Wind sailing question (not exactly cruise question)

[JHCALLAHAN]

Hello all,

Was curious about some lyrics at the first of Southern Cross (Crosby, Stills, and Nash). A following sea is pretty self explanatory, looked up "sailing a reach" (Google is a wondrous thing).

 

Question is, can you really be sailing a reach, and have a following sea? If I understand these terms, doesn't make much sense. I'm no sailor and know very little of it, but from what I've seen the wind and waves are generally going the same direction. :confused: Does this really happen, or just some cool sounding song lyrics?

 

Just curious.

 

JHC

[6rugrats]

"Sailing a reach" means the boat is sailing approximately perpendicular to the wind; usually the fastest way for a sailboat to travel.

 

A "following sea" means the waves are coming from behind you, instead of coming at you head-on, which can be very rough sailing, or coming from the side, which is dangerous.

 

This sailor is going pretty fast.

[JHCALLAHAN]

OK, but how can you have a following sea if the wind is more or less perpendicular to the direction of travel???? Looks to me like the waves would be coming from perpendicular to the direction of travel as well.

 

JHC :confused:

[Colorado Kat]

I'd go with poetic license....words that sound pretty in the song.

[LHT28]

It can be done but not comfortably ;)

[cruiseco]

Waves/swells are often the result of wind conditions hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The wind you're sailing with can be a very local situation totally unrelated to the direction of any waves. For example, where I sail we can have a southerly swell (south to north) due to a storm somewhere off the Mexico coast but offshore Santa Anna winds blowing straight south -- exactly tho opposite direction of the waves.

 

BTW -- David Crosby used to keep his boat about 30 yards from mine -- absolutely beautiful.

[TheOldBear]

In sailing, there are two 'reaches'

 

A Beam Reach is where the apparent wind in broad on the beam.

 

A Broad Reach is where the apparent wind is off the quarter [best point of sail for a square rigger]

 

And it's 'apparent wind', a vector sum of the true wind and the vessel's motion. The apparent or relative wind is what you [and the sails] feel.

[JHCALLAHAN]

Thanks guys, I knew wave direction could be influenced by far away weather (like a hurricane) but was just curious. Most of my other-than-cruise boat experience is a few trips on the lake on a bass boat. Guess that doesn't translate too well to ocean travel.

Wind sailing is a bit of a fascination. I studied vectors ad nauseum in college physics, so I can kinda sorta somewhat understand tacking, but am not used to the wind blowing one way and the waves going another!

 

JHC

[navybankerteacher]

A broad reach is when the wind is from aft of midships - so any recently formed seas would be following --- also coming from aft of midships.

 

Even when close-hauled, on a close or narrow reach, you could have a following sea if the wave action was from a distant source -- or if the wind had recently shifted -- try sailing on Long island Sound on a hot summer day -- the wind can be so squirrely that it can completely change direction in five minutes.

[JHCALLAHAN]

A broad reach is when the wind is from aft of midships - so any recently formed seas would be following --- also coming from aft of midships.

 

Even when close-hauled, on a close or narrow reach, you could have a following sea if the wave action was from a distant source -- or if the wind had recently shifted -- try sailing on Long island Sound on a hot summer day -- the wind can be so squirrely that it can completely change direction in five minutes.

 

I think I best leave the "driving" to someone else! :confused::eek::D

 

JHC

[Curtzilla]

Also if you're going to "see the Southern Cross for the first time" it's best to be sailing between March and June if you plan on seeing it during the evening.