FIRST TEST
The effects of the scow-bow revolution are filtering down from offshore race boats, but what do they mean for a coastal cruiser?
You don’t have to be a dedicated follower of fashion in the world of offshore racing to have noticed the arrival of the scow-bow. The new generation, scowbowed IMOCAS, Class 40s and Mini 650s are the ones leading the way. You might also have seen boats like Jeanneau’s Sun Fast 3300, with its semi-scow bow, going rather fast in races closer to home.
While all this has been happening on the race course, production cruising yachts have been developing fuller bow sections too. Not so very long ago, it was all about the sporty look of the fine entry – almost a case of the finer the bow, the sportier the boat. So what’s going on?
As ever, where racing boats lead, cruising boats follow – at least to some extent. What works on a lightweight racer doesn’t necessarily work on a heavier cruiser, so we might not see scow sections on mainstream cruising yachts just yet.
Nonetheless, some of the same fundamental principles apply. Cruisers had been developing such broad sterns that, when they heeled, the stern went up,
the bow went down and the boat no longer wanted to sail in a straight line. Making the stern narrower was no good because it would leave less room for the barbecue in the cockpit and the double aft cabins down below, so the solution was to make the bow fuller. Offshore racers had already twigged that fuller bow sections did wonders for downwind performance. For them, of course, most of their sailing is downwind in breezy conditions, so they can afford to optimise their designs for that sort of sailing. For coastal racing that’s going to include a range of wind strengths and upwind work too, a compromise is needed and the result is a shape more like that of the Sun Fast.
As for cruising yachts – well, fuller bow sections help balance broad sterns and, helpfully, they create enormous forecabins. This allows the master cabin to move into the bow on a boat of a length that has never had a master cabin in the bow before.
MOVING FORWARD Having the master cabin forward makes sense in many ways. It’s quieter if you’re berthed stern-to in a marina (crew walking along the pontoon and through the cockpit, for instance), and you have much more room above the berth. It’s also quieter in an anchorage because it gets you away from the n
