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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Re: Skin Friction reduction
Posted By: garland reese In Response To: Skin Friction reduction (John Umlah)
Date: Monday, 15 October 2001, at 5:08 p.m.
: Hello all: I was wondering, other than producing a baby smooth surface to
: reduce frictional drag is it appropriate to apply a wax, similar to that
: used on a surfboard, that would decrease the skin friction on the wetted
: surface.: Al thoughts are welcome,
: John umlah
Hi John,
I've heard, but have never seen of some racing shell (rowing shells) designers, grooving the hulls longitudinally, creating some sort of vortex type thing or something, and thus increasing the speed of the boat. The concept is something along the lines of those hollows underneath the bilges of viking ships, which create some type of "lift" which, besides looking really cool with all those bubbles coming off the back, made these ships very fast.
All this stuff is way way over my head, but the bottom line is that, in general, not many folks use wax on these racing shells, and some say it even slows them down a bit. There are some products that have been used, but I think it is more like a wipe on coating of sorts and acts somewhat differently than a wax (water on a waxed hull tends to bead up where this stuff causes water to roll off in sheets like off a teflon surface....??). Of course, I've no data to back this up. This is just what I hear from some folks who've talked to other folks who've...............
garland
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