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Probably no one, East or West, is more respected than<br />
Henry Colie when it comes to making a scow go fast.<br />
Henry was good enough to share his thoughts with us.<br />
Over the last decade I have had the great opportunity to<br />
have sailed with some of the East's finest E-scow sailors. The<br />
most important lesson I believe I've learned is to stress the<br />
basics: a good boat, good sails, and above all a consistent<br />
crew who enjoy sailing together and are willing to share the<br />
responsibilities. It's important to realize that the E-scow is a<br />
crew's boat and should be set ttP to maximize the performance<br />
of the crew.<br />
Learn to React<br />
MA-4 was designed around a sailing style drilled into me<br />
by Peter Fortenbaugh and reinforced by Dick Wight That is<br />
to react to a puff before it hits and to hike to accelerate the<br />
boat forward. The answer is not to start pulling lines and<br />
dropping tracks to depower.<br />
Keep an eye on the jib telltales. If the puff is a lift, convert<br />
the added power into speed and point If, with everyone in<br />
full hike, the boat is overpowered, then come on with vang<br />
to flatten the main and open the upper leach. If the vang<br />
does not do the trick, then crack the sheets a bit to get the<br />
boat back on her feet. As the puff passes, the sails should be<br />
powered back up before anyone is allowed to come in from<br />
biking. If the puff is a header, keep biking to help steer the<br />
boat down to its proper course. The crew should be aware<br />
that they are the ones steering the boat and that the rudders<br />
are just speed brakes in disguise.<br />
Cockpit Layout<br />
On first seeing a clean deck boat, most people ask, "Where<br />
are the cleats?" When designing the cockpit layout, I first<br />
looked at what lines we pull and how they contribute to sailing<br />
and when and from what position they are most likely to be<br />
used. The sheets, vang and tracks are speed controls. They<br />
are either kept in hand with the help of Oxen self-cleating<br />
blocks or located, as the jib tracks are, so that they can be<br />
adjusted without coming in from a full hike position. The jib<br />
cloth, cunningham, outhaul, forestay and shroud tension are<br />
tuning adjustments. They are by no means unimportant, but<br />
they are not adjusted in every puff. These are adjusted dming<br />
sail checks before the start, at the beginning and end of runs,<br />
or as subtle corrections to changing wind and sea conditions.<br />
Twings<br />
The twings have been moved to just forward of the chainplates<br />
so that after a set or jibe the guy is down on the deck<br />
and out of the way. This lets the crew quickly hop out and<br />
hike, allowing the skipper to sail bot angles out of a jibe. The<br />
twings are also great during survival jibes because the chute<br />
can be kept close to the boat and under control until the pole<br />
Theory and Philosophy<br />
By Henry Colie<br />
T HE REPORTER<br />
39<br />
is latched. What we are left with is a clean deck which no<br />
longer restricts each crew member to one hiking position<br />
but allows the crew to move about the deck more freely<br />
according to changing conditions.<br />
Since MA-4 was built without backstays and we predominately<br />
sail with a crew of four, our fourth being our chute<br />
trimmer, no one crew position has a work overload. The jib<br />
man concentrates on the jib trim. The board man's job is the<br />
vang, competition and wind. Our fourth focuses on how the<br />
main tracks upwind and flies the spinnaker downwind. This<br />
frees the skipper up to concentrate on sailing, tactics and tl1e<br />
race at hand. ("Why Is Less More?" See Mark Beaton's article<br />
in last Winter's REPORTER, page 56).<br />
Backstays<br />
Backstays were our most hashed over topic. 'The last<br />
thing I wanted to do was to add a question mark when it<br />
came to rig security. Finally a design was decided on that<br />
included the chainplates mounted at the maximum sixteen<br />
inches aft, longer aft swept spreaders, and a bull built with<br />
appropriate reinforcement to handle the loads. This combination<br />
has proved rock solid in thirty knot, big-sea conditions<br />
and is, in fact, Jess likely to experience mast failure<br />
than a backstay boat with its chainplates in stock position.<br />
The trick has not been to overload the boat with high shroud<br />
tensions but to provide a strong rig which does not surge<br />
forward when hit by a puff or when the nose is buried while<br />
running. As far as using backstays to improve our performance,<br />
we have not felt at a disadvantage when sailing<br />
against backstay-equipped boats. If they are not needed for<br />
safety or to add to performance, they are just weight,<br />
windage, extra lines in the cockpit and above all a distraction<br />
when the crew should have their heads out of the boat and<br />
in the race.<br />
Flotation<br />
Past experience has taught me that, for most of us mortals,<br />
capsizing is a part of racing an E-scow. For this reason, and as<br />
a result of some not-so-fond memories, the boat needed to be<br />
self-rescuing, if possible. Because the deck has no holes in it<br />
and the spinnaker sheets are led through tubes, the deck is<br />
watertight. With this watertight deck, as well as with over<br />
twice the ·flotation required under the new rules, and all of it<br />
placed outboard, the boat has enough positive buoyancy to<br />
prevent swamping in the event of a capsize. If the seas are<br />
large enough to rise over the cockpit combing, or in the event<br />
of a turtle, the added foam displaces enough water to allow<br />
the boat to be sailed dry and the race to be continued. This<br />
has also shown an added advantage in survival conditions<br />
where the foam displaces the water that would normally slosh<br />
around behind the boardwells. This lets the boat float higher<br />
and forces the water out of the bailers.
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