Actually one of the more important effects of what many call wave-piercer hull design is reduced pitching by increased damping.

Designs like the flyer, capricorn and Blade have redistributed the bouyance in the bows to the keel line. This means that in flat water the boat has to pitch less to bring this volume into play then a conventional hull would. The volume is closer to the watersurface and brought into effect sooner.

In wavy conditions the difference is negligiable as the both bow downs have the same amount of bouyancy designed into them (difference is only found in the distribution) and the oncoming wave easily submerges the whole bow anyway. Of course underwater any given volume of air has the same bouyancy force no matter how deep it is submerged. This means that both hull designs lift the bow by the same measure when striking an oncoming wave. But after the wave has passed the "wave-piercer" design stabilizes itself quicker and with less up and down movement. When riding down a wave the "wave-piercer" lets the bow dive less deep when hitting the trough of the wave, therefor the boat can be pushed harder.

That is the true working of a "wave-piercer" bow. The name "wave-piercer" is therefor totally misapplied.

The raked back shape to the stem is a directly result of the fact that bow volume reduces towards the decks in "wave-piercer" bows. And if you have to planes (sides) moving towards eachother when going up then their intersection is a straight line that falls back. This is directly the opposite of when two planes move away from eachother when going up. In effect the raked back bows are direct practical result of the decision to redistribute the volume and concentrate it low in the hulls. It had nothing to do with cutting down on winddage or whatever. At least it was like that on the Flyers, Capricorns and Blades. Since a few years we are seeing a new fashion develop, mostly in the A-cats, where the stems are actually cut away further. The jury is still out on whether this is effective as a design or only because of the specifics of the A-cat setup. (i.e. no spi, relative long hulls for a rather narrow platform width etc)

Wouter