N1EE wrote:


Also in chop, lighter boats can be stopped by a wave.

True. And while it is possible to foot off and regain some VMG, usually you
can't regain all of it.


The light weight water ballasted Mini-Transat boats
use ballast, not just for increasing righting moment
but to maintain inertia--the added mass keeps them
moving.

They also shift the center of mass forward, put the bow down.



I agree a broader keel would be less likely to stall
in turbulent conditions. Why is it better for such
keels to be swept back?

I don't really know how it works, but swept back foils are more resistant to
stalling. Anther keel shape you might notice some time is that many fin
keels are tapered in profile to the bottom edge, but they are not tapered in
section. The chord gets shorter and the camber gets fatter. This does two
things, it reduce turbulence off the bottom edge and makes the lower secton
harder to stall, and gets more ballast down low.

BTW I thought Frank's answer was good. Much shorter and to the point than my
rambling posts.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King