Overcoming surface tension
 

A good part of the energy expended by a boat is used to break the surface
tension of water as the boats cuts through it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension

Surfactants could be used to reduce the surface tension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant

Horvath prefers liberal use of this product when going for the gold:

http://www.liquidpower.com/NR/rdonly...FE/0/LPH20.pdf


The use of such compounds may be frowned upon by racing committees and can
be expensive. However, there is a less costly, more environmentally friendly
and less obvious way to reduce the drag of your yacht. These articles:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007PhRvB..75w5431F

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freea...rnumber=663471

Show promise in that the surface tension can be reduced by the mere
application of an electrostatic field. In layman's terms, static electricity
on your hull may make your boat go faster.

This could be accomplished by applying metal tape to the inside of the boat
at the waterline area. A high voltage can be applied between the tape and
the water (it helps if it is conductive) and the fiberglass hull would act
as a dielectric material. The polarity can be altered and changed in
magnitude to get the desired effect. Little or no current would flow through
the apparatus as the hull is an insulator. The voltage required may be on
the order of tens of thousands of volts but it is not out of the realm of
what can be done with hardware store/electrical supply parts.

The water can be charged through a grounding plate or similar device.