[quote=klozhald]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??!!!?[/quote]
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