Which wind direction in this photo?

[RichardS]

A photo from last week of our boat in a bay on Hvar Island with a monohull for company.

I appreciate that cats sometimes lie at a slightly different direction to the wind but 180 degrees different is rather unusual.

Perhaps there are unusual circumstances at play?

Richard

 

[Boathook]

The mono is moored by the stern or if in tidal waters a back eddy in the bay.

 

[vyv_cox]

In Tranquil Bay in light conditions I have seen boats facing a multitude of different headings. Just one example.

 

[AndrewB]

In Tranquil Bay in light conditions I have seen boats facing a multitude of different headings.

There is a surprisingly strong tidal current past Tranquil Bay which eddies into the outer part of the bay. Hence boats in all directions, specially if the wind is light. What's more, they swing back and forth with the gusts through the surrounding hills, first to wind, then current. Collisions are not uncommon when the anchorage gets crowded.

An added hazard in crowded conditions is the boats that buoy their anchor. This is completely unnecessary in the mud of Tranquil Bay, but is done to lay claim to extra territory . Beware the abuse should your boat swing near their buoy ("Hey! You're over MY anchor!").

Pure schadenfreude when one of the more obnoxious of these jerks wrapped his tripping line around his propeller as he left.

 

[bbg]

Is the mono anchored?

 

[JumbleDuck]

In Tranquil Bay in light conditions I have seen boats facing a multitude of different headings.

I learned to sail (OK, there may be other opinions about that) with the Sea Scouts on Loch Goil, which is famed for flukey winds. I remember heading directly towards another Wayfarer about 50 yards away: we were both on beam reaches, both on starboard tack. "OK, instructor, what do the rules say about this?" I asked.

 

[RichardS]

The mono is moored by the stern or if in tidal waters a back eddy in the bay.

You are correct Boathook .... the monohull is moored to a buoy by the stern.

When we came in we did our usual trick and led a long line from the bow, outside all the rigging, stanchions, lifelines etc, right to the sugar scoop then simply threaded the line through the buoy from the bottom step before taking the line back up to the bow.

When the monohull came in, they tried several times to use the boathook over the bow but kept missing it. One of the crew then started to prepare a long line at the back of the boat. I called my Wife over to show her that they were going to use "our" method but it was going to go horribly wrong because the line had not been laid outside of everything else.

Unfortunately our innocent "entertainment" was cut short, and I was proved wrong, because as soon as they had hooked the line through the buoy they just tied the line to the aft cleat and left the boat like that.

It's the first time I can recall seeing a boat moored by the stern, but in a quiet bay I suppose there's no significant disadvantage except that the slight breeze will not blow through the hatches very well.

Richard

 

[chrishscorp]

A photo from last week of our boat in a bay on Hvar Island with a monohull for company.

I appreciate that cats sometimes lie at a slightly different direction to the wind but 180 degrees different is rather unusual.

Perhaps there are unusual circumstances at play?

Richard

A wild stab

Your Cat is pointed head to wind
The Mono has been turned into a local breeze that has set up due to the topography of the land. Your at the bottom of a valley ??

 

[Spyro]

You are correct Boathook .... the monohull is moored to a buoy by the stern.

When we came in we did our usual trick and led a long line from the bow, outside all the rigging, stanchions, lifelines etc, right to the sugar scoop then simply threaded the line through the buoy from the bottom step before taking the line back up to the bow.

When the monohull came in, they tried several times to use the boathook over the bow but kept missing it. One of the crew then started to prepare a long line at the back of the boat. I called my Wife over to show her that they were going to use "our" method but it was going to go horribly wrong because the line had not been laid outside of everything else.

Unfortunately our innocent "entertainment" was cut short, and I was proved wrong, because as soon as they had hooked the line through the buoy they just tied the line to the aft cleat and left the boat like that.

It's the first time I can recall seeing a boat moored by the stern, but in a quiet bay I suppose there's no significant disadvantage except that the slight breeze will not blow through the hatches very well.

Richard

Probably just in for a lunch stop. I've picked up a buoy and tied to it stern too when there was no wind or waves. No problem. You don't akways have to be a sheep,

 

[dunedin]

It's the first time I can recall seeing a boat moored by the stern, but in a quiet bay I suppose there's no significant disadvantage except that the slight breeze will not blow through the hatches very well.

Many, possibly most, yachts in the Baltic don’t even have a bow roller at the front, let alone an anchor. Instead they have an anchor at the stern - generally used for bows to mooring, but also sometimes used for anchoring away from the shore, in which case the boat goes stern to wind.
Certainly looks odd the first time a U.K. sailor sees this.

 

[vyv_cox]

When we lived and sailed in the Netherlands we regularly anchored in the Haringvliet, fresh water. In summer time huge clouds of small flies would gather downwind of any obstacle, such as hoods, making life in the cockpit impossible. We always anchored by the stern in warm weather, placing the cloud of insects ahead of the hood instead of in the cockpit.

 

[agurney]

I learned to sail (OK, there may be other opinions about that) with the Sea Scouts on Loch Goil, which is famed for flukey winds. I remember heading directly towards another Wayfarer about 50 yards away: we were both on beam reaches, both on starboard tack. "OK, instructor, what do the rules say about this?" I asked.

Many years ago I was heading NW in the Sound of Mull under spinnaker towards a yacht on a reciprocal course also under spinnaker .. cue some frantic sail changing when we reached the Rondo, ending up in the usual beat north.

 

[agurney]

A photo from last week of our boat in a bay on Hvar Island with a monohull for company.

I appreciate that cats sometimes lie at a slightly different direction to the wind but 180 degrees different is rather unusual.

Perhaps there are unusual circumstances at play?

Richard

I've experienced this regularly at the head of Lochaline, where shallow draft vessels are wind rode and anything with a keel is tide (or more accurately, river) rode.

 

[Neeves]

Many, possibly most, yachts in the Baltic don’t even have a bow roller at the front, let alone an anchor. Instead they have an anchor at the stern - generally used for bows to mooring, but also sometimes used for anchoring away from the shore, in which case the boat goes stern to wind.
Certainly looks odd the first time a U.K. sailor sees this.

+1

It is very odd to see a 'Baltic' yacht with no bow roller (and no anchor obvious at the bow) but with dedicated stern rollers (or bow rollers at the stern).

You quickly realise one's ideas of anchor are too restrictive.

Jonathan

 

[prv]

It is very odd to see a 'Baltic' yacht with no bow roller (and no anchor obvious at the bow) but with dedicated stern rollers (or bow rollers at the stern).

Ours is a Baltic-designed boat sold into the UK.

The stern has the GRP mouldings for anchor gear including a windlass, but none of it was ever fitted. The bow arrangements are undersized and not particularly well designed, with one of the two chain locker lids screwed down and used to mount (not terribly securely) the windlass, for lack of anywhere else to put it.

Pete

 

[BabaYaga]

It should be mentioned though that even up here, this was always a rather unusual sight.
Most people would take take the rode around to the bow when swinging to the anchor, even if it was stored at and deployed from the stern.

 

[BobnLesley]

I learned to sail (OK, there may be other opinions about that) with the Sea Scouts on Loch Goil, which is famed for flukey winds. I remember heading directly towards another Wayfarer about 50 yards away: we were both on beam reaches, both on starboard tack. "OK, instructor, what do the rules say about this?" I asked.

I know that feeling. We once sailed north through the entrance into Marmaris Bay in a F1/2 breeze on a starboard tack and crossed with a yacht heading south also on a starboard tack; what made it doubly-weird was that we passed - no more than 150m apart - starboard to starboard.

 

[KellysEye]

That's the BVIs and the wind is always from the east, the different directions look as though the mono is moored by the stern and the cat by the bows.

 

[Neeves]

Ours is a Baltic-designed boat sold into the UK.

The stern has the GRP mouldings for anchor gear including a windlass, but none of it was ever fitted. The bow arrangements are undersized and not particularly well designed, with one of the two chain locker lids screwed down and used to mount (not terribly securely) the windlass, for lack of anywhere else to put it.

Pete

I had noted that some Baltic yachts had a 'stern' roller (or bow roller at the stern) and you can buy retrofit devices to act as same (which would cutely be quite useful for many yachts. Some stern anchors are retrieved by hand - simply stuff (with some imaginative methods to store the rode). But as Pete says there are also Baltic yachts that obviously have powered windlass - I could never work out what happened to the rode - as it was retrieved?

Jonathan

edit:

Baltic mooring is very like a Med moor, except a Balt moor is bow to the shore - with the need for a Passerelle that fits on the bow.

There are so many ways to anchor, correctly.

 

[vyv_cox]

That's the BVIs and the wind is always from the east, the different directions look as though the mono is moored by the stern and the cat by the bows.

He says it was taken in Croatia.