YW Scow ?

[Andreas]

Hello
I am searching for Information about my Scow. It´s a 24 food scow and I guess the Design is from McAlpine-Downie.
I found a Video on You Tube with the Title “Yachting World Scow” which looks very similar to my one.
Does anyone know more about it? I would love to find out more about it but it´s very hard to find anything about it on the Web.

[Ed]

Well we will have a little info and images....but to be honest, there is not a great deal of information.

Dave Henshall will be able to fill you in with a bit....and Alan Williams a bit more. I have a photo or two and maybe a book description..

but would be really nice to see some images of yours.

Where did you get it? Was this the one that came up recently on the East coast?

Looking forwards to hearing more....and welcome to the CVRDA.

eib

[Andreas]

Thank you for the Welcome

I got the boat from a Friend 5 Years ago. It was Stored in an old factory hall and had to be Removed.
He asked me if i like do restore it, otherwise he wanted to destroy it.

Actually it was in a bad shape, the first dry to sail it was amazing, but we got a lot of water inboard an the beams startet to swim around.
The Front was rotten, and i was able to pull the wood out with my fingers.

I don´t think it is the same one from the east coast, but it is very similar. The only difference i see is the hole in the front of the cockpit.
In the Video it´s larger than mine.

I Stored a few Pic´s at Dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yjy7i0x70yo8kmc/7W6bVwZwhv

[davidh]

Andreas,

yes, indeed, I have lots of information..... let's get this thread going! The bottom line is that you boat is now close to unique - I knew of two of these remaining but heard that one had been scrapped!

Built by Bill Tremlett in Southsea - it was his workshop that featured in the YouTube video that I posted, the boat was then sailed at Locks SC on Langstone Harbour.

Dougal

[Ed]

But do we know what happened to the one that changed hands recently?

That was YW8 'Voodoo' and was at Creeksea Sailing Club in Essex

I am struggling to find the email with details, but we were contacted by the club asking whether we could find a new owner, but before we could, they managed to find someone.

I 'think' this is the YWScow that we came across a few years ago, and has now been re-built to include a large assymetric, but can not confirm that.

Good to hear that there are at least two of the beasties still in action. I think there may be one or two more.....but that is just me being hopeful.

cheers

eib

[Andreas]

That sounds great. I´m very intersted on information about it.
I was told the last one sailed it at the Baltic Sea, that´s all i heard.

A Week ago i was reading an Article in a Sailing Magazin and they mentioned a Scow 24food designed by Mcalpine-Downie.
Before i had no glue where the Boat is comming from. I guessed it is a self constructed strange boat.
So i was very surprised too see the Video from you, exactly the same shape

If you already seen the Pic´s of mine, you will see i did a lot of Work on it.

[Rupert]

The YW Scow I'm thinking of was a Catamaran at the back, wasn't it? And twin ruddered. Mind, could well be that mods have been made over the years.

The sail looks like it is off a C class cat? Though the number seems a little high. Again, I'm sure David has info on such things.

Does anyone know if Bob Fisher is contactable about this sort of thing? He must have seen it all.

[davidh]

Rupert,

No, it was a skiff 'all the way' BUT I can understand your thinking about the cat stern for the YW scow had twin rudders. You can try Bob but I'd say that I've probably got more info on the boat than he has - going right back to when I did that early article on Scows for Dinghy Mag (which, if I recall, included a picture of you sailing a British Moth).

The trouble is, the whole topic of Scows is such a big, juicy story that it is hard to write it up within the normal confines of 1200- 1500 words. However, if you go back (eeek...almost 50 years) the whole scow design thing looked like the way forward - remember, the skiff revolution here in the UK was still a way away.

So, we had the YW Scow and the Peter Milne equivalent - his mega Fireball had not dissimilar dimensions to the YW boat. Both though could quickly become fairly hairy beasts in anything of a breeze, but again, this is a long time ago when rig controls were nowhere near as user friendly as they are now. I saw this first hand at the weekend with the National 18s - a big spread of sail made far more manageable by using modern techniques.

But back to the topic in hand - Andreas, do you mind telling us where you are and where the boat is? If there are two of these amazing boats left then all the better, my records certainly show one was scrapped not so long ago ( "it took up a huge amount of space".......). It is interesting that in the US big scows still play an important role in the Lake sailing scene but this just hasn't translated to a UK experience. I'm just thinking how amazing it would be to sail the Lord Birkett Trophy event in a 24ft scow but you could well see them racing on one of the continental lakes!

I'm finding it hard to stress just how important this boat is...........the scow development line may have taken another path to the skiffs but it is by no means a dead end street. I was having an exchange on this topic just yesterday - rather than yet another Proctor IXb Merlin being saved (maybe because they go well on PY) we really ought to be working to save more 'real classics' before the chance to do so gets lost.

I've more video footage of YW scows - I'll get it from my archive and upload it.

Cheers

D

[Ed]

Very interesting point.....you are right, I am sure the YWScow originally had twin rudders, which lets face it....you would imagine you would need if the boat was being sailed as it should be.

Also......in my head.....I thought they had roll-in decks rather than square tanks?

I will try and dig out the 'bits-in-books' that I have....

cheers

eib

[davidh]

Ed..no need, your memory is correct. Rolled side tanks and twin rudders that were quite markedly angled - R M-D intended for the boat to be sailed with a pronounced heel (I've read 15-17 degrees...even to the point of having a little bubble gauge on board so that the crew could see when they had it right) - at this point the rudder and centreboard on the leeward side (the original had two angled centreboards as well) would then be vertical. However, by all accounts, this took a little getting used to!

I'll watch the videos I've got and look again at the topic - I'd love to rewrite this BUT in today's world, I don't know of any 'outlet' for the articles.

D

[neil]

From our own gallery we have these:

[Andreas]

Hello David

The Centreboards on my Boat are angled , so if you sail hard on the Wind the leeward Centreboard are nearly vertikal.
I can rotate my Centerboards, so we use to take the windward Centreboard out of the water.
Actually i have two identical rudder, including the Fittings for the Boat, but only one was installed and i wanted try this configuration out, before i change it to twin rudders.

The Location of the boat is in the South of Germany, but i dont want to send the hole information in this open Forum.
I´ll send you an E-mail with my full Adress.


Andreas

[davidh]

Andreas,

I've got your email and will be replying shortly. In the meantime, the two pictures that Neil has sent you say so much about the YW Scow - with that fully battened main, this was a very powerful boat to sail, even with two crew trapezing.

I'll be in touch

'Dougal'.... (or David Henshall...)

[alan williams]

Hi
In the sixties there was a YW Scow that used to be raced out of Fowey Cornwall. Saw it sailing several times and it looked like hard work to race it.
Cheers al

[Rupert]

Like the American scows, they do strike me as boats which are wonderful on a large area of flat water, but we don't have many of them in the UK. Mind, the Furball seems to cope in waves, so maybe it is all in the head?

Funny how, just from the photo in Catamaran Racing (the upper one Neil posted) I've always assumed the aft parts were in 2 up to the cockpit floor - yet I've seen many other pictures and even film which shows it isn't. Power of childhood images...