JimB wrote:

1. Damp the boat's bobbing - make the forward pitch a different
stiffness from the rearward pitch.

I used to be a great believer in asymmetry until sailing my present boat
which is fairly symmetrical and has a surprising full entrance for a 1970's
design. She has a cruising weight mast, a large anchor hung out over the
bow, water tank under the V berth, batteries and lots of gear aft,
everything that urban legend says should promote wicked pitching. She has
about the nicest motion I've encountered in a sailboat.

It used to be thought that spreading weight out into the ends made for a
more comfortable boat. This was back when boats tended to be more
symmetrical. Now, everyone "knows" that moving weight from the ends to the
middle reduces pitching. The shape of the typical boat has changed but so
may have the conventional wisdom to some extent. Does the boat really become
more comfortable after you have spent a long, hot, afternoon moving all that
heavy stuff from the ends to under the midship berths? Send three people up
to the bow sometime when beating and compare the results immediately.

The physics of pitching are pretty much the same as rolling, a subject I've
pondered enough to have produced some powerboats that are considered
remarkable for their comfort. Like props, it's a complex subject and the
common rules of thumb, 3 blades better, move weight to the middle, are often
correct for a narrow range of typical boats but wrong as general principles.


--
Roger Long