You guys ever read the book, High Performance Sailing by Frank Bethwaite? He has a whole chapter on smoothness. The short answer, as stated above, cleaner and smoother has less drag. You don't see airplane racers or glider pilots out there with 600 grit sandpaper. They rub and polish until it looks like glass, then they will smack you if you touch it... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

But during the America's Cup some years ago, Dennis Conner tried some kind of ribbed stick on stuff on his boat to somehow reduce drag by keeping the boundry layer attached or something like that. I think he eventually ditched the idea. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I like to polish my boat with Teflon until my hand just slips right off, boards too. Makes it tough to climb back on after a crash though! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />