"bigger" water than I am used to...

[Breakin Wind]

On a different thread in a different topic GL made a comment in the context of rigging replacement...

"If you sail in high winds, lots of chop and salt water, you need to do this more frequently (replace standing rigging), than on freshwater or when you don't push your boat."

... and that reminded me of a question/topic I would like to pursue.

I sail on a pretty small safe lake (200 acres) and for my first year of sailing last year, that was challenge enough. But I find myself mildly wishing I didn't have to tack every 2-3 minutes because of the shape of our lake and the predominant wind direction. Although the traffic on our lake is relatively light, on a warm summer weekend there can be 3-4 powerboats pulling tubes and skiers, and usually and equal number of pontoons cruising or fishing. My experience in boating to date, has been to take wake waves into the bow and then continue on my course after they pass. With a sailboat, one has to add wind direction and tacking/gybing to that process, but all of last year, thats what I still tried to do. When I didn't, I'd get the expected pitching, heaving and rolling which always caused me to look at the mast knowing it has to move 4-5 times as far for every roll of the boat, and that is one of the reasons I'm replacing my standing rigging this year. Seems like a lot of stress potential there. But not-withstanding, it will likely still be my practice to try to turn into large wakes where I possibly can.

My cabin is about a 5 minute drive from the boat landing of a much larger (and busier) lake (about 800 acres), and about a 20 minute drive from one twice that size. Late last summer, I pulled out our 16' ski-boat and we went over to the neighbor lake with a pitcher of our favorite beverage and the intention of doing a relaxing evening sightseeing cruise to checkout the cabins, boats, shorelines and whatever else we saw. As mentioned, this is a much busier lake and there were at least a dozen or two ski-boats going by at all speeds kicking out all manner and variety of wakes, and it wasn't as much a issue of a wake waves, as it was a constant chop from all directions. You know how waves randomly add up, and our little boat was tossed around pretty good. My wife was getting sea sick, and my friends wife had a very sore neck by the time we got back to the landing. It was impossible to point into the waves because they were coming from all directions at once. With the powerboat, I just dealt with it, got clear, cranked it up and rode the tops of the waves back to the landing after we'd had more fun than we could deal with, but it got me to thinking about my DaySailer in those conditions.

I suspect the ocean is pretty much like that all the time? How do you big water sailors deal with that kind of wave action? it can't be very enjoyable? Do you just roll with the punches and stay generally pointed in your preferred direction of travel, or is this not how an ocean works? I'd really like to go out on that lake next year, but I definitely want to know how to manage that kind of water before I try it.

Thanks - Scott

[K.C. Walker]

Boat chop is no fun. I most often sail on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. It’s about 10 miles x 20 miles, but has a fair number of islands. On summer weekends there are parts of the lake that get pretty unpleasant boat chop. I also sail on Fishers Island Sound and Block Island Sound, which is at the far eastern end of Long Island Sound. Wind waves and boat chop are really different. The good thing about big water is that boat chop dissipates without reflecting back at you. Also, you’re usually further away from boats so the chop isn’t as steep. If the wind has piped up and it’s got a lot of fetch it can be plenty unpleasant and wet with a 1-2 foot chop. On the other hand, if you’re on the ocean and the breeze is mild to moderate, you could be on 4 foot swell and it would be plenty comfortable. At least with wind waves they’re all coming from the same direction.

I’ve had pleasant days where I worked up wind through a 2-3 foot ocean swell in moderate air. At that point I was quartering the waves so not really crashing through them. They were also nice long period, so not very steep. The return ride was a blast because I could surf the swell.

[GreenLake]

If you sail upwind, the aerodynamics on the sail work to dampen any rolling motion that the boat would otherwise experience. You may have come across mentioning of a "steadying" sail when reading about ships or fishing boats in the period after steam was invented and before such craft lost all masts and ability to set sail. Having the sails loaded makes the effect of boat movement a gradual loading and unloading of tension on one of the shrouds whereas if there's no sail load, the shrouds alternate, and that's more stressful (think of the loose shroud taking up a lot of tension in a jerking fashion).

Near calm conditions on a busy lake are the worst, because you don't get the benefit of the sails as stabilizers and it's hard to get enough power to power through wakes. That's definitely also stressful on your boat, but on a lake you don't get the chlorine that promotes corrosion even in stainless steel.

+1 on everything K.C. writes about wakes vs. wind waves. A factor influencing reflection is the nature of the shoreline. One of the lakes I sail on has docks all around. I've never consciously observed any reflected wakes. (A speed limit there helps as well). Another one has large man-made structures that act as perfect reflectors that also reflect wind waves, so that lake is always chaotic.

I also sail salt-water, and there you usually get a preferred wave direction, so you can adjust to that. It's not always necessary to meet waves head on, it will be quickly obvious what works best in a certain circumstance. The nice thing about (fresh, that is small) wind waves is that they are usually aligned with the wind direction so when beating up wind they are roughly in the same relation to the boat's heading. Usually, as K.C. writes, you end up quartering them, that is, taking them at a slight diagonal.

Going downwind, sometimes waves can give you a nice push, or allow a bit of surfing.

The scariest wave I've encountered to date was the wake from a freighter passing at some quite safe distance, but we didn't have the wind to turn into it. Here it comes rolling at us from the stern, 3-4' high (feel's like 6' ) and we thought we'd take on some water for sure. However, by that time, the wake was no longer that steep and gently, but firmly lifted the broad stern of the DS, so we took no water at all. The next crest was just far enough that the DS fit between, so the thing repeated 2-3 times. On the other hand, small, chaotic boat wakes in the confined space of a canal have dumped water into the motor well.

Wave heights are determined by wind strength and fetch, the amount of open water over which the wind has been blowing. In the open ocean you also get swell, which is wind waves that continue on their own - I haven't sailed anyplace where those occur, but swell is not aligned with the current wind, which presents its own complications, so I'm not sure I've been missing anything.