crew weight up towards 300 lbs. This is my biggest reservation, in fact. How does Beth take to this much weight aboard?

Hi @alrotch,

My weight is circa 75 max 80 kg (165 max 176 lbs) and it's very OK if wind is 1-2 Bft scale. If wind is force 3 and more I need reef and hiking. My friend Greg who is over 100 kg (220 lbs) but fit enough, he sailing BETH without hiking (sitting on side deck) - see video:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgj-I3n9IiI"]BETH "YuanFen" - Zegrze - greg470 run his test - ver2 - YouTube[/ame]

About paddling? I use single paddle - only for "dockside maneuvers"... see another video:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3ezJUqXkoQ"]Zegrze Reservoir - Sep. 03 2011 - BETH "YuanFen" departure from MOS (SWOS) Marina - YouTube[/ame]