A random question

[andyo83]

I am new to this, so i thought i'd ask a question.

We have a bayliner ciera 2651, and it has an all over cover at the rear.

With boats like that, (with the rear high sided cover) how badly will the wind conditions affect the steering, and is there a way to compensate it?

 

[rafiki_]

I think you will notice the wind mostly at low speed when mooring or slow speed handling. Best thing to do when breezy is to take it off.

Not much else you can do. I assume she is a single engine V8, which is not the easiest to handle at low speed, from my own experience.

 

[landlockedpirate]

I had a 2651 in the 90's. It does suffer from some windage, but a lot depends on how big the cover actually is (the original only covered the front part of the cockpit).

Its a really easy boat to control and the prop walk is easy to predict. Take it out into some open water and have a play, a little bit of practice works wonders.

 

[Elessar]

I am new to this, so i thought i'd ask a question.

We have a bayliner ciera 2651, and it has an all over cover at the rear.

With boats like that, (with the rear high sided cover) how badly will the wind conditions affect the steering, and is there a way to compensate it?

I had the flybridge version of your boat which blew around even more!

Some points:

It will affect you more at slow speeds and not really be noticeable on the plane. On the plane all that will happen is that it will make your boat lean - no more than someone walking around the boat - and you level the boat back up with the trim tabs.
So the only time it matters really is in close quarter manoeuvring, amongst moorings, in marinas/locks etc.

The rear of the boat is held in the water by the leg whilst the front has hardly anything in the water. So it will feel like the front is being blown even though the cover is toward the rear.

The affect of the blowing will be worse when you're going backwards. This is because boats turn around a pivot point, in a boat like yours it is roughly in the middle of the boat when you're going forwards but only about 2 or 3 feet from the back of the boat when going backwards - so when you go backwards in a side wide the front of the boat can swing about widely.

How to counteract it:
First you need to anticipate which way the boat is going to be blown. This can change as you go round a corner in a marina or as you pass a large boat. So buy a dinghy racing burgee - a little rotating square flag for less than a tenner in a chandlers - and fix it right at the front of your boat on the rail. You will then know which way your boat is going to blow before it happens.
Then you need to steer into the wind to counteract it. Only practice will tell you how much.
When going backwards if you are blown way off course the only way is to go forward for a bit to straighten the boat up and go backwards again.