Bow Strake Wings

My wife did find the guy on FB with similar ones to our boat.

I talked with some other owners on the Post FB group that have added more traditional spray rails, but no one has ones like on ours. One had some smaller L spray rails only on the bow portion, others ran full length of the hull.

After much discussion we decided to remove the 'original owner added' spray rails. My best guess is they were put on based on experience from the early 43 hulls which did not have the second/upper spray rails which were added for the Mk-II hulls (ours is an early Mk-II). I don't know if the chine position changed when they added the upper rails or not, but could be possible looking at where the hull sides in the mold would have met the bottom.

They are now gone. Will have to wait till spring launch to see the change. Who ever installed the add-ons must have wanted to lift the whole boat by them looking at how thick the fiberglass was.

Original


Grinding them away. Check out the fiberglass thickness. It was the same on the entire add-on shape.



Glass work done



Sanding for final barrier coat (hull was barrier coated by the prior owner)



The full boat will be getting fresh bottom paint before launch. The current (Trinidad Pro) was still working well at haul out after 3 seasons. Decided not to try to get a 4th season and risk a mid-season haulout.

-Greg

I believe they were too low, would dive and launch a wall of water on the 3rd wave of a set. I think they also exagerated the roll when crossing waves/wakes at an angle. Looking at video of late 42 (essentially the Mk-II 43 hull) and Mk-II 46 show the original upper spray rails seem to do a good job. Video of our boat (although at below cruise speed) shows the water being pushed forward by the rails.

And yes they were ugly.