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Wind Direction Question from Noob...

5K views 40 replies 19 participants last post by  Faster 
#1 ·
I guess this is why 'noob' rhymes with 'boob'... What follows is probably a dumb question, but hey, it's not like anyone here knows me, right?

Today was my 3rd solo sail on my 16 foot Topper dinghy here in Abu Dhabi. It went really, really well, so I'm pretty stoked. Anyhoo...

I just started sailing last year, and each time I took a lesson it seemed that the wind was coming from all different directions, and it just baffled me as to how to harness it properly. Today, for the first time, I felt like it really was just coming basically from the same direction for the entire time I was out, which leads me to my question:

Does the wind basically blow in from the same direction for many hours of the day? In other words, if it is coming in from the North at 5:00 P.M. when I set sail, will it generally stay in that direction for the next 2 hours?

Make sense?

Thanks for any help. I felt like today was a huge step in my learning process if I can understand wind direction.

Mike
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Every last sailor on earth was once new and asking questions. The day you stop learning or feel you know everything is the day you should put your boat up for sale.

What you're describing is one of the things that makes sailing exciting and makes it stand out from those boat on which you (so they think) simply turn the key and go.

Your challenge is to get your boat to sail in whatever the wind direction. All of us face the same challenge. Most areas (with the exception of mountain lakes) have a prevailing wind where, during certain times of the year, the wind direction is usually in the same direction. That, of course can still change given daily changes in weather conditions. A sudden wind shift may signal an oncoming storm or some other change in weather. Where I sail, in hot weather the wind usually dies in late afternoon. However, there have been days recently where the wind was light during the day and picked up nicely into and throughout the evening. You just have to take what comes.

Given the same destination as an example, some days you may reach it on a single beam reach, other days you may have to tack through the wind to get there. It just depends on how Nature feels when she gets up that morning.

That's the simple answer. Next you'll start dealing with sail trim and getting obsessive with minor adjustments to increase your speed that oh-so-essential tenth of a knot.
 
#3 ·
Most times on a coast ( i can't speak for lake sailing) you will have a prevailing wind at certain times of the day but it will normaly jump around a few degrees in my experience. It is really noticeable when you are trying to go upwind (close hauled) but on most other points of sail a simple tweak and you are right back in the sweet spot.

If you play around on youtube you will find the explanation changes throughout the day
 
#4 ·
On the lake near my house, we're subject to constant changes in direction and velocity due to the surrounding terrain. Some days aren't so bad, but other days you'll sail along at 6-8 knots, then drop to zero, then 30 seconds later the wind will be coming from 45 degrees off, run for a few minutes, then die again.
 
#6 ·
Even if you are in a steady wind, if you approach a large obstruction, like a line of trees on shore, the wind could curl over the top and actually go the other direction at the water surface. Another thing that can be confusing is if the wind is very light. When the wind just goes dead, it can be mistaken for the sail not being trimmed in. Contantly try to sense the wind direction by trimming in and out your sail.
 
#10 ·
When I first started sailing smaller boats I also felt like the windw as jumping around on me. There were two reasons for this:

-Apparent wind is the wind as you feel it while the boat is moving. Unless if you are in irons or going directly with the wind on a dead run you are never going to feel the true wind. It helps to track the wind with the waves. I found on a smaller boat since I was changing my direction more often (mostly just for fun) my apparent wind would change as well. This can be disconcerting.

- If you are sailing a smaller boat it is usually quite close to shore (river, lake, coast). Shore effect can make a huge difference in the wind in an area. Large stands of trees, hills, cliffs, and even tall buildings can curve the wind around them and this can throw you off. If you get further away from shore the wind direction should steady out.

And sometimes it just changes :)
 
#14 ·
There's wind forecasting and then there's being able to read the wind on the water. As a newbie myself, what helped me most was when someone explained the points of sail, then to think of your landscape as one big wind rose and your boat as the compass point. Zero degrees is whichever way the wind is blowing, 180 deg is DDW, 90 and 270 are beam reaches, etc. Then just adjust your "compass" accordingly.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Two ideas for beginners.

Point your nose the direction you think the wind might be coming from. Move your head until you feel the breeze equally on each ear. Your nose is pointing into the wind.

Keep your sail setting simple. You only need four.
  1. If the wind is from the front of the boat pull the sails in till the boom is over the corner of the boat.
  2. If the wind is from the stern let the sails out all the way.
  3. If the wind is t-boning the boat set the sails half way.
  4. If the wind is coming from straight ahead and your sails are pulled in and you are not moving just wait a few moments till something moves and you can sail again.

To answer your question. Trust your senses, especially the wind on the ears trick. If it feels like the wind is changing direction a lot it just might be doing exactly that.

Another obvious thing is that in light wind when you can barely feel it you can generally assume that if your boom is off your port that the wind might be coming over your starboard side. There are exceptions of course, their always are, but most of the time this will be true.

Even thought I said to trust your senses, your senses will fool you in three ways. If you know about these effects you can go back to trusting your senses.
  • If the wind is forward of your beam your ears and nose wind direction finder will put the wind further forward than the true wind is. This makes sense because your forward motion is making some wind.
  • If you are sailing upwind the wind will feel stronger that it is.
  • If you are sailing downwind the wind will feel weaker than it is.
 
#17 ·
Speaking for Mountain lake sailors everywhere... There is ALSO a prevailing wind direction that exists for long periods of time (hours is pushing it) for mountain lakes.

What a lot of new sailors miss is wind is like water in a river... It gets eddys and currents in it, it doesn't like obstructions, and swirls around them, and over them, creating "oscillating" or "local changes of direction." The REALLY great sailors (of which I am not), learn where those "local changes" happen for a given direction, and exploit them to go the direction they want..... Lemme give you an example.

High shoreline (mountain, or cliff edge)... which has the wind COMING from that edge... as you get closer to it, winds ROLL down the edge, and stream along it. You can usually pick up a 90 degree shift closest to the edge (trick is sometimes its only a fraction of the power of the actual wind)... knowing whether the 90 degree change is a LIFT or a HEADER is the hard part (generally comes from the angle of the shoreline - which is NEVER perfectly straight, versus the angle of incidence of the wind that approaches it).

The other advice given here is very good. Know your points of sail, and how to rough-trim for them. Know that teltales and windexes sometimes will disagree, for 2 reasons, one that altitude can bring a change of prevailing direction, and low altitude disturbences (dirty wind) can cause the tales to be off.

Regardless of all above, your trim needs to be set for the winds you are experiencing NOW in the space you are at the time... Apparent wind is the only thing the throws most new sailors off... the effects of YOUR movement on the water creates an additional change in direction... the faster you go relative to the winds speed the more it changes it. Also as the winds come up, your own speed affects it less... which is why most sailors can do well with predicting wind direction when the winds are up... but struggle when the winds are VERY light.

Keep at it, and all these responses will make more sense. Have fun, and sounds like you are!
 
#18 ·
So, I went out today, but it was really windy. My little trolling motor was struggling to get me out far enough so I had time to hoist the mainsail. But as I was putting everything together, I have to admit I thought it was too windy for me. I checked before I left and the wind was about 17 knots....which leads me to my next question: Is 17 knots too high for a 16 foot dinghy? I admit that after floating out there contemplating whether to try to sail in this chop, I headed back to the marina.

When is it too windy for a small dinghy to sail?

Thanks for all the responses; it really does help...

Mike
 
#19 · (Edited)
It dosen't matter what we think, it's what you thought, if you thought it was to windy, then it was. Step back alittle and go out when you are comfortable with the conditions, that maybe 10 knots or under, sail your brains out. soon you'll be out sailing in 10-15-20 knots

When is it too windy??, when your uncomfortable

Is 17 knots too high for a 16 foot dinghy? No
 
#20 ·
I was just out a couple of days ago when the wind was around 12 knots, and it was perfect. Didn't think that 5 extra knots would be that much more, but it sure was.

Lesson learned: 17 is too high now, but I'll get there soon enough.

Thanks for the advice...

Mike
 
#21 ·
The wind can can shift directions. There may be prevalent direction. However daytime heating of the ground as well as obstructions can cause that direction to shift.

Being new, the trick is to keep the sails trimmed to the correct wind direction and speed. Easier said then done! Because you are sailing a dinghy there are a couple things you can do to help yourself out. First, put tell tales on the sails. Your job is to keep those telltales streaming smoothy. Second put an official wind direction indicator on the shrouds. You can use a yarn or ribbon. Six inches long. Just tie it on at just above head level. MY favorite official wind indicator for noobs is cassette tape. Pick an old favorite and cut it up! tie it to the shrouds. Cheap and effective!
 
#22 ·
So after a great 16-day vacation to the States, I came back home to Abu Dhabi and spent 2.5 beautiful hours on the water today. Thanks to my jet lag, I was finally gave up trying to sleep around 4:00 in the morning and decided to head out for some sailing. The water was beautiful at 7:00, but much calmer. I have 2 more questions:

1. Why is the wind much calmer in the morning than any other time of the day?
2. It seemed to me that fastest I was moving was when I was in a beam reach. Is that typical for sailing? I assumed that a run would be fastest since the wind is pushing you from behind. So in order to go as fast as I can, should I always try for a beam reach?

I'll ask for some advice on my tacking in a later post...

Thanks,
Mike
 
#23 ·
Mike,

The wind has a lot to do with the heating of the earth and when the hottest times of the day occur, with pressure, with density, etc. It changes depending on the season, too. Of course it will be different where you are, in the summer where I am we *generally* see the wind decrease in late afternoon and early morning has the best wind. Plenty of times we've woken to terrific sailing wind, dawdled over coffee and an hour after we left the marina: gone. Although, depending on if a front or squall is coming through, that may change day to day.

The most efficient point of sail is a beam reach.
 
#24 ·
As I understand it, the beam reach is more efficient because of the aerodynamic effects of the wind over the sails. You actually get more "force" out of the wind because it doesn't just hit the sail and eddy off, it is allowed to flow through the sails and generate lift (or some approximation thereof).
 
#25 ·
Ok, next question...

It was a beautiful day today, so I went out for a spell. I was out for almost 2.5 glorious hours. The gusts were out of the south at around 17 knots, so I was cooking in my 16foot dinghy. When I was sailing on a beam reach with the wind coming over my port side, I had to let go of the tiller extension because of the tension and hold the tiller at the transom. However, on my way back, with the wind coming over my starboard...roughly the same speed and direction, I was able to use the tiller extension. My question: why was I fighting the tiller in one direction and not the other when all things are equal?

Make sense?
 
#26 ·
Lucky you, sounds great! I was out this morning in a 16-foot dinghy and I had just barely enough wind to keep the sails full. I alternated sailing and drifting.

Anyway, on this little lake it's not uncommon to pick up some seaweed. If it's dragging off one side of the centerboard or rudder it can cause asymmetric behavior like what you described.
 
#27 ·
I wish I could say it was seaweed, but here in Abu Dhabi there just isn't much around...

It was an awesome day...I wish I could have stayed out longer but it was almost 100 degrees when I got back to the dock around noon. Thankfully it is actually starting to cool down, so I will be out longer all winter long. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
 
#29 ·
I wish I could say it was seaweed, but here in Abu Dhabi there just isn't much around...
Hah! I hadn't noticed your location.

It was an awesome day...I wish I could have stayed out longer but it was almost 100 degrees when I got back to the dock around noon. Thankfully it is actually starting to cool down, so I will be out longer all winter long. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
Again, lucky you, sailing all winter! We just got off a sticky stretch of mid-90s and humid, now we're easing into autumn and enjoying moderate days in the 70s. Soon the leaves will start to change, and sadly in about three weeks we have to pull the boats for the winter.

I like what Donna said. Uneven rigging tension, or a mis-read or change of the wind.
 
#28 ·
Rigging that isn't properly tensioned will cause that to happen. Or, it's possible that your guestimate of the wind speed on the opposite tack was incorrect.
 
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