I wouldn't be surprised if the polynesians got their ideas from lashing logs together. A very ingenious bunch, the polynesians. They were light years ahead of capt. cook in terms of performance though.
Hobie got his idea for the asymetrical hull from Woody Brown's designs which are still sailing in Hawaii today.
Woody is in his 90s and still surfs. He told me that he came up with the assy. hull on his own, and that he pioneered putting the fin on a surfboard. He was also in the first group to surf Sunset.
Ironic that a symetrical deep v actually out performs the asymetric deep v hull. looks like they overthought that one.