I have thoroughly enjoyed this discussion except the one comment excused by someone under the influence of the moon. It is good to see passion and mathematical data liberally posted without fear of the results often experienced on the other forum. To those of you intimidated by the formulas, read them anyway, or paste them into a file you can look at later. I have pretty good sized files from both of these fellows. One day you will see what they mean, and you will get there a lot faster if you do the work to understand them. Bill and Wouter are a lot smarter than most of us, but so was Aristotle. It is perfectly obvious that heavy objects fall faster than light objects and that the earth is the center of the universe....
Einstein said that the Creator was subtle, not malicious. I believe Wouter is trying to point out that subtle design changes with an eye on all the other aero/hydrodynamics can yield dramatic improvements. And indeed they have. Many of the things Wouter has discussed can be applied to your own 'dead boat' with encouraging results.
To Wouter: The specs I have seen and a witness say that the M20 is about 9.5' beam. What is your statement that it is 8.5' beam based on? If 8.5' beam for the M20 is an error, wouldn't that substantially change your analysis of the boat?
To Bill: (relax a little, this is as upset as I have seen you) When the big cats went for the run around the world in 2001, there was a thread (old forum) where you calculated that the over 100' boats had fineness ratios that should allow speeds of over 50kts. The fastest I saw anyone goes was about 35kts. In an earlier thread you had introduced this fineness ratio as a factor in the old LWL formula. When others inquired about the 'fineness formula', you gave no reply. Am I in serious error about the top speed of the megacats? Could you explain about the fineness ratio? Also, you recently stated that the power (force, KW, hp) in the wind varied as the square of the velocity of the wind. My old DOE manual for home windmills gives a formula for wind power that has a cube on the wind speed. And that is the understanding most my landsailing buddies have. Did I misunderstand your statement?

Sincerely, and best regards to both of you.