Not all hull designs do this equally
well, apparently, but those that do are a boon to skilful skippers when they
find themselves nosing up a strange narrow channel. They simply let the boat
have its head, letting it wander from side to side of its own accord and
naturally finding the deepest water.
Science doesn’t explain everything,
however. D. Phillips-Birt, the
well-known designer, says there was a lot of scientific thought put into
determining the best waterline length of the old J-Class boats. Some of the best brains in yacht design
occupied themselves with the problem of whether it should be 80 feet or 87
feet, to take best advantage of the rule.
“The argument was fought with
resistance curves, plotting on logarithmic scales, and treatises of great
erudition,” he wrote. And when the lofty
discussion was at its height, it was L. Francis Herreshoff who brought
everybody down to earth.
Scorning the scientific approach, he
pointed out that it was worth noting that the success of recent J-Class yachts
was in exact mathematical proportion to the number of sails delivered to each
by the sailmaker.
Whereupon C. P. Burgess, who
designed a duralumin mast for Enterprise,
admitted: “ . . . there are a great many
variables which influence the speed of yachts. Perhaps one of the most
important and least regarded is what the skipper had for dinner the night
before.”
Today’s
Thought
Equipped
with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the
adventure Science.— Edwin Powell Hubble, Science
Tailpiece
“What’s the celebration in the
clubhouse?”“My husband did it in one.”
“What? A hole in one?”
“No, he managed to hit the ball in one.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
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