Self 'lubricating' hull design

i think British Airways experimented with a ridged vinyl skin on their planes a while back...

 

Self lubricating hull design + golf balls

On a totally different tack... Does any one know why American golf balls are larger than European balls...(And the answer is clean - and nothing to do with the standard US boast that everything is bigger Stateside).
I was told the reason was because certain states have regulations on the speed 'unguided' 'missiles' might be released. The larger surface area on the US golf ball restricts its flight to within this limit.
Or is that why one of my legs is longer than the other.

 

Correction, Reynolds number.

 

from: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/archived_Detail.asp?key=3071

* From David Redfern (Re Gareth Evans' and hull finishes): I believe that a
non smooth finish is fastest. There was a time in America's Cup development
when an aircraft surface plastics material was applied to the hulls. Dennis
Conner's 'Stars and Stripes' had them, England's Victory '83 tried them.
They were developed by NASA. The first riblets were machined on flat
aluminum sheets and tested in a Langley wind tunnel. When engineers of the
3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, learned of the tests, they suggested
moulding the riblets into a lightweight plastic film with an adhesive
backing. 3M's offer to produce riblet tapes for research was accepted by
NASA. See www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Riblets.htm