: Anybody care to discuss the various attributtes of flare on the sides?

: I see all boats have flare fore and aft of the cockpit....some boats
: have pretty flat sides at the cockpit..some have flare.

: My Petrel has flat sides at the cockpit..has very good initial stablility
: and i'm not experienced with enough boats to say how good the secondary
: is..seems good.

: What will flare at the cockpit add? (besides drag)

What Toni said except to add that flare forward tends to give increased boyancy (bow doesn't play submarine in waves) and reduces spray over the deck.

One downside to flare is that it tends to create a hard edge at the hull/deck intersection that can make the boat difficult to roll.

With boat design, everything is a tradeoff.

Bill H.