waddenkruiser
Senior Member
Wadden,
My experience reading about wind forces produces results all over the map.
I've thought of tethering a boat in a steady wind w an accurate tension meter or scale.
Measuring frontal area is useless because there are so many little things that increase drag. How much drag is that cleat or windshield wiper. Sounds silly but there are hundreds or possibly thousands of little things that cause drag. Some things just can't be made into numbers. And approximations could be 75% (or worse) off of reality. And then there's the bottom. The sea floor. The biggest variable. By far.
Eric,
agree, all text books will give us only rough estimates on the loads, the interaction of anchor and ground etc.. We shall not take those theoretical and empirical figures as absolute numbers. These are more or less "house numbers", giving us only an order of magnitude of that what we have to expect out there.
And I also agree with the posts above claiming that all those nice theories are not valid to replace masters experience. If it comes to decisions out there I also trust on my gut and act according to experiences made in the past. My own experiences or those heard from other reliable experienced boaters.
But these theories might give us guidance and indication if we are designing a new anchor equipment for our baby. Or if we are in the planning phase for a trip to new to us destinations asking ourselves "are we well equipped?" Then theory might give us a second opinion to base our decision not only on recommendations.
And last not least: I'm tired to see anchor neighbors dragging their ground tackle in a windy night throughout the bay and telling me "don't know, I applied exactly 5:1 as I was instructed during captains course, so what went wrong?" ...
best regards / med venlig hilsen
wadden