On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:38:29 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

...Should we be
attaching shark skin to our boats?

I have seen the dinghy sailors polishing the underwater surfaces of
their dinghys with 2,000 grit sandpaper and wonder whether this might
actually be the wrong thing to do.

Is there any empirical information regarding the application of this
technology to boats?

Bruce-in-Bangkok

Slime has been used successfully as a hull coat. It's a consumable
though.
There have been experimental hulls with clse spaced chines - getting
them right is quite a trick.
And finally, there have been air-blown hulls.....

Brian W