: In the olympics this last year, the big story tech wise was this new swimsuit
: fabric designed like a shark skin. It was supposed to agitate the water in
: such a way as to reduce the ammount of drag. Does anyone know the name of
: this fabric? Has anyone investigated it's properties for a boat skin?
: Maybe this would be more alont the line of a racing scull hull. Any ideas
: or knowledge?

The swim suit fabric was not an entirely new idea. Several years ago the racing sailboat community tried putting a textured layer on the hull which had a similar pattern as bird feathers on the top of the wing. The idea is to induce vortices that in turn promote laminar flow further aft on the hull than would normally be the case. This laminar flow reduces form drag (as apposed to skin friction) and allows a slightly higher hull speed. The size of the texture was much larger than what was tried on the swim suits and I believe it was placed mostly on the rear 1/3 of the hull. It was probably rule-changed out of competition, along with things like depleted uranium keels and extruding long chain polymers (simulated fish slime) through small holes in the hull. On the other hand, it may have been too expensive or just didn't work that well, I don't remember.

Since we don't paddle anywhere near hull speed, I suspect there might not be much benefit. Making the hull completely fair and eliminating scratches and dings is far more effective at decreasing drag. Want to go faster. Find yourself a nice slimy cod and rub it all over the outside of you hull. Of course, the sharks might find you a lot more interesting. Now that would really speed up your boat.

Ted