Lee-Bow..... Windsurfers...etc (Dons tin hat)

Originally posted by sargesail Just sideways? What happens to the sail?

If you don't trim the sail then just a slow drift and windward gain.

Originally posted by Old Timer Originally posted by iGRF  And that's the difference, on a board you can't help but know because you feel it in the sail. Put me or any half decent racing windsurfer, anywhere, no land, no marks, no external sign of anything other than the wind and the water and we'll give you a pretty good guess which way the current is flowing after a couple of tacks. So saying the water doesn't 'know' what's going, to me is an anathema. This highlights your complete misunderstanding of current and wind; and the wind created by motion or current. If you have absolutely no land reference you could not tell the difference between: 5 knots of tide and 0 knots of wind (over land)  and 0 knots of tide and 5 knots of wind (over land)

I must try and stay serious and explain why.

Other than the often disturbed water, lets for arguments sake say the water isn't disturbed, the sheeting angles are all wrong and I only found out the reason in that article I had to plough through (One thing this thread has encouraged is for me to try and find facts that support what I guess is just instinct.) (Solid sub surface foils operate in a narrower angle of attack than sails).
So in order to get the initial forward momentum the boards centreboard or rail have to be presented across the current if its weak, first, before you can sheet in, gain forward momentum, induce crated wind and trim to the direction you wish, in order to get the best VMG. So you'd soon work it out from that alone, but what happens more often than not the water surface is visually different across a given course according to the speed of its' movement.

I accept in a dinghy I couldn't do it instantly, or it would be a while, but many the time we've got back to the club on windless days opposing a cross current but none of this is in doubt is it?

What's in doubt is that assertion that the water (or you) doesn't 'know' it's moving or whatever was said back there and that the angle of a sub surface foil against a flow doesn't change anything which is wrong.

Edited by iGRF - 04 Oct 19 at 11:25am

Hah another lightbulb moment, somewhere back there somebody suggested foils don't create lift. That's going to be difficult to explain to the foilers. I could even see a foiling moth in a head current not moving in reference to the land but up on its foils.

Originally posted by Old Timer <font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">I am really sorry but if you can't grasp that those two cases would be <span style="color: rgb34, 34, 34; : rgb255, 255, 255;">indiscernible </span>with no land reference then there is no hope of you understanding any of the more complex situations that have been presented on this thread.

Why would you say that?

When I've just explained how we would know the difference? (not that it would matter how we were moving as long as we are and can move toward a given destination?)

I don't see the benefit of making a subject more complex than it needs to be.

Don't we have enough going on in our heads racing tactically, why do we have to pretend we are complex instruments that only want to be programmed in a given way?

I'm not about to be expounding theory and giving tidal lectures to abuse your children with my thinking so why do you feel the need to be insulting?

Come on at the back ... I'm waiting. Young Mozzy has his hand up but I'm going to give you a chance ...