^was going to say I bet they could. Haven't really made up your mind on the class yet? I would think that decision would have an effect on the hull design, however I am a few hundred miles from the big blue. Most 'boats' around my area are more like dingys. I was hoping you were going to come back for an update, keep us in the loop.
Some 'problems' you just have to brute force, then do something different, some you can de-tangle by studying the rules - and what they SAY (and sometimes more importantly) what they DON'T say.
UIM Class rules cap VOLUME
UIM Class rules have minimum weights
The way the rules are written includes both a diesel bias (weight), and a blown BBC bias (induction penalty).
(It also helps a lot if you have a little maths, and know that physics is physics, and no matter how you wish it otherwise, physics IS physics.)
Other than length and some cosmetics and a few design gizmos on the hull which may/may not help, offshore boats are all pretty much the same: pointy on the front, vee-shaped on the bottom and ±8' wide (trailerable).
Now and that said: Length matters, and length not only means length, it means weight, too.
Remembering 'physics', above:
- lighter a/o shorter boats are faster, because they have less wetted surface, are faster;
- longer a/o heavier boats 'take' seas better.
Momentum and inertia get heavily involved too:
- shorter/lighter accelerate & run faster, but they also slow down faster and gets bounced around more,
- longer/heavier boats accelerate poorly and are slower, but run straighter and stay in the water better.
When you are in the air, or being tossed about, zig-zagging few degrees left or right, you are not keeping speed up and going to your
single goal.
... BUUUUUT ponies matter too. If you have a bigger team, you can haul a longer wagon just as fast and ignore pebbles and small potholes.
These are not pleasure boats, they are built to run FIRST, not run FAST, and are built FOR, BY and AROUND the rules of a specific class.
... for example, take C Class, limited to 13L (meaning you cannot run a BBC), therefore your gas-engine hp will be limited to 600? 500? (Dunno. I'm not a gas-engine guy.) And the boats will (usually) be in the ±35' length.
A typical C boat on a lake is a 90-100mph boat; offshore? way slower.
Assuming 'normal' seas, the C boats (that finish) will run 5+ mph slower than the B boats (BBC or Ilmor V-10 and ±40') who are also 90-100mph lake boats.
The difference is ponies + length, as the boats are within a ton of each other in total mass.
If I want to put a pair of 800hp Cummnins B into a 45' boat and run C, 's'ok, I can run 60-70kts in any seas, and I'll be faster than all of the C AND B ... unless the water is flat. Oh well, that's racing.
B class is the champagne class, where most of the competition is, but the same overpowered, heavier, longer boat can run in either C or B class.
When you are not constrained with how much HP a given number of Liters can produce (Gas v. Diesel, yanno), you can consider longer, more efficient, heavier hulls.
