Yachting World Scow

an area to discuss dinghy developments
davidh
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Yachting World Scow

Post by davidh »

Now this really is a 'long shot'!

Early 1960s, Rod Macalpine-Downie - a24 ft brute of a boat.

Any thoughts.reminisences......photos.............

D
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Ed
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Post by Ed »

Their is at least one still on the water.

came up for sale a few years ago.

Was then lying in Norfolk.

I seem to think there might be another too.....

not bad considering only a handful were made

If I get the time will try and find details

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
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Ed
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Post by Ed »

Quickest look only found that it was for sale with Norfolk Broads Yachting Company in 1999.

It was No 8 - called Voodoo

email from the follows:

Dear Ed,


I read with intrest a small refrence to the Classic and Vintage Dinghy
Association in the July issue of Sailing Today. I have a "Yachting World
Scow" called Voodoo which was built in Lowestoft around 1964, this was a Rod
McAlpine-Downey design which was sponsored by the magazine Yachting World in
the early sixties. I have no idea how many were built except that Voodoo was
number 8, similarly I have no idea how many survive today. Pictures of the
boat may be seen on a website at http://www.nbyco.com under the brokerage
section, an extract of which follows below. Would this information be of any
intrest to your association and could the association pass any information
to me of any other examples in existence that it is aware of.
Regards,
Mike Barnes.
Extract from webpage.............


Yachting World Scow No.8 "Voodoo" Offered for Sale
The well-known racing scow "Voodoo" is offered for sale for £2500 including
trailer.


Included here are extracts from "Yachting World" magazine when the class was
unveiled in the mid sixties. The boat was left in storage for many years
until being recomissioned in 1996, and then raced occasionally on the
broads. At that time the boat was professionally re-furbished with new
decks, transom and other major works, currently she is in full working order
and requires nothing being ready to race in 15 minutes.


"Voodoo" provides catamaran type performance, and has been the source of
huge fun for the present owner, generally sailed in half a gale with two on
trapeze plus the helm. It scares the wits out of everything from Lasers to
Keel boats, but it needs a new owner as the old ones losing his nerve!


For more information please contact Mike Barnes by email using
mike@nbyco.com .

can't remember any photos.....but will look if I have the chance

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
CVRDA


Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
davidh
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Post by davidh »

ed,

thanks - this is a good starting point! I'll try to guy and see where it leads.

It is a funny - you only get to see the joke with the many years of hindsight - but there was a time when dinghies were all washed up and we were all going to sail Scows. And then...............................

D
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Post by Ed »

Yeah...

I have a soft spot for Scows.

I love some of the big american ones....they just look so much fun.

I always really hanckered after a Yachting World Scow since seeing photos and descriptions in old books. When that one came up in Norfolk, I was very tempted. If it had been a few years earlier I would of got it.

I was also tempted by that Tempo Scow that came up in St Austel on ebay recently....looked like a fine beach-boat for the north coast in summer.

Well I was until I found that rather than being a lost class....they were as common as scheiße in germany.

eib

Oh damn, I wonder if that will get pulled by our forum 'naughty-word' list.
Last edited by Ed on Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ed Bremner
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Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
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neil
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Post by neil »

IC: K26
Harrier +: 2

Zenith's rebuild - www.pegasus18.com/zenith
alan williams
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Post by alan williams »

There used to be a YW Scow at Fowey back in the late Sixties. I do n't what happened to it.
Cheers Al
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Post by pierre »

Good grief !!!! I assume from the photo's you can sail it forwards or backwards to equal effect......... :shock:
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Post by Ed »

what a lovely idea.

I imagined screaming to a halt and rather than tacking, just changing end and screaming off in other direction.

Like a kite-surfer.

neet idea

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
CVRDA


Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
davidh
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Post by davidh »

Ede,

have you also considered that they might just have been an unholy brute to sail?

I did see one - just once, sailing off cowes - well, going very splishy splashy' and not that fast.

I'd have thought that Alan W would be away in the corner somewhere offering up burnty offerings on this one - as the Scow came from the design board of Rod M-Downie, who, of course, did the YW and Thai Cats...

D
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Post by Rupert »

There is a nice pic in Catamaran Racing by White and Fisher, showing the twin rudders and boards. She does look like hard work.
Mostly, though, she looks like a Topper!
PS, should we allow GRP Toppers to race with us as a lost class, as they are not allowed to race as Toppers?
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Post by Ed »

Oh, I am sure you are right....they might be orrible....but I wouldn't mind the opportunity of seeing.

they are certainly going to be wet....wet if they are flat due to splashing and very wet if you let them go too far over and the wind gets under the hull....but for all that....they look like fun.

I am rather interested, but totally perplexed (cos I can't see that it would work) about the idea with these scows that you intentionally sail them on the wing, right up on the chine of the hull, like a Cat flying one hull, with one centre-board and rudder out of water and the lee one deep under that side of the boat. My guess is getting the exact right balance very hard and very wett if you get it wrong.

Thing is.....it just looks like a whole bundle of laughs.

On a slightly different path....

When I took Rozzer MR 999 a MkIX to the Merlin Inlands many years ago I had an interesting natter with some old Merlin soaks. They noted how much we were laughing and said that new Merlins were just not so much 'fun' as the old boats. I was curious and asked them to explain more. Their point was that when the hulls went wide, but with much thinner waterlines, they stopped making so much spray and held you further out of the water. There was no doubt that they went much faster, but the apparent feeling of speed was less and they didn't have give quite the same feeling of excitement.

I thought this was very interesting. I was talking with Stu a while ago in a similar vein about 'how fast have you gone...' sort of thing, and he said he wasn't sure, but that broad-reaching his old N12 with crew sitting over transom had given about the biggest buzz.

Didn't surprise me. I have been very fast in some boats and simply been terrified or bored and in others have felt like I was riding the first horse of the apocalypse.

YeeeeeeeHaaaaaaa

My point was I guess, that the YW Scow might not of been that fast....and I am sure it was a bugger to sail.....but it does look kinda fun and I would be at the front of the line for a sail

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
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Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
davidh
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Post by davidh »

Ed,

I think you're on to something there. I sailed on a 'big' cat and yes, it was amazingly quick. But after 10 mins, going quick was a bit like speeding along the motorway - you start thinking about Radio 4 and Sue Lawley!

Whereas...sailing a Proctor XII - or worse - a 'Winderbox' - in and out of the Hamble in a wind over tide scenario - now that's an adrenelin rush.

Like David Robinson said of sailing 'Shaft' - one minute you're blasting along... the next you're blowing bubbles. Now I don't mind the odd capsize now and then, after all, it happens to all of us, but for no reason and without warning - man, that's tough!.

And Rupert...whyever not? If it can't sail with the Toppers, then let us at least have an open door.

D
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Ed
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Post by Ed »

<snip>

Like David Robinson said of sailing 'Shaft' - one minute you're blasting along... the next you're blowing bubbles. Now I don't mind the odd capsize now and then, after all, it happens to all of us, but for no reason and without warning - man, that's tough!.

</snip>

What was 'Shaft'?

of course 'no reason and without warning' sounds like most IC capsizes...well at first anyway.....then after a while you kinda get to recognise the signs and you do get a little warning even if it is hard to work out the reason!

As far as old toppers go.....

I am not sure myself......

I do support the concept that it is up to the host club race officers.
I do think that we should have an open door as much as possible.
I do think it should be more about those boats that adhere to the ethos rather than any fixed rule.

but...

I do also think one has to be careful about the 'lost class' thing. When we first allowed boats in on the basis of being a 'lost class' they were allowed to play.....but I don't think we gave them results in the racing.

For what it is worth, the first lost class to sail at a Nats (unless someone knows different) was that weird two-man Illusion that Mark Jones brought to Roadford.

Alan has always been in charge of the 'lost classes' wing and most probably has the best handle on how to define, but my opinion was that it should be a very small class - most probably under 15-20 boats and really those should of been made in a short time frame. It should be a class of historic interest that was maybe before its time or special interest for some reason. The Spearhead and the Shooting Star I would think are prime examples. The Bell Flyer and the Claridge Tiger Moth would be arguable. I don't think that any post 1965 class though, just on the basis that it has collapsed becomes legible for the CVRDA.

But in the end there will always be anomolies - the obvious example of which is the Marauder, which is a defunct class...but designed after the 1965 cut-off and I don't think comes under our description of a 'Lost Class'. However, I think they are completely within the Ethos of the CVRDA and I would be surprised if any Race officers denied entry to the old wing.

Mind you a GRP Topper is an interesting one.

I think I hate the idea of a Topper - any topper being legible - but in this case I would be curious enough to want to see it.

Just no-one suggest a Laser....don't care if it has a wooden mast, a steel plate or cotton sails.....no....please ....no.... :lol:
Ed Bremner
CVRDA


Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
davidh
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Post by davidh »

Ed....

Shame on you......Shaft was the famous Merlin that David Robinson had built that was going to out class all other boats to date. yeah, like, right!

I was there when the boat was being made (in Graham Edwards tomato shed) and even then I remember thinking 'wow'. If I'd known better I would have been thinking "I'd pay a lot NOT to have to sail that" - and so it transpired. Stephen Jones might have been a clever chappie at the quarter ton scene but Shaft was a rarity - it didn't work and was, I think the expression goes, a pig in a poke!

More recently, Shaft was the subject of quite a detailed discussion on this forum when the subject was 'boats that should be saved'. I seem to recall someone fromon eof the Thames clubs chipping in with the news that Shaft had been left to rot somewhere up there, so it all probability it is no more (and amen to that!!). If you want the longer version, try a search using Shaft and I'm sure you'll get plenty of background.

The GRP Topper is, in it's own way, a rare breed that we should look out for. I do take your point on the Lost Classes issue BUT....... we now have saved the Sandtex Scow (sorry, the Unit), the Dart Dinghy, David C has got a Typhoon, there is a Silver Streak being restored, there is even the very last Ghost that had changed hands recently, not to mention the Mirror 14...ToY........Tango........SeaBat. Do we need multiples of Proctor Mk IXs or Phantom Kippers - shouldn't we also have a space for those boats that really do represent the 'last of their kind'........

Ahhhhh........ bless!

D
David H
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