RE: Food For THOUGHT on Boat Design
Yeah, I see him peeking in here too!
The Japanese must have been watching those Pontiac "Wider is better" commercials. We got used to using the 2 to 1 measurements, twice as long as wide but when running in rough water the wider ones will have more stability. Maybe what we Americans look at is flex in the booms and aerodynamic drag as a couple of reasons to go narrower.
I've got a local boater who somehow got into the Universities computer and did some aerodynamic testing on various outrigger hull designs and built one for kicks. The tub looked more like a submarine than the usual rectangular box with a pointy front end. If you think about it, not only does that design work for subs but aircraft as well. The roundedness (if there is such a word) makes the hull less darty and aids in keeping it from blowing off the water.
What the local guy ended up with was a 'rigger that was very fast, even with an old K&B .21 in it. It's too bad that it got badly rear-ended at a race when he backed off the throttle and lost the flex cable.