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I have just fitted the chine guards to my flat bottom skiff. I have attached som pics. My question is, should I trim the bottom edges off so that they are level with the bottom sheeting or leave them as they are - angled down and sloping up towards the centre of the boat? I designed and fitted them with the intention of planing them off flush with and parallel to the bottom.
My professionally built hard chine boat from the 70's has chine rails exactly the same as yours - I would not be doing anything to them. Nice job.
Well, after a lot of thought I have trimmed them off flush with the bottom. My reasoning was that in a turn the chine guard protruding below the hull at an angle could upset water flow across the bottom and not allow the running strakes to do their intended job i.e. they culd end up in really turbulent water full of air. Who knows? fluid dynamics is not eactly my line of work !
I actually liked the look of them as they were ftted.
Thanks for your input.