Wooded Hull Refinishing Mystery

I am re-fiberglassing the hull of a 1958 CC Ski, and have run into an issue that stumps me!

After removing the fiberglass (which we used just a crow bar and circular saw - directed to last poster), we found that there were cedar barn-style siding screwed to the mahogany planks. Each piece of siding was a wedge shape about 6 inches wide and 8 feet long. These were in bad shape since the bottom was glassed in 1970. These cedar planks were placed on the outside corners of the hull seemingly to flatten the hull. It increased the dept of the hull at the outside corners about 1/2 inch.

My question is: Is there a point to having these on? Is there a handling benefit to having a flatter back end of the boat? I imagine there was a reason the refinisher did this... but I am stumped as to what it is.

It handled so well before the bottom needed replacing, I'd hate to change it, but this seems odd to me.

Thank you all for any feedback/advise.

Nathan