(Scow bow) - vs - (Wave piercing bow)

Inland lakes scows have a serious drawback in a seaway - they pound. Hard. Jar the teeth from your head, hard. As anyone who had actually sailed one would know. That's another reason for sailing them heeled. When heeled up, they slice through the waves, but you still get the odd wave that hits wrong. They are well suited for the lakes for which they are designed, but you wouldn't want to take one on big water in a blow.

Inland lakes scows are sailed flat downwind, so they plane. That's when another interesting characteristic shows itself - they submarine. If you poke that wide bow into the backside of a wave, it will dive down and you'll take solid water over the splash rail at the front of the cockpit. When I was racing my M16, I once saw a competitor dive down and come to a complete stop. You know how a board will oscillate from side to side as it comes up after you submerge and release it? This boat did that. It looked like it was trying to shake off all the water covering the deck.

But nothing planes like a scow. It's so effortless. There's a semi-planing state near hull speed where the stern wave is still located under the stern and the wide, gently sloping run of the stern actually recovers some of the wave drag - like surfing its own stern wave. Unlike a dinghy, which leaps onto the plane, a scow's transition to planing is smooth and the boat has fingertip control at high speed.

The modern triangular planform with twin rudders basically has the planing afterbody of the inland lakes scow with a pointed bow that takes the waves better.