It’s been a while since we discussed all those mysterious numbers that both boat designers and journalists are always throwing around to confuse us when they talk about boats. You’ll recall last time I bloviated about displacement/length ratios. One big reason it’s a good idea to go to the trouble to calculate a boat’s D/L...
We’ve already discussed the basic concept of a boat’s displacement or weight. We’ve also discussed waterline length and how it relates to a boat’s theoretical maximum hull speed. Considered separately, however, length and displacement yield only a general notion of what a boat is like. If you blend the two values you can make a...