"Matt Langenfeld" wrote in message
nk.net...
A friend and I were goofing around talking about hull shape and we came
up with this:

http://www.jem.e-boat.net/images/Development/XYak1.jpg

The idea was stability and reserve buoyancy but still having the ability
for nice tight vertical strokes.

I'm not sure what to think. Innovative or just plain silly?

Innovative? Yeah, but not completely. Some downriver canoes have the
pronounced concavity where the paddle shaft goes and some have pronounced
flairs aft to recover some of the roll stability. Their radical shapes are,
I think, dictated more by rule-skirting than hydrodynamics.

Silly? Most 'new' designs look just plain silly to me.

Functionally, I think you'd see two significant effects.

First, pushing the bouyancy out to the ends will tend to make the boat
pitchy. You might need foam forehead and nose pads on the foredeck. It
wouldn't be a waterfall boat.

Second, if you visualize the fore-and-aft displacement map, you'll see a
pattern that looks like a hogged hull (negative rocker), and this will
surely have an effect of the boat's yaw response. How much? I dunno.

I like the advice another poster offered. Build one. You don't have to say
a word if it doesn't work.

Cheers,
Fred Klingener

PS No 'h' in wacky? That's whack, man.