I hope you'll forgive me
posting to an older thread, but I found this discussing while researching opinions on scow bows. I have also watched with interest the videos about ROSIE G, since I sail a
junk rig (a Newbridge Coromandel).
It seems clear to me that the scow bows are spreading outwards from their success in the Mini Transat. But I'm wondering if that is a product of the *rules* of the Mini Transat, rather than because they are absolutely a good idea.
We've seen strange things happen to cruising
boats because of the
IOR -- enormous genoas and tiny mains for example. The
Classe Mini rules forbid multihulls (rule J-1). If they did not, would catamarans be winning the
race?
(As a person who grew up sailing a
Topper I'm sympathetic towards a scow
hull, but also familiar with what happens when the bow dives -- you end up in the water!)