ORIGINAL: Jeff Wohlt
This has been a big topic and yes, sanded hull is faster. Even a few of the big racing cats do it and now they have dimples like a golf ball in some areas. I have some video of CRC offshore cat with this. Also, the big hydros do this with a matt surface on the sponson hulls.
It is about how the water release from the surface. Slick keeps a sheet of water on the hull. It is true and this has been proven.
good, because a matt/ sanded paint is far easier to maintain than a shiny underside, especially if you have to repair a damaged hull, in fact; i'll do the whole underside in matt grey primer and cover the sponsons with epoxy/ fine sand, i'll redo my illustation and take a look at it right now. it looks great, even better than white, i've always liked ``Battleship`` grey anyway
i've used epoxy and sand before, it produces a rock hard finish, in fact; once it's on it's virtually impossible to strip off , this tells me that i'd better be very careful, it might be best to mix the sand into the epoxy and not too much of it either; and carefully paint it on.
because sprinkiling sand onto a wet surface wont work, its density will be far too much, just like a sheet of rough sand paper, it needs to be more like a grain of sand every 5 mm or so