There are many misconceptions about the new hullshapes. One of them is that they have less volume in the bows. This however can not be determined from the shape (raked back) of the bow itself. A designer can put in more volume or less volume, what ever he feels is best. The rest is just an optical illusion. Mostly because alot of the volume is located at the keel line instead of near the decks as in the older hulls. So the bows look thinner and less bouyant while it may very be the case that the bouyant keel line more can compensates for the volume lost near the decks.

Best advice I can give you is to just test sail several of these new hullshapes. You will find that some are worse than the older hulls (I'm not named any brands) and that others are noticeably better than the older shapes. It all comes down to wether the designer knew what he was doing. And this can only be determined by having a test sail on a particulary boat.

Personally I haven't seen any nacra with a "wave-peircer" like hull shape. Although rumour has it that Nacra is coming out with a new hull this winter. And that is all I know.

With respect to the Blade F16 and 3 to 5 ft steep waves, the reports that have come through suggest improved behaviour over the older hulls. Most conservative claim is that they're certainly not inferiour to the Taipan hulls and I feel that they are doing alright in these wave conditions. That last bit is from personal experience. Did a head to head comparison with a FX-one several weeks ago in short steep waves of about 3 to 4 feet with very light winds on top of that. I was sailing solo (as was he) and I was bobbing around like nobodies business but still FX-one faired no better or worse than my Taipan as far as I could tell. I had a little bit of speed advantage over him, but I guess I'm more in tune with my boat than he was since I've done many sailing hours this season. Also to me it seemed that his boat layed more stable on the water surface than my Taipan, even though he complained about the bobbing about as well.

But indeed, I know of designs that were presented as modern wave-piercers that did "do it" as intended. Again, it all comes down to whether the designer was skilled enough and had the hulls evaluated and redesigned where necessary.

Certainly in the A-cat class the newer hull shapes are considered a noticeable improvement over the older, more conventional hulls.

Several sailors who are familiar with both the Taipan (conventional hull) and the Blade's (modern hullshape) feel the same way now.

But don't take my word for it. Do a test ride and convince yourself.

I hope this helped.

Wouter