Hello, Great presentation and great canoe. I've built and sail my Beth "YuanFen", original sailplan, since 2010 but I like your modifications also! Regards
Hi Robert, thanks, I remember you and your Beth very well from those years back then. You were part of my inspiration to build a Beth sailing canoe, I collected photos of your lovely boat from the Woodwork Forums where I also had a bit of a thread on my build. I am really happy with my Beth, and even a bit surprised that there is room enough for two people to sail, which is nice.
Really love your Beth with a single mast, how well does she sail, is she quite stable. I was looking at building flat bottomed sailing canoe and yours looks great.❤
Thanks, I was a bit nervous when changing the sail plan from the original design. She sails real nice, it points high and steers well, and makes good speed so I am relieved and happy. Maybe that is more of a testament to Michael Storer's overall design than anything. As with any situation where you customise, there is always tweaking to do, I might shorten the orange strut a little for example. I think my Beth is as stable as I expected, it has a reasonable beam, with the flat bottom providing some initial stability, so it is OK for a sailing canoe.
Really interesting sail design. I would love to see a video of the setup being sailed. Does it wear the sail out when it rubs against the mast? That central rudder I found to be a problem though. It puts the rudder right behind your back and forces you to sit sideways, which doesnt always make sense in a narrow sailing canoe. Have you found that a problem?
Thanks for your interest. I will shoot a video of sailing in progress, might need to waterproof my camera somehow first.. The sail does not wear against the mast to any noticeable degree, lugsails and spritsails have proven that this is rarely an issue in practice, the point contact between furled sail and mast could be a problem, but this changes a little to distribute the wear somewhat. My sail is very heavy dacron anyway, having come from a much larger Yngling yacht before cutting it down, so it should take some punishment. I haven't found the central tiller to be a problem so far. I think that if I sat on the bottom of the canoe with my back against the tiller, I would be asking for a swim in very short order. Things happen real quick in a sailing canoe, lol. You have to be ready to quickly shift your weight to the side, even with a fairly small gust of wind. Sailing canoes, and certainly my Beth are narrow and tippy by their very nature! The addition of a removable outrigger might be a good idea in the future for a more leisurely cruise. One of my kids is sure to take the boat over eventually, anyhow - quicker reactions and more nimble than I.
@@lauriev Thanks for the response. I also built myself a sailing canoe (see the vids on my channel) but I found that simply shifting myself left to right (after I removed the side flotation tanks) throws my weight around enough. But it still is not enough for an average day on port phillip bay...so I have some small stabilisers now.
Keep up the good work! AllthebestRoy
Looking forward to seeing this underway!
Hello, Great presentation and great canoe. I've built and sail my Beth "YuanFen", original sailplan, since 2010 but I like your modifications also! Regards
Hi Robert, thanks, I remember you and your Beth very well from those years back then. You were part of my inspiration to build a Beth sailing canoe, I collected photos of your lovely boat from the Woodwork Forums where I also had a bit of a thread on my build. I am really happy with my Beth, and even a bit surprised that there is room enough for two people to sail, which is nice.
@@lauriev Thanks for your reply. I'm waiting for your sailing videos! Hoping for my new great sailing season with BETH and GIS also. Best wishes!
Really love your Beth with a single mast, how well does she sail, is she quite stable. I was looking at building flat bottomed sailing canoe and yours looks great.❤
Thanks, I was a bit nervous when changing the sail plan from the original design. She sails real nice, it points high and steers well, and makes good speed so I am relieved and happy. Maybe that is more of a testament to Michael Storer's overall design than anything. As with any situation where you customise, there is always tweaking to do, I might shorten the orange strut a little for example. I think my Beth is as stable as I expected, it has a reasonable beam, with the flat bottom providing some initial stability, so it is OK for a sailing canoe.
Really interesting sail design. I would love to see a video of the setup being sailed. Does it wear the sail out when it rubs against the mast?
That central rudder I found to be a problem though. It puts the rudder right behind your back and forces you to sit sideways, which doesnt always make sense in a narrow sailing canoe. Have you found that a problem?
Thanks for your interest. I will shoot a video of sailing in progress, might need to waterproof my camera somehow first.. The sail does not wear against the mast to any noticeable degree, lugsails and spritsails have proven that this is rarely an issue in practice, the point contact between furled sail and mast could be a problem, but this changes a little to distribute the wear somewhat. My sail is very heavy dacron anyway, having come from a much larger Yngling yacht before cutting it down, so it should take some punishment. I haven't found the central tiller to be a problem so far. I think that if I sat on the bottom of the canoe with my back against the tiller, I would be asking for a swim in very short order. Things happen real quick in a sailing canoe, lol. You have to be ready to quickly shift your weight to the side, even with a fairly small gust of wind. Sailing canoes, and certainly my Beth are narrow and tippy by their very nature!
The addition of a removable outrigger might be a good idea in the future for a more leisurely cruise. One of my kids is sure to take the boat over eventually, anyhow - quicker reactions and more nimble than I.
@@lauriev Thanks for the response. I also built myself a sailing canoe (see the vids on my channel) but I found that simply shifting myself left to right (after I removed the side flotation tanks) throws my weight around enough. But it still is not enough for an average day on port phillip bay...so I have some small stabilisers now.