Free scow

tidclacy

tidclacy

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Hi, a friend of mine has just purchased an old wooden shed in Burnham on Crouch which has a scow which he does not require. He has spoken to the owner and she is happy for her to be given away.

I went for a look today and have taken some pictures. She is in quite good nick no cracked ribs or split planks, does require some minor repairs. No spars or sails but as a Scow owner I have spares that would suit .

If interested please pm me and I will send pictures.

She is called Water witch
 
I'd always thought that a scow was defined as having square cut bow like a Mirror or Fireball.
Or is this a name for a local dinghy class?
 
Thank you tidclacy, your link has shown that a blunt front is not a necessary characteristic of a scow, in my experience a dinghy with a blunt front is called a pram, and a scow may or may not be a pram.

A barge does not normally have a blunt front and I have never heard any vessel of that scale be referred to as a pram. A sailing barge, since about 1850, has a vertical stem head, a form shared by the vast majority of motor barges. However, a Thames lighter and her smaller sister, the punt, both have blunt front ends known as swim heads while their rear ends, of the same shape but with a fin down the middle, are called budget sterns.

Sorry, but I find our wonderful language an endless source of fascination.

Peter.
 
Despite that a Fireball is never known as a pram but a scow, neither would you call a 1970's Int Moth a pram, they came as both skiff and scow (pointed and sqaure-cut).
As you say, there's more to the language than meets the eye.
 
Slowboat35 said:
Despite that a Fireball is never known as a pram but a scow, neither would you call a 1970's Int Moth a pram, they came as both skiff and scow (pointed and sqaure-cut).
As you say, there's more to the language than meets the eye.
Click to expand...
In my youth, Fireballs were sometimes referred to as flying prams although their flat bottoms also qualify them as scows. However, I agree that the term pram tends to evoke an image of a small pulling yacht tender like the great Kim Holman's Stella Matchbox, designed to fit on the foredeck of his iconic Stella. Amongst sailing dighies, I guess the term pram is more associated with the lower performing boats such as Cadets, Mirrors and Optimists but the unique design feature of that designation is a blunt front or forward transom, so the Fireball and the '70s International Canoe certainly qualify, even though the term is not much used in those cases.

Peter.
 
When I were a boy, my club raced International Cadets and Burnham Scows together as one Class. Us Cadet boys thought that Scows were for the girlies.
They tended to be passed down as family heirlooms and sailed by the Mums.
Lovely things if properly looked after.
 
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