The boat is big enough in the front. If you drop the shearline, you
decrease the height of the gunnels off the deck. When you do that, you
make it more possible for ugly things to happen in terms of water coming
aboard or people falling off. This is much less of a problem, of course,
on larger boats.

You don't seem to worry about water coming over the transom- why worry about
it coming over the gunnels?