I got my Wenonah Voyageur from String and have a wind love/hate relationship with it.
Love it: It’s fast, comfortable, hauls me and close to 200 lbs of food, water, camping gear, etc with ease. Since most places I paddle the wind and waves always seem to be in my face the Voyager just glides thru them with little effort.
Hate it: When the wind blows in any direction other than head on it can be a handful and make for a long day of paddling. Once when we were coming back from a camping trip on Aziscohos Lake the wind was blowing hard behind us and it was all I could do to keep it headed downwind. Had to pull over and put everything I had in the canoe behind me to manage to make it back to the putin.
I thought about dragging a sea anchor but don’t like that idea. I am thinking about a small sail (2’×2’) that would be quick and easy to raise/lower on the bow to keep it pointed downwind and maybe catch a free ride for a change.
Be careful with your expectations regarding a sail. My bet is that putting the sail at the front end won’t do much to reduce the boat’s tendency to skid or veer into a sideways-to-the-wind orientation, but you’ll be going a lot faster when it happens than what you’ve experienced so far! I have a sail that I bought for cruising upstream on a big river here, a river that’s notorious for strong headwinds when traveling in the normal direction, but my experience surfing on lake waves has taught me that I need a way to drop the sail “right now” as soon as boat control gets iffy. My plan is to have the sail held upright with a single line ending in a small metal hook linked to a loop around my waist, so that a light swat at the hook with one hand will instantly disconnect it and let the sail drop. I’ve used a less-elaborate method using rope only (no hardware), and have figured out that the principle is sound, and that a very simple quick release is definitely necessary.
Well it’s a fun topic and I appreciate everyone’s comments. Yknpdlr thank you and I will google and study some more, I am just curious to get some practical sense of how far a canoe’s pivot center might move in real world conditions.
As far as the Osprey I don’t know why it is so unusually tail-happy in quartering tailwinds. It’s a unique boat in many ways. Rated 2 inches rocker front and 1 in back…but spins like a Wildfire on forward maneuvers. On calm water it responds to the most subtle nuance of paddle input…during every phase of the stroke. The hull does not have any bulge in the middle…the sides are almost straight. You can lay it over right to the rail and it does not resist. It’s almost like the boat is unstable and just waiting to turn ( a bit like a composite Rendezvous). This is my 2nd Osprey because I absolutely love it. I had a heavier one with skid plates in the past.
So pagayeur you have been sandbagging, but that’s ok. I still have to challenge you…it sure does not seem like it is the bow rocker on the Osprey that ultimately let’s you recover from a near spin-out in a tailwind. I’ve had so many solos on exactly the same stretch of river with strong tailwinds and all are more controllable with forward strokes than the Osprey…some boats with more rocker and some with less. Then again rocker measurements are not standardized are they? My Osprey and Shearwater both paddle like they have more rocker than advertised.
That video lost me at “all canoes are designed to weathercock”. I forced myself to watch the rest, and still have a problem with it because the solution to weathercocking is going to depend a lot on hull speed, wind speed, and whether other things can be adjusted (the obvious one being trim).
What I haven’t seen mentioned here yet is the fact that when compensating for a strong sidewind blowing the boat off-course, some weathercocking may be preferable, resulting in essentially “ferrying” across the wind. In this case, the hull speed through the water falls and can drop to a point that the stern isn’t loose anymore, and if continued in that direction, the boat will be pushed sideways to the wind. As we have all experienced, finding a balance point is key - and different canoes/loads/paddler combinations will experience a different result.
The degree of angle against the hull in the desired direction of travel is also going to make a difference. For instance, my Sojourn shows very little tendency to weathercock at anything close to 90° to the wind or going into it (unless I am sprinting, which I don’t do much - especially in wind), but put that wind on the rear quarter and make it strong enough to get me really moving (as in the case that I’m not paddling anymore, but simply ruddering at speed) and yes, the stern is loose enough to want to weathercock. In this case though, nothing I would call a “stroke” is going to correct.
The worst case I have experienced with this in the Sojourn was paddling upstream against current with my back to the a strong wind with a lot of fetch. But then, that involved troughs and peaks, which added another dynamic, as well as the slowing effect of the water current.
It’s all just not as simple as the video suggests.
In the case of a forward mounted sail that GBG mentions, I would expect that the cure for the loose stern would be to move weight aft and rudder lake crazy. If I am not mistaken, that is the usual method for sailboats going dead-downwind under spinnaker (I’ve never used a spinnaker, but I’ve watched them in use).
Oh yeah - towing a canoe causing a loose stern…why would you not use a bridle under the hull, the same way one does for lining upstream? That is the only safe way to do it, IMO. Just thought I’d mention that for the gallery.
Nicely put. Actually IMO external factors have more to do it than just wind. Many variables such as payload distribution, paddlers ability, speed, waves, hull design, current, heading, and a few I’m probably forgetting.
@Steve_in_Idaho said:
Oh yeah - towing a canoe causing a loose stern…why would you not use a bridle under the hull, the same way one does for lining upstream? That is the only safe way to do it, IMO. Just thought I’d mention that for the gallery.
You are absolutely right about that, Steve. When I had that towing experience, I was on an overnight trip with a small group, and one person cut his finger badly and wanted to get medical attention. Thus, our two best paddlers got the job of putting this guy in the middle of the fastest tandem canoe and taking him a few miles upstream to a town with a hospital. No fun. When a couple of game wardens came by in a power boat, we got them to give us a tow (much to their disappointment since the sun was going down, but being in their line of work they could hardly refuse, poor guys). The canoe we were in barely had enough rope on board to fashion a tow line when combined with the little bit of rope the game wardens had, so a bridle was out of the question, and we surely hadn’t anticipated getting a tow. It would have been interesting to see how much better a bridle would have worked.