How to overcome!

C

chappy

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Sailing up the tamer river yesterday i was tacking against a SE wind & against a flooding tide, doing very well i thought untill we got to a certain stage of the river when the boat was not making any headway at all then my yacht started to drift backwards & sideways at an alarming rate, how can i avoid this from happening again & why do you think this happened.?
I was a bit disgruntled as i saw it never happened to the 2 yachts in front, but they were bigger than mine /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
regards.
Dave.
PS The tide was fairly strong.
 
I take it you were sailing down the river as you were headed into a flooding tide. Were you going under the Saltash bridge or perhaps through the narrows by Mashford's yard? In both places there is a zone of fast current and a tendency to lose the wind. Maybe the others knew where to go to avoid the worst of the tide, were luckier with the wind or managed to work the variations in the wind direction better than you.
 
Hi snow leopard, i was going through the narrows just past mayflower mariner , i was going through the headlands of devils point on my port side & the Cremyll on my starboard side, going towards drakes island or the bridge, i was tacking well all the way up from the tamar bridge untill i hit this point, is this known as a bad spot?
 
The strongest currents flow in that area and swirl round, not necessarily following the marked channel. Local knowlege will beat you every time - a few yards one way or the other can make several knots difference to the current you experience.

Advice No. 1 is to watch others and see where they go and whether they are beating you.

Advice No. 2 is to do as I do and whack the throttle wide open until through the Bridge!
 
Thanks for your advice snowleopard, i think i will take you up on advice number 2, anything for an easy life /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif, so you don,t think it has anything to do with my sail trim, just bad luck that i hit the wrong current i suppose?
 
Advice No. 2 is to do as I do and whack the throttle wide open until through the Bridge!

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This is what I do ever since a mate in the same owners association as myself about six years back found himself heeling over a bit to far in a gust and caught one of the beacons with the top of his mast !

Very expensive thing to replace a mast, As his insurance company found out !
 
Wouldn't like to say about the sail trim - if you get it wrong it certainly won't help.

If there's a 4 knot foul tide, the difference between 4.5 knots and 3.5 is pretty significant!
 
Coping with an adverse tide when sailing can be frustrating or a challenge, especially if you are racing. The answer is to be aware of your speed over the ground and then try different sides of the channel or even out of the channel if there is enough water. Generally the tide will flow faster on the oputside of bends. This is often indicated by steep cliffs where flowing water has eroded the shore. However it is not uncomon to find back eddies and contrary or lesser flow so just experiment. Use the engine? yuck why not buy a mobo? olewill
 
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