i have an F18 that has had some (4) minor hull repairs in the past, done by the previous owner. they are on the bottom near the daggerboard trunk on one hull. the gelcoat patches are about 2" x 4" each and are all sanded smooth. i don't know what the damage was but they are firm and not spongy.

assuming the skipper is 'top notch' and as good as he can be, does a repair like this really make an F18 slower? really?

i can imagine one 'blown' tack in a race being more significant than any small repairs on the hull. has anyone lost a race because of something like this?

Nacra Inter 18
(3) Nacra 5.8's

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Aquacat 12 (sold)...'87 Nacra 5.8 (sold)...'03 Nacra Inter18 (sold)
Venture 15 (sold)....'89 Nacra 5.8 (sold)...'91 Nacra 5.8NA (sold)
'99 Nacra Inter20 (sold)
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arch,

If the repair is sound, then the other consideration here is hydrodynamics. You state that the repair is smooth, that is good - but does it stick out enough from the lines of the hull to cause a disturbance in the flow of water? If it is four little bulges, great! If the smoothed edges are 1/2" tall and create cavitation as the water goes by- not so great. Sounds like he fixed some punctures and the "bulge" is probably the thickness of the patching meterial. If so, you are right- you will benefit much more from mastering your boat and reading the weather than you ever will from trying to perfect a few pre-existing minor repairs.

In books written by sailing champions they talk about the crews spending hours sanding the hulls for speed. They do this for psychological reasons more than anything. They have already prepared in EVERY OTHER CONCEIVABLE WAY and this is what's left. Sanding the hull dirves home the point that the boat is perfect and puts the onus on the crew to perfrom perfectly as well. The crew's bodies are fit, their minds have been honed to their specific duties and the equipment has been tried and found adequate. They have drilled and (hopefully) gelled as a team. The sanding puts them in a hive-mind with a shared thought- Win.

I have been sailing for a long time and am still far from sanding my hulls perfectly smooth. I'm not going to worry about perfectly smooth until after I have mastered finding the pressure on a race course, perfect tacking every time and controlling my sail's shape without having to think about it.

Oh yeah, there's tactics, too. Who has right of way at the gybe gate? I forget??!!!?

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Sheet In!
Bob
_/)_____/)_/)____/)____/)_____/)/)__________/)__
Prindle 18-2 #244 "Wakizashi"
Prindle 16 #3690 "Pegasus" Sold (sigh)
AZ Multihull Fleet 42 member
(Way) Past Commodore of Prindle Fleet 14
Arizona, USA
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My first regatta in my hobie 18. I brought a extremely good albacore sailor with me. The first thing we did was wet sand the daggers, rudders and hulls. The difference was real. We won that day is very light air, and walked away from the other hobie 18 easily. It probably had much more to do with his skill, but there was noquestion that it made the boat easier to push throughthe water.

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Greenville SC

Offering sails and other go fast parts for A-class catamarans
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I think you'll find a lot of opinion on a question like this, for it's extremely difficult to get real data to base a judgement on. I tend to fall in with those who feel these types of extremely fine tuning might be noticible to the elite sailor, for most of us recreational sailors, it is hard to perceive. But there are plenty of arguments to the contrary
If the repair is solid, and reasonably faired, you'll be fine. Go sail!

Dave



Edited by davefarmer on Nov 23, 2011 - 07:51 PM.

New sails will a bigger difference than any minor gel coat imperfection

Close your eyes and feel around the repair if you can find it, work on it some more, if not have fun sailing the snot out of it.

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Jeff
Houston TX
1986 Hobie 18 Sail# 13031
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small defects make a bigger impact over time and distance . ie. that miss-aligned rudder will cost you .25 mph, Not a big deal but in a 2 hour race... you just lost 1/2 mile over the next boat.