BETH sailing canoe – The designer has lots of fine things to say about the sailing performance of BETH – but Andrew Barclay has been racing his against mixed fleets in British Columbia where she sails equal with Laser Radials in light wind and gradually outclasses them in stronger.
I provide some tips about getting a bit more from the boat.
A small collection of the many videos of the Goat Island Skiff Planing fast in different places around the world.
John Goodman and I sailed the immaculate Goat Island Skiff he built from my plan in the Texas 200.
The boat showed itself to be one of the faster in the fleet despite loading up such a short boat with food, water and camping gear for six days with little outside support.
We played with sailing the boat by the lee – a method used by racing boats to gain both speed and control.
I document the method here including a video showing how the angle of heel can be controlled using the mainsheet.
Dete Hasse and his family built a Goat Island Skiff in Geelong, Victoria a while ago. He has just written to me about his experiences trying to sail on Port Phillip Bay and more happily on the recently refilled (the drought is over!) Lake Eppalock.
Also he makes some good comments about reefing and how it changes an overpowered boat into a much more rriendly beast in stronger winds.
The conservative viewpoint is that traditional rigs are not very efficient. However allied to efficient hulls and set up correctly, lug and sprit rigs can be very efficient indeed – not too much slower than “modern” rigs, particularly when the same lessons are applied to trad sails and way cheaper.
This is a WIKI drawn from the group on the Storerboats forum discussions on setting up lug and sprit rigs for best performance building on the information in my webpage.
Robert Hoffman has been busy using his BETH sailing canoe that he built over a cold Polish winter.
There are now videos. I have also linked to all my videos on youtube – so you can see many storerboats sailing.
John Goodman who recently spent 5 days semi racing a Goat Island Skiff in the Texas200 event got back to me with some observations and even some pictures of aspects of the boat and the sailing.
I have responded with suggestions to make some further improvements. Between John and me there are some useful tips about setting up a boat for more speed.
However the standard setup of the Goat is fine for most – it is still pretty quick in standard form.
There is advice for both lug and sprit traditional rigs here.
This talk is the first hour of my exposition on boat building and design. There are two more parts to come. This covers some of the background and design issues. The second is more on the building side and the last is a bit more about why the Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boat tradition is different from the Northern Hemisphere.
You can stream the talks over your internet connection or download them as a podcast.
Invitation to a Talk by Boat Designer Michael Storer
At Clint Chase Boatbuilder, 25 Deblois Street, Portland, Maine
Sunday Nov 1st @ 11am-1pm, Bring Boats and Questions
After some food and chat, Michael will talk to us about making our boats better…
Ok … balance lug vs sprit boom triangular sail – what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two rigs that naturally control sail twist
Gyula Ferencz has launched the second OZ Racer with the lug sail. He built his boat in Romania
I received an email from Norm who is building a Beth Sailing canoe at a boatyard while living in a camping trailer.
Dan Taylor in Washington State, USA emailed me to provide pics of the lug rig alternative for the Oz Racer. The sail looks very nice indeed and the light wind and a perfect sunny day were the other necessary ingredients.
I have drawn up a solid mast that will have the same bending characteristics as the OZracer Mk2 so will suit the sailshape that comes with the plans
Interview/Podcast with Michael Storer on why Australian boats are different, why traditional rigs have some distinct advantages.
We have been learning how to edit videos.
So here are some shots of Peter Hyndman’s GIS “Gruff” at speed with me at the helm.
They were taken last year at Mooloolaba, Queensland.
The wind was a little strong for one person, but it did allow for good speed on a reach.
