A well-balanced hull however, retains a stable longitudinal position of CLR as it heels. This property is crucial to ensuring the balanced helm of a yacht. If the boat is also directionally stable, it is even possible for the hull balance to be matched to the turning effect of the heeled rig, enabling the boat to free-sail ‘hands free’ at any heel angle.

A boat is directionally stable when CLP is aft of LCG, even when the rudder is free to turn. It is said to be in a state of ‘stable equilibrium’. These craft with long keels or skegs aft tend to track straight ‘hands free’ without the need to hold the tiller and they also track straight under tow, but are directionally unstable and difficult to steer when moving backwards.

Consequently, winning races became a challenge to outsmart the rule maker as much as to produce a better boat. Unfair shapes with rule cheating ‘rating’ lumps and bumps, poor stability, structural failures and handling issues became the norm, as the design challenge was to find the fastest sailing configuration which would ‘appear slowest’ under the version of the rule applying at the time. 

The Arka Kinari – a name formed from the Latin word for vessel, and a Sanskrit name for a half human, half bird musician that guards the tree of life – is a 70-tonne sailing ship that serves as a home, touring vessel, music venue and creative project for Filastine and Nova, who mix Javanese folk with psychedelic synths and percussion.

Given the development of user friendly measurement handicap systems over the last few years I think the time has come for one of the Australian or New Zealand Classic Yacht fleets to trial a system based on actual data rather than performance.