This could be a thread with little or no interest for discussion. Its not about vessel dynamics or design in regards to efficiency, its about boat appearance and history.
There’s a movement amongst creative tinkerers called Steampunk (Google it) where Victorian aesthetics are applied to modern technologies. Imagine your laptop computer; clad in copper with leather palmrests, clawfoot legs and keypads from a 100 year old typewriter. Something out of the movie Brazil, or a contraption from the TV series, The Wild Wild West.
From this cue, I have been adding touches to my rc yacht build. The hull is unpainted carbon yet I have been using brass fairleads and contemplating teak (faux - balsa) accents. The access hole is oval which (to me) looks retro. I probably will stop short of a chrome wave splitter or figurehead on the bow.
Anyway, is there a place in our modeling interests for the most high-tech materials we can find, to be combined with nautical adornments that are so part of its history, to capture more than speed and maneuverability?
yar