| There are tide charts available, some are more detailed than others.
Contact a good chart store. Down here in RI, the URI School of
Oceanography generated extremely detailed tidal charts for this area.
Something like this may be available for you.
Some racers use something called a tide stick. It's about 3'-4' long,
painted orange, and weighted at one end. You drop it near a bouy and time
how long it takes to move a boat length or two. Its length makes it easy to
retreive.
Paul
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| I ask this question all the time. The answer that is usually given
(other than "beats the h**l outa me!") is that the current pretty
consistently flows from southwest to northeast along the coast. A
flood tide perturbs this in towards M'hd channel (roughly northwest)
and an ebb tide does the opposite. The area aroung Tinkers is
usually a bit of a problem because the shallows cause eddies that
further perturb the local current.
Soooo, given the above, what's the most deadly combination of wind and
tide conditions for the typical bearcan race? How about a 3 knot dying
SW breeze in a flooding tide with a the last leg of the race a beat
from the M'hd bell to the finish at Tinker's. Now you're bucking tide,
wind, and current. Through in a full moon tide and a few six packs
consumed by the crew and there'll some fun tacking to the finish.
Needless to say, forget the conventional wisdom about laylines and
overstanding. You'll have to overstand almost to the point of having
the mark behind you before the final tack. Then fall down on the mark,
turning up at the last second to finish. Generally there is more room
and less current if you do this on the side away from the shore. This
is one of the few instances when being the lead boat is not what you
want. Let the guy in front be your real time current stick.
- gene
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