"DSK" wrote in message

Maxprop wrote:
I doubt if any boat moves quite as well in 5kts with spinnaker flying.
They're amazing, and scary like a Finn on a dead run in high winds.

I was thinking more like 2 kt true. Many's the time I've watched
Thistles chugging around the race course when it was glassy calm.

I think we cheated a lot. :-) Ooching and such were typical in Thistle
fleets. But your point is well taken--Thistles are slippery.

Although the early generation IACC boats designed for racing in San
Diego were great light air boats

Scows don't self-bail, but they seldom capsize either.

Hah! That's because scow sailors don't go out in 20+ or any real chop.
If you stick the bow under, they swamped and/or flip quite readily. If
you stall the teeny rudder while heeled enough to put the low boom in
the water, they flop over like a dog wanting it's tummy rubbed.

I used to race my MC in 20kts. or better, but always with an agile monster
crewman up front. Of course we sat back on the transom in such winds, and
planed like scalded cats. Fun.


In general, I've found scows to be among the worst behaved high
performance sailboats... but then I wasn't brought up on them. I know a
lot of people who handle them with great ease & finesse, and are not in
the least troubled by their quirks.

I've never been a great fan of scows, despite racing both MCs and Es. I've
always tended to go where the large, competitive fleets are. And in the
Midwest that's often scows.

I remember crewing in the 470 for one fellow who was a star scow sailor,
who would almost continually grumble "Dammit, this boat boat is hard to
steer" by which he really meant that it was all too easy to steer, he
was zig-zagging so hard I could barely keep my feet on the boat. He also
'way overreacted to upcoming waves. After most of a day, he got more in
the groove... I wondered how he felt about the scows after that
experience...

Some scows, such as the M-16, have ridiculously small twin rudders, while
others have larger central rudders and respond better. I would imagine
moving from such a boat to a 470 or 505 with their reponsive helms would be
akin to moving from a Ford one-ton to a Mini Cooper.

.... I never liked the MC,
the last class boat we owned. It wasn't comfortable to sail, unlike a
Lightning, nor was it particularly fast or blessed with any particular
redeeming value, beyond the big, ubiquitous fleets in this area.


I've been thinking about getting an MC to race but am less enthusiastic
about driving long distances to regattas than I used to be.

During our Snipe days we thought nothing of driving all weekend for a
five-race regatta. Today, however, I'd have to agree with you. If my local
YC fleet doesn't race it, I'm probably not interested. We have a Lightning
fleet nearby and have considered their Wednesday evening series, but that's
about as close to one-design racing as we've gotten in years.

Max