June 24, 2003

• E-Scows

  I am so almost tempted to get this T-shirt:

  

  But I really could use less T-shirts in my life. I could use a lot less of everything in my life. Everything but sailing, that is.

  That’s an E-scow in the center of the first picture. E-scows are really amazing boats. They are not pleasure cruisers. They are for racing and only racing. Well, if racing is your pleasure, then I guess they *are* pleasure boats.

  They are TOTALLY flat on the bottom. They have a centerboard and that’s about it. So they have very little friction going on there, and when they get fast enough they “plane”.

  

  

  Since they are flat, they are also very TOP-heavy, which means you gotta haul some @$$ when tacking in strong winds to make sure you don’t capsize. I have never sailed on one (and I stress “on” because this is not a boat you can sail “in”), because I’m too chicken$H!t. Hee hee!

  A beauuuuuutiful boat! Maybe the closest thing to it is a Y-Flyer, which is similar but smaller.

  

  References updated 8/6/11 to accomodate for links that no longer work:
  1. T-shirts at http://www.historyshirt.com/shirt/cgi/t-shirt.cgi?sal
  2. E-scow pictures originally from http://web.archive.org/web/20060127005951/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~cfennema/Sailing/
  3. Y-flyer picture originally from http://web.archive.org/web/20030622061310/http://www.lakenormanyachtclub.com/News/events-results.asp?EventID=13

  • 9:19 pm
  • 4 Comments