Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | A smooth surface will make more contact with water and thus create more drag. That's why you want your prop to be buffet and as smooth as possible. The more it bites the less slip there is and the faster you go.
The scuffing comes into play by basically creating a film of water on your hull. The drag between water on water is much less then water on fiberglass/aluminum.
When I used to race windsurfers we used to wet sand our fins and the planing surfaces of our boards. In our applications we'd see a 1-3mph gain (3-5%). I'm not an engineer, but I do know that it works.
As far as waxing the bottom being dangerous I believe it has to do with the potential heating of the wax and it coming off the hull. If this happens at high speed it'd create differences in drag on different sides of the hull and could cause you to go out of control. |
