In very simple terms a rocker is a bottom that is like a bow (as in bow and arrow)with the bow down and its tips up. Causes the front end of a racing runabout to go up and down as in power and grab, loss of bite and repeat. The raceboat rocks bow up and than down, sometimes gently sometimes violently which is also speed and power dependent. Some runabouts rock until the higher end is achieved and the bow no longer rocks, raceboat runs flat.

A Hook is the reverse of the bow where the backend dops down from the normal level curvature designed into the bottom. Hooks nail the front down and create a uneven ventilation on the bottom of the runabout because the bottom at the stern drops down as opposed to a rocker where the planing surface of the stern is upturned.

When a racer prepares his bottom the idea is the elimination in general terms of hooks and rockers to give those last inches a smooth slide to the edge of the bottom that normally be a 90 degree sharp corner from the bottom edge upward.

To me that rocker and its need for elimation was what was wrong with by Banshee VI racing runabout (Banshee racing runabouts here were built by E.J. Ted Coates a local racer from my area). Later the idea of adding fiberglass and mat on the last sections of bottom to take the rocker out at the stern area proved to be too heavy, too difficult with fiberglass separations from wood always being the problem so that last section of bottom was ripped out, frames slightly lined to bring them down within the farmes line up done again but with a real gradual hook built in and sanding ajusted to lay the bow down at the highest speeds to keep her from/eliminating rocking. Largely that was successful but still not as good a raceboat as her predecessor, Banshee V.

I have seen some neat ideas used to change or deal with rockers or hooks that involved very heavy weights and waiting all winter for their eduated guess of weights and the time it would take to gradually pull to get the job done. That is why I choose to rip that section of bottom out and do it over.

I wonder if there are any drawings left around or pictures in some wood boat building magazines somewhere to help you?????