How important are smooth foils

Actually, no. A laminar flow section operating in its laminar flow bucket will have lower drag than a similar turbulent-flow section. One way to illustrate this is to think of all the small-scale movements inherent in a turbulent flow. The energy to create these movements must have come from somewhere, and it is extracted from the kinetic energy of the foil as drag.

The big deal with laminar sections is that they can get a lot draggier outside the laminar flow bucket, so there's a real incentive to keep them within it. With a turbulent-flow section you don't get the same step change (even though it may be more efficient than the laminar flow section outside its bucket) so the incremental cost of imperfections is smaller.

Dave

By being very careful! Actually, it probably makes more difference with our laminar-flow sections because there's a tangible benefit to keeping everything laminar, whereas with a turbulent-flow section (which I assume the production boats have) there's much less downside. But a good 14 crew is super-careful with the foils, and is willing to get very wet in order to avoid pranging them. If you sail in with the board half-way up and jump out when the water's still 4 feet deep you should be absolutely fine. At an unfamiliar venue, use other crews who have already jumped out to gauge the depth.

We do also do a fair bit of sailing in Chichester Harbour, where running aground is much more likely and can happen at considerable speed. Options here are to take less risks when travelling at speed or where you believe the bottom may be hard, and to pay close attention to other boats! It is often better to be twin wiring when you hit the bottom because the board only has to absorb the momentum of a relatively light boat (helm and crew go round the forestay). But 14 boards are pretty well-built so even a big crash just tends to wipe out the bottom couple of inches, which are relatively easy to reconstruct (an hour or two's work).

As an aside, the Ovi 1 14 was (some time ago) sold with a stock 49er board, which was pretty useless. Just about everyone threw it in the attic and had a decent one built, and it made a massive difference!

Cheers,

Dave

Yeah sailing skills are definitely the thing to worry about first but once you get your sailing up to scratch, good boat preparation will win you races.