Posted by Astronomer_Guy on December 15, 2002 at 18:34:52 from 212.77.0.2 user Astronomer_Guy.
In Reply to: Re: Waggle in Wake posted by Adam Quinan on December 15, 2002 at 00:29:47:
Basically I agree with Adam's comments -- the emphasis on a "straight wake" also seemed very odd to me when I was an active sailor, and obviously can't apply to sailing upwind. On the other hand, as an old dinghy racer (even when I was young, the dinghies were old!) I always knew that every nudge of the tiller was a little extra drag; a proper balance of sails and weight in the boat meant less drag trying to constantly correct your course. One game we would play was to sail the dinghy with the rudder removed, steering just by shifting one's weight.
A question for those with more experience sailing on The Lakes than I have: given the surrounding fells, I would assume the prevailing winds are pretty much confined to two directions, north and south. I recall Ransome's descriptions of the winds bearing that out. Does this mean that the direction of the wind is particularly steady, or is there still a lot of shifting as the wind bounces off islands and headlands?