thinking about Waterline in a recent thread ... I ran across this recent
Sailing Anarchy tread on J24 keel work.
On the subject of keel work I'm just wondering as I do when we talk about the perfect specs, is what the J30 spec'd keel template was supposed to do best, based on what they knew 30 years ago ... upwind, downwind, beam ... and what the ideal wind and water conditions this ideal keel is supposed to have?
I'm now thinking the only place a faired keel is worth it ... is when every other boat in the fleet has the same shape. Otherwise some are going to be faster upwind in light air, faster upwind in heavy air, etc etc.
when you read experts talking about what design is "perfect" there seem to be a lot of very exact conditions when "perfect" applies.
one of the comments in the j24 thread talked about the most important thing being a perfectly smooth surface and nicely shaped surface.
