Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Have been playing with the float shape for the last few nights. Im trying to pick how flat i want the bottom. the flatter the bottom the earlier it will plane but when the boat is lacking power ( Open 8.5's have a restricted sail plan) it will be pushing the extra wetted surface area though the water making it slow in light winds.a semicircle bilge has the smallest wetted surface area making it easily driven when not planing. Its hard trying to pick where on the spectrum will be optimum for your sailing conditions .
most of the new tri designs have very round bilges on the floats ( seacart 30 , seacart 26 , multi 23, exploder 25)