Ripalong's hook is the proper length and height for her target speed. At 10 to 15 knots she's plowing pretty good at first, but then settles down once over say 13 knots as the hook starts to toss it's effect into boat trim. At 15 knots the hook is working great, but this would be the low end of the spectrum for this boat's target speed. She's an 18 to 22 knot boat, before drag becomes a considerable issue. She' could be forced to 30, but the power requirements would rise exponentially.
Billy was old school and educated by teachers who drove to school in a horse drawn buggy, unlike John who had teachers that likely drove in a car (huge difference mentally). Displacement to both was a constantly variable number and not much regarded with most of these "articles", which for the most part are hijacked directly from a DIY feature in the magazines they were published in. In this era, powerboat speeds were given in MPH, still are to a large degree in the USA.
The helm is properly located to port on these designs for a simple reason, the skipper isn't expected to help in ground tackle or docking duties. He is then oriented with the action directly ahead or to his starboard, which is the natural location for a person in a left hand drive world. The helm to starboard is employed when the skipper is expected to reach over the rail or out a port to grab a dock line or fend off. This is way a bass boat for example will have the helm to starboard, the skipper will be involved in docking and ground tackle operations, possibly all by himself, while in a 26' cruiser, the crew would preform these tasks.
Back to the hull, which is essentially flat from just aft of midship to the transom. This lets her plane off early, but beats you up in a chop and limits top speed considerably, especially with the hook. Lastly, it's a heavy beast, especially compared to more modern warped bottom hulls. Her nicely radiused bilge turns will skid nicely in turns, but also prevent her from "carving" very well, so high speed turns need some room to swing her butt. In a moderate chop and properly throttled back to suit conditions, this hull can be an enjoyable ride, but very few modern skippers back their throttle to suit the sea state and the boat pounds out your dental work.
In the end it wouldn't be especially difficult to "fix" this hull. The beam would be narrowed slightly to compensate for a modern build method's weight savings. Next a straight line from station 5 to the bottom of the transom drawn and the deadrise from station 6 aft maintained as best as possible, which would result in about 7 degrees or so at the transom. This would also increase draft and displacement some, further reinforcing the beam alterations. The result would be similar to a more modern warped bottom and a much better riding and maneuvering boat. Then again, this is now a total redo of the design and there are plenty of good examples of these modified shapes, in which to place Atkins styling on. In fact it's not hard to make a boat look like it's an Atkins as their styling was fairly pronounced and easily duplicated.
