Bill,
I believe the article was by Malcom Tenant (sp?), but I haven't had a chance to dig in and retrieve it. Again, he was dealing with larger boats where trapezing crew didn't come into the equation. And I think the meaning of 'optimum' was a balance of righting moment and perceived safety for pitchpole, in that there would be other hints to depower before driving a bow in - so this also was related to the level of skill in the crew. Again, this was for larger boats where the consequences of going over are larger. Still, I found it to be an interesting take.

I know you have way more research and design time on the bow/deck shape thing with respect to pitch pole, but I feel (and this is from my very limited pitch-pole experience) that the deck lips of a shoe-box style construction method seem to contribute way more to the pitchpole causing drag than the flatter decks. In the absence of the lips, flatter decks are certainly next in the order, but now having been on boats without the lips I'm of the opinion that they are the bigger evil. The tripping drag seems to initiate far sooner and in situations where the flatter deck itself wouldn't be as much a problem due to the angle of attack in the water.