Why do some yachts have a sugar scoop?

[jordanbasset]

We always intended to take our boat to the med so a sugar scoop was very high on the list for us. We love to be able to swim off it or sit on it and dangle our feet in the water. Also to use the shower on the stern is very refreshing. Can understand if this does not float your boat it would not be high on others priorities.

 

[wklein]

I believe (mostly from others accounts as i don't think i had been born at the time) that the IOR racing boats started the trend which was at the time called a retrouse stern, which was designed to make the boat look shorter and fatter than it really was, as they took length on deck and the aft gerth point into consideration. This had very little sailing or accommodation advantages (much the same as tumblehome). It was then copied by cruising boats which hollowed them out and called them sugar scoops which were much more useful especially as freeboard was increasing with new designs making it more difficult to get on or off the boat.

Here is a retrouse stern on frers 40 of the time. Not much use at all, except maybe as a slide:

 

[rob2]

Used to sail on a Guy Thompson T24. She had a horizontally hinged door in the transom, dropped down into the water leaving clear access to the cockpit sole and making steps below the water. From an inflatable, you could just roll over the tube and you were lying in the cockpit. The steps made it simple to climb out of the water, too.

Rob.

 

[njsail]

PRO: Dog access. It's easy to get wet dogs in/out of the platform. I also don't have to carry the wet mutts up a ladder with one hand. They can go up themselves. That alone made me a fan. ...also Easy dingy access, swim, bath, all the things people have commented prior

CONS: Noisy when windy. The Hammer of Thor effect in a really choppy anchorage. When the boat gets bouncing the relatively flat underside of the sugar scoop can really pound hard. There have been times we couldn't take on passengers from a dingy without squishing them. We ended up having to board from the side.

 

[VO5]

I believe (mostly from others accounts as i don't think i had been born at the time) that the IOR racing boats started the trend which was at the time called a retrouse stern, which was designed to make the boat look shorter and fatter than it really was, as they took length on deck and the aft gerth point into consideration. This had very little sailing or accommodation advantages (much the same as tumblehome). It was then copied by cruising boats which hollowed them out and called them sugar scoops which were much more useful especially as freeboard was increasing with new designs making it more difficult to get on or off the boat.

Here is a retrouse stern on frers 40 of the time. Not much use at all, except maybe as a slide:

: on a tea tray.....

 

[KREW2]

When I was looking for a boat two years ago I had a long list of things I did, and didn't want, and spent a lot of time pontificating.
I asked my wife what she would like, "Sugar scoop stern" she says.
I now have a yacht that I love, with none of the features I wanted, but it does have a sugar scoop stern.