Very interesting. I know we have a few real engineers on the board, question for them: Are strakes considered 'fast'? I always thought 'smooth' was faster than bumps.
To me they look more like added drag if/when you push them into the water. The Wildcat has them too, right? So, are they supposed to be functional, ie. external hull stiffeners, or just for looks, or...?
Also, the mast is black so it's hard to tell if it's aluminum or carbon, which is it? And the transom looks very flat across the bottom, so it should be good for going fast downwind, lots of volume in the back, not so much in the bows, which surprises me. I thought the bows would be fuller like the Infusion.
I hope we see a few at Tradewinds in two months!
The rounded hull profiles are really sucking the water up and over the deck. Water hitting beams and hardware is drag (I used to hate how the water smacked the front beam on the N20 when sailing at good speed in waves). The strakes should help keep some of that water from rounding the top of the deck and might make the boat a little drier to sail...but I think they're mostly for looks.
