wax

Totally agree Dave, life's too short to worry about every tiny scratch. Fairness has far more impact on the performance of foils and hulls than finish. Most of us aren't good enough to keep a rudder running in laminar flow anyway, which is where most of the benefit would come. If you're going to bother refinishing your foils or hull, though, you might as well go the whole hog and get it perfect.

Plus, the beer tastes better if it's a reward for a bit of hard work

Neil

Most polishes will do nothing for boatspeed, they don't make the surface finish any better. They will however stop the dirt from sticking to the finish, so you'll have to clean it less often.

Neil

And besides, however much time you intend to spend in the garage with the sandpaper & buffer you will definitely go faster if you spend that time on the water.

Now, if you have a fully committed shore crew (to do the fairing and waxing) and a training boat (to sail while Mummy is waxing the race boat) then you might want to consider the relative merits of different hull waxing / finishing schemes. But really, most people gave up sailing oppies a long time ago .

Not this old chestnut again! All of the available science says that the more perfect the finish, the lower the drag. Perfect means shiny. Car wax will NOT make water "stick" to the hull, rather the opposite. It'll make dirt stick less too. Just make sure you buff it all off thoroughly. Buff with a clean cloth, then when it's shiny, buff it again with another clean cloth!

In the real world, The finish will not make that much difference unless the hull is completely fair, and that's a LOT of work!

Neil