Wax on Wax off

[kermwood]

Having been sailing boats for a few years now( full size and model),every so often after a days sailing the subject of polished hulls would come up.
Some skippers would wax their hulls
" because the water would run off their hulls and make it cut through the surface faster"
Other skippers would not let wax anywhere near their hulls
"because a SLIGHTLY rougher finish on their hull would give it more grip and pull through the water faster.
What do you 12 skippers out there say ?

[Rick West]

Actually, the concenus is that sanding creates micro-bubbles and the hull will slide over them like ball bearings. A waxed hull is said to cause the water to adhere to the hull and that the water you leave with is the water you arrive with. This is from the big boat guys and EC12 skippers of note wet sand with 1500 grit several times a season.

...94

[kermwood]

I Stand corrected Rick.
Woody

[Larry Ludwig]

I was taught that a gelcoat finish was the fastest surface you could reasonably achieve. We had several reps come to the shop I worked for that were selling bottom paints and skins (Speedskin was popular way back when) and while they were selling bottom paints.. they were primarily offering protection for boats that were in the water full time. I have been arguing with myself on the difference between a gelcoat and paint finish. The advantage of the gelcoat would be as Rick points out, you can wet sand it easily. Back in the 80's it was quite common to see a group of guys with a very high grit <u>wet </u> sand paper in one hand a beverage in the other.

Again... we are talking what we call in the shop here as micro-knots... if you are late on one wind shift... you blew your super fast hull advantage for the whole race. [B)]

[Capt. Flak]

I found this very informative article. You just need to scale the numbers they use to fit our boats. For instance, 400 grit wet sand might be 1000 grit to us and 600 grit would be 1500 grit. The article clearly states NO WAX.

http://www.glenans-ireland.com/Resource ... nishes.htm

Enjoy

Joe Walter #24