Fetch

[Piers]

Anyone know the correct definition of FETCH with regard to wind / waves?

Dispute between my son and one of his teachers....

<hr width=100% size=1>Piers du Pré
http://www.dupre.co.uk

 

[MainlySteam]

Fetch has two meanings.

The first is that it is the name applied to an area of the sea over which a wind having a constant direction and speed generates seas.

The second is that it is the length of the fetch (area), as defined above and in which the seas are generated, measured in the direction from which the wind is coming.

I think the second is the meaning most associate with the term, but both are correct. Maybe your son and his teacher turn out to be both right.

John

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[kindredspirit]

Don't know about "official" definition but I know it as "the distance over a body of water, over which the wind has blown in a constant direction, without it meeting any obstuctions on the way, such as a land mass."

Then you apply wind force.

Then you apply the combined result to sea state.


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[peterandjeanette]

It is the command from SWMBO when we are bobbing about on the flybridge and she won't go below to get the gin and tonics.

Sorry Piers, couldn't resist it!

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[byron]

To 'OI' it means go get a stick or a ball. To an old salt it means the distance wind has travelled before it's last obstruction of any consequence.

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[kimhollamby]

Fetching arguments

I can visualise the dispute if it is who I think it is...!

I think most of us these days perceive fetch to mean the unobstructed distance that wind and waves can travel before they arrive at your location of interest. However, the term can be applied in several other ways and might, for example, refer simply to the distance that a wind blows.

Just to add to the fun it can also have relevance to sailing types who might use it in the context of making a target location (waypoint, buoy, whatever) when sailing to windward without tacking. Or in terminology that would certainly get (no4?) son in trouble you could simply say you fetched port without worrying too much about how you got there. Or you could use fetch to indicate you are holding a course. Or...and so on.

I presume son is trying to prove why he didn't obey the command "fetch my tea lad!"

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