Sometimes all it takes is a brief moment to change the course of development. It took "Palanad 4" six weeks to overturn old certainties, possibly forever.
"Palanad 4" shows what modern scows can do
When the Mach 50, designed by Sam Manuard, flies towards Antigua at eight o'clock local time on 19 January morning, it is certain of victory in the RORC Transatlantic Race safe for a long time. Under a blue gennaker, stay jib and single reefed main, she heads for the finish line at 20 knots. Because it is clear that something ground-breaking is happening here, the organisers send a helicopter with a film crew to meet her. The images brought back by the media team will keep the sailing scene busy for months to come.
They show a boat that appears to be floating weightlessly over the turbulent sea, the foredeck hovering far behind the inner stay above the blue Caribbean water. A hull so round and sheer that it looks like a bar of soap. At 15 degrees, "Palanad 4" surfs over the humpback track in the trade winds as if it were running on shock absorbers. No banging, no pitching, just pure speed.
Owner Olivier Magré, who previously had a Class40 from the same designer, will later speak of a "historic development" at the dock.
In fact, "Palanad 4" not only won, it also degraded the entire field in terms of calculated time. She distanced the second-placed "Ino Noir", a Carkeek 45 that has been optimised over the years, by no less than 21 hours. In terms of time sailed, only "Raven" finished ahead of the Mach 50 - a 111-foot maxi with swivelling T-foils built by Baltic Yachts.
And it was not "Palanad's" only triumph. Five weeks later, she won the IRC Zero class in the tactically more demanding Caribbean 600, a varied zigzag regatta between the Caribbean islands around Antigua. When she is back in Falmouth Harbour on 25 February, Antoine Magré, the owner's son, speaks with delight of a "proof of concept", a confirmation of the design principle. "We have always believed that a Scow can be competitive under IRC. But we had to prove it under real offshore conditions. The overall victory at the Transat and the confirmation at the Caribbean 600 show that this is the way forward."
Is that the case? Do two victories change the direction of yacht building? And if so, how fundamentally - only in the regatta sector or also in the series production of cruising boats? What exactly makes modern scows so efficient? And how can this be transferred to the majority of the market?
On a scow, you can't drive against the engine. It bangs terribly. That's why I'm not convinced that the concept is suitable for cruising boats - at best as a hybrid with a sharper waterline in the bow and a lot of volume above it." Sam Manuard
From the US inland sea to the high seas revolution
To clarify this, it is worth taking a look back. Boats with round or flat bows have been around for more than 175 years. They originated from barges, which were used for transport and were dependent on high dimensional stability due to their shallow draught.
They only became established as sports boats around 1900, primarily on the inland lakes of the USA, where the first class association was established with the 38-foot A Scow. Melges produced no fewer than four different regatta dinghies of this type until the 2000s - from the one-man dinghy to the modern A Scow, which is sailed with a crew of seven.
However, it would take until 2010 for the idea to gain a foothold in ocean sports. Back then, designer David Raison shocked the sailing world with the design of his mini 6.50 prototype "Magnum 747", which caused a furore a year later under the boat name "Teamwork Evolution". Initially ridiculed for its clumsy-looking bow section, his victory in the 2011 Mini-Transat triggered the development that could now become a trend with "Palanad 4" and other designs, perhaps even a scow revolution.
Because viewing habits have changed. What many people thought was simply ugly in 2010 is now considered state of the art. Success, they say, makes you sexy. And there is no shortage of successes.
Please also read our article on the Development of the hull moulds.
The Scow-Bug was the first to establish itself in the minis, driven by David Raison. In recent years, his Maxi 6.50 has established itself as a kind of Reference boat in the series classification and largely ousted the more conservatively designed Pogo 3 from the winners' lists. Every new design since then has been a Scow, even the foilers in the Proto classification.
As the next box-rule class, in which only a few limit dimensions apply, the Class40 switched to round-bow designs. Here, too, David Raison was the driving force; the "Crédit Mutuel" he designed won the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019 with superiority. Subsequently, other renowned architects such as Marc Lombard, Sam Manuard and Guillaume Verdier also switched to scows.
Performance has literally exploded since then, as can be seen from the results of the recently concluded Globe 40where the three scows - including the Pogo S4 of Melwin Fink and Lennart Burke - sailed in a league of their own.
The deltas at the finish compared to the pointed bow boats were usually several days - within one and the same class! For example, Thibaut Lefevere and Maxime Bourcier on "Free Dom", who came fourth in the last leg from Recife to Lorient, finished no less than three days and eight hours behind the overall winners Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier on "Crédit Mutuel" after almost 4,000 nautical miles. Their average speed: 12.4 knots, compared to "Free Dom's" 10.0 knots - an increase of almost 25 per cent.
Even with the Imoca 60, the bows have increased enormously in width over the past six years. Not quite as extreme as with the Minis, because the class rule limits the maximum dimensions in the foredeck in a similar way to the Class 40. But the trend was basically the same, even if the latest designs such as Boris Herrmann's "Malizia 4" are becoming slimmer and more pointed again.
In this respect, "Palanad 4" is not an outlier, not a maverick, but simply the most consistent and successful adaptation outside of construction classes to date.
Volume growth in the bow can also be observed elsewhere: The optimised for ORC XR 41 from X-Yachts, for example, has a very full foredeck, similar to the Scows, without, of course, fully utilising the principle. IRC racers such as the JPK 1050, the Pogo RC and performance cruisers such as the First 30 adapt the design idea to a lesser extent. Sam Manuard speaks of "hybrids" and sees them as a possible route towards the mass market.
The scow hull, optimised for fast sailing, ensures unparalleled comfort both at sea and at anchor, while guaranteeing safe and confident sailing. It combines the best features of monohulls and multihulls." Benoit Marie
Why the wide bow brings so much speed
The most important advantage, although by no means the only one, is the higher righting moment of the hull shape. Merfyn Owen from Owen Clarke Design can back this up with concrete figures. The Class40 "Longbow" (build number 143) he designed in 2015, a typical representative of what is now known in the class as a "sharp bow", achieves a leverage of 8,265 kgm at a 25 degree angle. In contrast, his "Scowling Dragon" with build number 200 from 2024 achieves a righting moment of 10,543 kgm - a gain of almost 28 per cent. It can therefore carry significantly more sails and therefore gets underway earlier and faster than older designs.
The difference comes from the width of the waterline, which in the case of scows does not taper at all or only slightly into the foredeck. This increases the dimensional stability. Because the centre of longitudinal buoyancy moves forwards, there is another success factor: the longitudinal trim is largely symmetrical even when the boat is lying down.
When a scow sails on its flank, which is designed as a round or hard chine, its waterline remains almost parallel to the centreline at rest. Instead of trimming over the bow like conventional yachts, it runs as if on rails, requires fewer corrections at the helm and produces less resistance in the waves. This leads to reduced heeling, which in turn improves the efficiency of the appendages.
The full bow section also ensures maximum dynamic buoyancy. "While traditional hulls pitch or undercut in the wave when they hit the sea ahead while planing, scows keep their nose up," says David Raison. "They sail over the wave instead of through it." Because this reduces non-linear pitching movements, they can maintain high average speeds over a longer period of time. On top of that, they sail drier.
Merfyn Owen summarises it like this: "Scows are designs that combine raw propulsive power with finely tuned controllability. They sail stiffer, smoother and are easier to steer, especially in gusty conditions, which leads to less fatigue - an important factor, especially in single and double-handed ocean racing."
The advantages are so varied and considerable that they compensate for the larger wetted surface at rest and the shorter waterline due to the large overhangs at the front. Only in flat seas and light winds do scows not easily outperform more conventional boats.
Even when cruising, they sail better than many would expect: "Palanad 4" turns at an angle of 80 degrees in 12 knots of wind and small waves - that's not quite the performance of a current TP52, but it's on a par with good cruiser racers. And as soon as a chop comes into the sheets, there's no stopping it anyway, because the Mach 50 starts planing at a wind angle of 60 to 65 degrees - and only gets faster from there.
Where the concept reaches its limits
So enjoyment without remorse? Not quite. To bring out their best qualities, scows need to be lightweight - especially, but not only, in the foredeck. This is no trivial matter, as high load peaks can sometimes occur here. This is when the wide bow hits a steep wave squarely at high speed, which can never be completely avoided despite the dynamic buoyancy.
Sam Manuard reports that it only happened once during the transatlantic regatta on "Palanad 4", which he sailed as a crew member to gather ideas for further optimisation. "We had a severe delay from 25 to 12 knots." The construction has to be able to cope with such forces, which requires a voluminous stiffening structure consisting of ring frames and longitudinal stringers.
On a racing boat, where the foredeck usually remains empty anyway, this is not a significant restriction. On a performance cruiser, however, which also has to be suitable for cruising, it reduces the amount of space that the scow concept offers.
One particularly critical aspect is motoring against a wave, without a sail, without a position. "It bangs terribly!" says Manuard. "Bang, bang, bang - hardly bearable!"
Jean-Pierre Kelbert also sees this as a problem. The founder and boss of JPK, whose 1050 is as dominant in IRC regattas as the Mach 50 "Palanad", is planning a more civilian version of the successful boat next year.
Like the 1050, the JPK 35 Fast Cruiser will not be a pure scow, but will still have a very full bow and a short waterline. "It will not be easy to build the boat so light and at the same time so strong that there is no risk of delamination even under engine power," says Kelbert. However, the tapered hull shape, particularly in the waterline, should help to minimise excessive negative acceleration.
How much Scow will soon be in the series boat?
While real round bow scows such as the new Mojito 32 or the futuristic-looking Skaw A are only built in very small and limited series, more moderate designs such as the upcoming JPK could help the concept achieve a breakthrough in the wider market. A Pogo 32 with a modern design also seems long overdue. And even Beneteau is thinking in this direction.
Seascape founder Andraz Mihelin, who is responsible for the First series, has been following the development of the Scow from the very beginning as a former mini-sailor. Although he is aware of the limitations in light winds and when motoring upwind, he is fundamentally open to the construction principle.
"Scows show the way because they are fun," says Mihelin. "Our First 30 has already borrowed from this: relatively high volume in the bow, short waterline, flat stern." He will "probably go even further" with the next model. He already has the right designer for this: "Palanad" designer Sam Manuard.
Advantages of the design principle
Better balance, more righting moment - this makes ocean-going yachts with a full bow fast.
Few people in Germany know the French yacht designer Thomas Tison. He is considered a specialist for highly innovative individual constructions such as the "Elida" or "Pink Gin" built by Jan Brügge Bootsbau. He regularly works for America's Cup syndicates, most recently for Ineos Team Britannia. Scows kept the resourceful mind with degrees in shipbuilding and aviation busy early on. "Their hulls are characterised by a number of fascinating properties: high dimensional stability, the ability to adjust certain hull characteristics for both heeling and upright sailing, a reduction in drag and a lower tendency to trim over the bow." According to Tison, all of this contributes to the speed potential.
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
