Im certainly no boating design expert however, my son and I are working on em now also! What we did was sand down the front bottom part of the hull to make it less resistant to water flow but left the middle and back as flat as possible. We saw a bunch of boats the last year with people shapping the bottom and rounding it to make it more like a real boat bottom and all it did was make the boat less stable and tilt side to side as its was unbalanced. And with the sail and captains cabin etc on top, flat on the bottom is the most stable to me. However, there is nothing wrong with sanding down the top middle of the boat (not the sides or edges) to reduce weight and improve boyancy which is what we did this year. Looking at our boat last year, with all the stuff on the boat, it was back heavy which is fine so the front doesnt dip down into the water, but alot of boats last year the back end was halfway down in the water and some even sank back first. As such this year we are going to lighten the boat overall....i drilled holes under the back cabin part before gluing it on and with the the reduction of mass from sanding the top middle and cutting of the weight in the back, the boat floats much higher on the water (less of the boat under the waterline), it still favors weight at the back so the front doesnt go under, and so far it glides really nice and minimal water is washing over ontop the deck (which would be bad now that we have essentially sanded out a depression on the top!). We also shaved down the keel and rudder to make it very aerodynamic (or water dyanamic) to reduce drag in the water.
We cant make dual hulls or catamerans etc so that is out.
Summarize, for us this year, reduce overall weight to improve buyoancy, sand smooth to reduce drag, water seal so no leaks or absorbing of water by the wood.
But the most important thing was already stated....practice blowing hard, long and steady at the mid bottom of the sail with my son LOL....in the end, otherthan some slight increases in speed from build, it is my firm belief that the kid who can blow the hardest consistently on target wins....
But id also love to hear any more tips from anyone else who has done a number of these!
WK
Dman after all that I went and looked up the kit and its not the same single hull only kit like ours.....not sure anymore if anything I said above is useful! LOL
Sorry!
