everglades challenge sailboat

There was one in this Challange - a "modified E-scow", (already scalped and meatstick) don't know about earlier. That would scare me much worse than a Tornado. I wonder how it was modified?

 

I think you mean this one.

 

sorry about the tone ....
I've done a lot of windsurfing in the past.
hooked into the harness for 3 hundred miles? Ug!
there's also the issue of reefing.
still no one has come up with a good plan for that.
I'd like to use windsurfing sails on my boat but I got that same problem.

I paddled the coast of texas a couple of years back,
there's very few in that club .......
but the one to take the cake is the married couple that used a paddle board,
and I'm not talking SUPs either ...
now that's hard core!
but they self supplied each other along the way.

There's a guy paddling in Class 2, now that's tough!
he's presently leading the UFC, but not for long ......

 

One of these EC threads commented that the reason for a lots of DNF's this years was the large number of DNS at the start.

19 Boats still participating or finished
60 Boats entered
5 Boats DNS at the start.

So 36 boats have DNF'd during the race.

Spidennis, nothing taken from your tone. There just are a lot of boats I would not want to try, but somebody will get a "good" idea to make it possible and will try. I'd like to see what that Idea would be since I haven't got a clue!

 

I tell you the wind was fierce and persistent that morning and straight out of the south. I saw one guy wear himself out for over 2 hours just trying to get past the surf line. He never made it and got bloodied in the attempt. You can see the halyard bowed on the scow in the photo above and it almost never went slack from the wind letting off.

 

That's amazing with such minimal waves. I wondered if the picture was the previous day or something.

If you couldn't sail to windward in those conditions there needs to be some serious re-evaluation of the desirable qualities in an EC boat.

 

The boat I previously mentioned that couldn't make it had a large profile above the water line and the solo skipper couldn't row it out. Then he got pushed back into the sand and his rudder pintles came out of the gudgeons. By then he was exhausted and bloody. He was game to keep trying but Chief pulled the plug. The ones that could make it out that day did it by rowing from shallow water until they got to a point where they could raise sail and tack without being driven back onto the beach.

 

Did the scow guy ever get going or was that the one the Chief pulled the plug on? The scow looks remarkably small....

 

The Chief pulled the plug on a different boat. It was shorter, stouter and had a higher freeboard. It was a sloop rigged little cruiser about 15' long.

 

Doug,

An E-scow is 38' long. The reason I would be scared to sail one with two people is the large size of the boat and sail, and the tendency to slam in waves. It really is a flat water boat.

 

I agree entirely, but what do I know? That hull posted above looked like it would plane but more in the sense of a carpenter's plane, shaving off the tops of the waves. It didn't appear to be 38' long though. I guess that is not the same boat.

 

=================
Up, E-scow is 28' long and weighs 900lb-crewed on one as a kid. "A" scow is 38' LOA. I've been on an E-scow in 3-4' waves in Pensacola Bay-heeled it cuts right thru waves. I wouldn't sail a normal scow- I'd either modify it with DSS or build from scratch with DSS. Adds phenominal RM, no weight and draws nothing..
Could make the perfect Challenge race boat....

They're sailed at an angle of heel at all times except downwind in a lot of breeze: click on image

 

28'. That fits.

 

3 or 2 what's 10 feet between friends?

I once was sailing a Tornado in 30 -40 knot winds with a novice friend (no jib) and the only other boat was an E-scow with 8 to 10 people on the rail. It was all great fun until we passed them going to weather at twice their speed when they quit and went in. I always felt a little bad about that.

 

=====
E-scow and 20' Shark catamaran were always neck and neck in the old days.
I think a scow has a lot of potential with updated tech.