The Q-Scow

I've been wanting to write about this little baby for some time now. It's pretty fresh, pretty delicious and just pretty. It is the 25th boat I've sailed and posted about, - tadah! It is from Quest Marine, and it is called the Q-Scow. 

Admiring Qyv's latest creation

So what is it? Well, Scandinavians would probably wonder if it is a Flipper. It looks kinda like a Flipper, but it really is a C-Scow. Google C-Scow images if you want to see the real thing. Meanwhile, I'll set sails.

Weee

Pretty huh! That's me in a Q-Scow accellerating from the pier at Tradewinds. Dunno what is is about Qyv's boats, but they allways make me go "weeee". Clearly it is a single-sail boat; So it is really easy to handle. That's not to be confused with dull. It is most definately not.

Ahh

The Q-Scow is a pretty complete boat. It inherits many good things from the Q-SM40 and the Q-2m; That means it's a modded bwind with full wwc support. It sails well, has windshifts, shadowing, waves, current and drift, so it is very well suited for racing.

Southbound

There is a nice sailing sound, though it doesn't vary with the speed. There's a pretty realistic sail with a lovely flap sound. It moves like a boat in the waves, and the heel is nice too. However, there is no balancing, and that's really too bad. You gotta be able to hike in a boat like this. Nevertheless, the overall feel is very nice.

Upwind

If you look closely, you can see it has two sets of straps; This makes it well suited for teaching;  You can sit right next to someone and explain all the little details. That's really nice. Good for a cruise with sandwiches.  However, two people can't sail it better than one, except one might have the tactics and  the lookout, while the other is sailing.

Reaching on a northerly course.

Sadly there's no compass, no vane and no telltales, so it's still sailing by hud, i.e. by instruments. The sail flaps, when its too late to adjust, so you can't really use it to optimize speed. Only the colors changing on the hud functions as a kind of trim indicator. If you must have telltales, then your choices are limited to the Flying Fizz, the Shelly Fizz and now also the Bolero. 

Tradewinds YC in sight

However, that should not overshadow the fact that this is a really nice sailing boat. It has a great feel, it is  good for beginners, well suited for racing, and in fact it has most of the features I wished for in the Laser Radial. It's pure virtual sailing pleasure. Oh, and did I mention it is affordable? It's a "go-getter". No doubt.

I've sailed a few single-sail dingys; They are so different, its hard to say which is best. The Leetlecat is perhaps a winner on the graphical details. On the sailing experience, I think the Q-Scow is my favourite. The Shelly needs mentioning because it has telltales, a really good windvane and speed dependent sounds. OMG, it seems the Shelly is actually still in the top of it's class.

The others are: Leetlecat, Laser Radial, Tako, Lil-Laser, Shelly, MR-Trainer and the Moth; The latter is really in a category of its own though.