Boat Wake

[Ange]

I thought someone had died

That was my first thought when I saw the thread title.

[Doorman]

That was my first thought when I saw the thread title.

 

I thought that I was nuts!

 

Welcome to the nut hatch.........

[Ange]

I thought that I was nuts!

 

Welcome to the nut hatch.........

[Keeping Up]

I did think of calling it "boat wash" but people would have thought it was about cleaning and polishing

[Ange]

I did think of calling it "boat wash" but people would have thought it was about cleaning and polishing

Tis the wonderful way of this forum - your words will be misinterpreted whichever way you phrase them

 

For me it's one of the joys (though it does make me rather careful )

[Doorman]

Tis the wonderful way of this forum - your words will be misinterpreted whichever way you phrase them

 

For me it's one of the joys (though it does make me rather careful )

 

Careful!

 

I've become bloody paranoid about ensuring that posts are placed in the right context, fearing retribution from the many victims of my wicked sense of humour.

 

I remember one such gaff when I mentioned a 'vickers and tarts' fancy dress evening, misspelling the 'vicar' in the process. I think it was CarlT who immediately posted photos of a Vickers rifle next to a cake.

 

Serves me right!

[WJM]

Something about 39 degrees didn't ring true to me. I have spent a lot of time sitting in a racing kayak and I reckon it is not 39 degrees

 

[Tam & Di]

A few years ago I experienced something which was a little bit similar to a soliton.

 

Coming back down from the head of the Ashby, my attention was wandering as I left a relatively deep wide section to enter a narrow, shallow wooded cutting. Normally it is impossible to travel much above tickover speed through that cutting without making a wash, but on this occasion I was travelling quite fast from the open section beforehand and I simply forgot to slow down.

 

As we entered the narrow, shallow section the boat naturally started to slow down, but then my stern wave caught me up. At this point, just as I realised where I was and reached for the throttle to slow down, the stern wave lifted the back of my boat and it seemed as if I started "surf-riding" down the front of the wave (which was not breaking, I hasten to add). I soon discovered that if I kept the throttle open, this seemed to feed the wave so that it didn't die down; indeed I found I could open the throttle further and further to maintain a very large, smooth, non-breaking wace behind me - upon which the stern of the boat rose higher and higher. I estimate that I travelled about a quarter of a mile at a speed that was probably a "little bit" above the BW sped limit before my attention wavered for a few seconds and I strayed a couple of feet off the centre-line of the canal. At that point the symmetry was lost, the wave developed a breaking crest at the bank and I had to slow to my usual tickover speed.

 

I have often wondered about this phenomenon, and have tried unsuccessfully a couple of times to re-create it.

 

This is not dissimilar to what we did in bridgeholes, whether loaded or empty. I'd motor hard until well into it, then rev back abruptly. The stern wave would then lift the boat up and throw it through the bridge. You'd then rev back up again immediately you were through, and lost no speed at all. It was very easy to see the effect with a butty in tow as the line would remain taut all the time, whereas if you slow down in the normal sense to go through the bridge or alternatively just kept your power on, in each instance the towline would become slack.

[blackrose]

Something about 39 degrees didn't ring true to me. I have spent a lot of time sitting in a racing kayak and I reckon it is not 39 degrees

 

 

Perhaps it's 19.5 deg on each side - 39 deg in total?

[ditchcrawler]

I once SAW and heard a plane go through the sound barrier and you could see the shock wave in the atmosphere. I was very lucky standing on the helideck and looking sky wards I saw 3 planes crossing the sky very high, 2 of them turned but the third carried on so I continued watching. The third plane then turned and came back catching the other 2 up. It was a clear blue sky, first I saw what looked like a bow wave and then heard the bang.

We regularly had planes go through the sound barrier, normally just as you were doing something like connecting the power to something and they made you jump, but that is the only time I have ever seen it happen.