LEE BOW EFFECT

No one said there was anything magical about it. Fact is it happens, like a favourable shift. The OP asked what it was, now he knows, wether you choose to use it or not is a tactical decision, which clearly only accumulated experience will decide for you.
The more folk muddy the water, the better the chance for those that do use knowledge of it to their advantage, personally I've clearly been lucky, consistently lucky...
It works for me.
I read walkers book a long time ago, it's written for open sea racing which by and large is true, in open water one tack evens out another. We on the other hand race in coastal water, a mile beat is a long course, race officers rarely move marks unless the wind shifts, three or four races can take place on the same course in diametrically opposite tides, many of us will have raced in circumstances where the tide turns during..
Over the years I couldn't start to count the number of times a lee bow has meant a single tack beat, yet still half the fleet went the wrong way. Or they left the lee bow tack til last and ended up massively over stood. Or they went too early out of a gate start, or started the wrong end of a long line, or they tacked off a tidal knock fetch only to return further back than where they left...
I have always turned to sailing books for tactical knowledge, hence my dismay at reading this misleading advice to a guy simply wanting to know what it was. I never thought for one moment I might be the one counselling dinghy sailors, hence I guess my tenacity in the matter.

Edited by iGRF - 19 Oct 11 at 7:53pm

GRF thanks for the intertesting comments on the Flying 15 class. But seriuosly tidal effects are greater on slower boats and I'm sure that a F15 is a lot slower than anything that you sail -so they must know a thing about tides. ( Steve was sailing 470s and Fireballs in the early 80's)

ER F15?

Edited by G.R.F. - 19 Oct 11 at 4:08pm

I tend to judge things by my own experience, and I'm afraid to say, my basic understanding of what lee bow tide was/is has been born out several times on the race course.

I think we're all sailing faster boats these days and maybe this means lee bow is less of an issue, but back then, when I took it for granted that I sailed on some proper water, I was sailing Oppies, Toppers and kneewrecking sh*tboxes and in the estuaries I sailed in, I certainly felt the positive effects of leebow.

Edited by rogue - 19 Oct 11 at 2:57pm

Originally posted by Oatsandbeans GRF -I don't want to get involved in a slanging match but I just like to deal with the points that you have raised.  First, I am not a " full time coach", I race dinghies most weekends and spend some time helping the young kids at the club. Where I sail is very tidal with 3 1/2 knots on springs, so I do have a lot of practical experience racing in strong tides.  I have also done, in my youth, a lot of international dinghy events so I have a depth of knowledge on dinghy racing tactics.  My position on this is that until 1982 I fully believed in the Lee Bow effect and could vouch for numerous situations where it worked in my favour. In a discussion with one of my competitors I was astounded when he stated that there was no lee bow effect. He then explained it to me and he convinced me that I had been wrong, ( that sailor was Steve Goacher). I now have a simple explanation of the effect (or lack of it!) that I do for anyone that is confused on the matter! So if anyone wants I can do this on this thread, (but I suspect it has been done to death anyway) PS I even remember racing against you in IMCO in the 80's