Cold Weather Reading thoughts

As the latest snowstorm begins to creep in this morning I thought I would share some thoughts, sort of a rambling of comments.  My hope is something here will stimulate comments, discussion or questions from others. 

Of course I'm disappointed in the restrictive conditions that the AC is bound by which have resulted in two cancellations of racing days.  The boats are interesting collections of the latest technologies but the restrictions seem to defeat the fundamental excitement of a challenge which involves the variables of weather, and sea state to demonstrate that a boat and crew skills.  I guess we are watching more of a contest of sprint vessels than true sailboats.  I'm interested in whether others see the AC races as interesting or too far from our sport to be more than a distraction.

Found an article about water surface texture and its impact on boat speed.  This article came out of the growing knowledge of the dynamics of water over a surface, what works and doesn't.  The author summarized that the smoother the surface the faster at teh speeds that out vessels are travelling through the water.  What I found interesting was the observation that the forward two-thirds of the vessel or any foil was the most important.  As long as the last third was relatively smooth it is not as critical.  For the boat speeds that most of us sail the recommendations are that the surface be smoothed down to a 400 grit consistancy and then polished to create a hard surface.  The suggestion is a polished surface not waxed.  The author did point out that it is important for the foil or vessel to be fair but he also said that shallow long fairness issues were less important than the smoothness.

Please share your thoughts and comments if you have seem a different take on these topics. 

Pete