Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What is Hull Speed? What is Dull Speed?


Airplanes for years could not break the sound barrier. However, they eventually did. Sailboats on the other hand have never broken the barrier of hull speed. What is hull speed? After a sailboat reaches a certain speed it can go no faster. It makes no difference how much horsepower you add, the boat will go no faster. Physics dictates that the amount of water that has to be moved out of the way by the boat will increase at exactly the rate you add power. The formula for hull speed is 1.25 times the square root of the boat length at the water line. So a boat that is 36 feet long at the water line will have a hull speed of about 6 times 1.25, or 8.5 Knots.

Now Kadizzle has discovered that this formula also applies to boat repair. A boat can only be cleaned and repaired at a certain rate. When trying to fix up a boat, it will fall apart and get dirty at about the same rate you are fixing. This is call the dull speed. The name comes from the fact that there is so much fiberglass to clean that when you get the last of it cleaned the first place you started will be dull. Today Kadizzle will work on the boat. For years he has been trying to paint all the teak on the rail of the boat, but dull speed always defeats him. By the time he gets it painted the paint has started to peel where he started.

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