Jere Lull wrote:
Jim Woodward wrote:


Your dinghy may not do it, but it is possible to fool the water -- the
Kiwis tried it in the last America's Cup

As I recall, that attempt didn't work particularly well....

But our little boat with a wide flattish transom considers hull speed
(1.34 x sqrt(LWL)) a suggestion rather than the law. It seems the AC
boats and other newer sleds are more advanced that way.


Two points he

1. Hull speed only relates to displacement hulls. Planing hulls such as
the aforementioned sleds are another story.

2. The jury is still out on the hula skirt as used on Black Magic in the
most recent America's Cup finals. Remember it was other problems such
as taking on excessive water, having the jib pull out of its track and
losing a mast because of standing rigging failure that lost the races.
When the boat was able to sail it was plenty fast. The hula was always
a tradeoff of LWL versus increased drag caused by the rule-mandated gap
between the skirt and the hull proper. I'm sure that it will be
outlawed in the next go around.

Joe Wood