Many have called the swept back X bows or America’s Cup Bows simply a fashion. I say they have real advantages. The argument against says that you lose buoyancy as the hull buries. That is true, but you also lose drag. It becomes more wave piercer. And at the moment you lose a few hundred pounds of displacement, you are actively participating in hundreds of thousands of foot pounds of a verb. A few hundred pounds are irrelevant. Now check this out. A link sent to me by Owen Myers. The military often has a big enough budget to research things. See http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?152989-Xbow-Sea-Axe-A-future-in-the-Military-Design
How about the vertical straight bow? It might be not very wave piercing but if the length is the starting point for rules,classes and everything i reckon with vertical bows u can get the maximum volume and so the maximum lifting buoyancy for that length. I reckon x bows are fashion because they remind of a car or something aerodynamic, but not that good for downwind nosedives (i reckon).
What do u think?
Seems to me that the motion of the bows through a seaway is dependent on where the center of effort is. On a sailboat, the C/E is way up above the waterline pushing the bow down. In a prop driven vessel, the C/E is low on the hull or even below it, pushing the bow up. Might be why those AC45’s seem to pitchpole a lot.
What’s good for the navy may not be so good for a sailboat.
Could be. I have hunch that the AC 45 spend all their time on the fine edge between crash or win. I also guess that they have hundred of thousands of dollars of tank test time leading to the most efficient shape.