chines and spray rail design

[glen76]

ive been looking at different peoples bottoms alot recently (hulls too)and it appears they all have slight differences.. the bits that confuse me are the chines and spray rails. i think i understand why they are there, to give steering ability and get up on the plane by making a smaller hull footprint right?? but the questions i have are
1: whats the adv/disadvantages of not having sray rails on the pad, alot of boats dont have em there but many also do
2: some boats spray rails follow the bow line upwards at the front some stay almost parallel with the water, why?
3: whats the adv/disadvantages of having more or less spray rails, between 3 and five seems common
4: as boats get larger they seem to have a larger outer chine that is negative but up higher and then sweeps up on the bow where as more smaller boats and mainly the stepped hulls seem to almost just round off into the body of the boat, does that not reduce side stability and whys it done is it just cosmetic
5: whats the adv/disadantages of larger more agressive spray rails, some are small some are big, some are sharp some are blunt some are HUGE

many thanks

glen

[glen76]

and i thought you were all brainey buggers!!

[Hydrostream]

Your right on the application of spray rails to narrow the beam, as for spray rails on the pad I'm not sure what you mean. The function of a spray rail is to reduce wetted surface area by narrowing the beam and to deflect water away from the hull. They also increase the hulls aspect ratio and..... "Well that’s another conversation!"

As for the bow it's to do with the design and function of the boat. For example a RIB or offshore deep V would have large spray rails that run upwards and towards the bow sheerline of the hull, this is to give the bow positive lift in case of a stuff situation. Where as a small sea-ray bow-rider would have waterline rails which are more or less parallel to the keel these help to carry the bow ( being lower on the hull) and are supposed to produce a dryer ride. In the case of a small speedboat the rails often end well before the rake to the bow, as there is no point in them beyond that point, it's not in the water! The opposite of this is true for larger planing and semi planing hulls, the rails end before the transom. This is because there is no way in hell that part of the boat is ever going to get up out of the water and to put rails in there is only going to increase wetted surface.

The amount of spray rails on a hull is mainly up to the designer but it usually gives a boat more efficient hull definitions and allows it to plain quicker and carry load.

The hull outer chine on some boats is negative, 'pointing down', to keep the topsides dry by deflecting water away from the hull, it can also help in cornering on semi displacement hulls as the aft section of most shaft driven semi-disp's is nearly flat. The outer chine on high performance stepped hulls can be rounded off as they usually have sufficient spray rails to deflect water. The chine should be sharp aft of the step though!

Size and shape again is a design criterion, dependant on number of rails, load and hull application. Bigger rails carry more load but increase wetted area. All spray rails should be sharp, some racers go to great lengths to make sure they are very sharp as it give the water no chance to cling to the hull. The same with the transom break.

Now I’m going to lie down, my head hurts!

[glen76]

and well desevered.. thankyou i think you single handedly answered all my questions. Many thanks