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.

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.

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 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...



.... 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.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King