Editing Colin Archer (section)

== Archer's Wave Form Theory ==
Archer spent much time calculating how an efficient hull should be designed. He started with Chapman's displacement parabola curve, but with Scott Russell's positioning of the midship section well aft of amidships and thus with sharp bow waterlines.

In 1876 he changed Chapman's parabola for the displacement curve, with Scott Russell's wave curves; the sine curve forward and the trochoid curve aft. The change gave designers more freedom in shaping the hull than Scott Russell's theory.

Archer's theory did not change Colin Archer's early lines much, more confirmed them. Archer's theory gave fuller bow lines than Scott Russell's, but unless the forefoot was well undercut, Archer's bow lines also became too sharp with a tendency to make the boats "pitchy" and wet. With more undercut forefoot and the displacement curve extending the designed waterline, the lines became fuller and Archer's boats became the seaworthy boats he is known for.

We know now that none of these theories are correct, but they did away with the excessively blunt bow of the old ''Cod's Head-Mackerel Tail''-type.