Jay I will be up at the boat next week+/-  and love the though of sailing with you and randy latter this summer (? on the timing) I will try to find my computer chips for this type of testing.

Garry;  I found just like Jay, the bows position is not effected by the fin but from my sailing above 6 kts the sterns rise and fall is somewhat reduced (the fin does nothing to slow bow lift or fall by on coming waves. Jay and I were careful to set the fin level with the boot stripe so there should be no pitch change from the fin as long as the boot strip is level)  Also just like Jay I found the critters like to grow on the top side Ugh, but not requiring to much more effort in cleaning than without the fin (I had been doing this myself in Hawaii where it is a bit warmer)  
A second though I did have, was getting pooped from behind; but because of the speed thing this seams and was found; in about 3k miles of sailing, not to be an issue. 

As for fin attachment; mine is also only glassed on just like Jays' and yes, heavy grounding may be an issue.

but in case anyone else is thinking about this mod (IT DOES NOT DO ANYTHING BELOW 6ish knots above this speed we need to do more testing to give more than estimated #'s which I have given above) but as for drag there seams to be NONE = less than 0.0001Kt if kept clean.

Jay if we can do the summer sailing, we could even develop some polars for our 32's

Oh: the fairing on the back of the hull is worth it = 0.2 to 0.6kt improvement in most conditions. 

Tyler:

Sorry about the takeoff above. 

Your idea sounds good but you may think about the following

The idea of a rod bent is a good one, but you may want to find the center pivot of the rudder on the bottom.
If you are on the hard just have some one swing it back and forth until you find the exact center of rotation, then drill (right angle drill) a pocket up into the bottom and epoxy a cap (bronze end cap bigger than the rod, a tube, pvc cap, or alike) in place. Then have your bent rod go up into the pocket from the back of the keel (with 1/16 to 1/8" clearance around). The rod will not allow any line in between.  Make sure your rod is tougher than the lines you are worried about, and that it goes up into the pocket 1" +/- 

For my stern; I extended the bottom of the keel in glass back under the rudder and epoxied a bronze pin into the rudders center, it extends down into the glass extension.  The rod Idea should be easier than what I did.

Norm