Steve Bedford voiced his wish to stop the "slapping of waves on the hull." In my experience this noise is more precisely the waves, or ripples even, slapping up under spray rails that extend both above and below the waterline, often built into the hull. I've often wondered if any prospective boat buyers ever even think about this characteristic. My departed friend Capt. Ben Rathbun once wrote that lapstrake hulls got their name from the sound of the water lapping against the overlapping strakes when the occupants were trying to sleep. Dick Allen Round-bilged, spray-rail free Bristol 42 "Sunshine Girl" Now on the hard at Safe Cove, Port Charlotte, FL