Spray patterns, 21 and 25

[cdavisdb]

I've always been puzzled about why my 25 is so extremely dry riding. It sure doesn't look like it should be, with such a sharp and vertical sided nose, hardly any flare. Watching Moose's videos of Dave's 25 and Terry's 21(Gathering thread, page 10), I got a few clues(thanks Moose). I'm not real well versed in the technical aspects of this stuff, so would appreciate some feed back.

Looks like chine position and shape is key. Watching the 25 run in small chop, the hull throws spay out and back. In relatively flat conditions of the video, it exits the hull way back from the bow. I've watched it running in rougher condition and that doesn't seem to change,at least until its too rough to watch. The chine must be at just the right angle to deflect spay outward as it comes up the hull side. Since the chine rises fairly high at the bow and goes essentially all the way forward, it must continue to do the same deflection as the waves get bigger. That deflection keeps the spray away from the windshield, even in a moderate cross wind.

The 21 doesn't have that chine forward. In low chop, it looks like the 25, the front of the bow is riding above the waters surface, spray is thrown back, out, almost down. In a little bigger chop the bow starts to spit the wave and the spray pattern changes, getting much more vertical. Bushwacker said the spray went up vertically when the 21 hit a big wave. That's consistent with what I could see.

Another fascinating question is comparative rides of the two hulls. The the 25's chine has to provide some lift and make for a harder landing than without it. With no chine and a super sharp bow(sharper than the 25, believe it or not) will the 21 provide a softer head sea ride in the nasty's, even though its smaller and lighter?