Bob, my comment in post 5 was about my current boat and a "no mans land" was for my current boat - not a GA. Brian says very little bow rise or noticeable transition from displacement to planing.
According to the hydrodynamics modeling (cool, eh?), when the boat is built to 26 feet and exactly as I assumed
during the design process, the bow trims up by about a degree when at rest, about 2.x degrees during high speed planing (say 30+ mph), and reaches a maximum bow-up trim right before it goes on plane of about 4.x degrees ...not much change. The bow comes down the faster you go until it's down to about 2.1 degrees. Once you're within 20% of planing speed or so, weight distribution starts becoming far less important to trim compared to the planing forces on the hull. One of my goals during design, specifically, was to NOT create a boat that stuck its nose in the air when trying to go on plane ...and anyone that's driven a boat that does that knows exactly why (not counting racing boats - a different breed altogether). A friend of mine had one of those football-shaped SeaSwirls that ran like that ...everyone had to run forward to try to get the boat to get on plane. It was a re-fit with a V8 that was a little too heavy for it, but the owner told me that the behavior was similar prior to the re-fit. Boats that lift like an elevator onto plane are a pleasure to operate. The only possible downside is that it limits the 'big water' technique where you use the throttle to hold the speed that keeps the bow at its max while you run into and climb the 'next big swell', then back off on the throttle over the top and let the boat sink back down into the trough with the water, repeat. You can cross pretty heavy water like that if the seas aren't too mixed. The Great Alaskan's high bow makes up for that difference, as do other seaworthiness features such as aspect ratio (efficiency and maneuverability), flared sides, relatively stiff when heeling (higher transverse metacentric height, GMt, makes the boat roll with the waves rather than allowing them to climb too high up the sides etc), relatively
not too 'stiff' when responding to water that would raise the bow - driving into swells (moderate longitudinal metacentric height), etc.
Brian