Why is my tack angle so wide?

[gamayun]

With a small jib, you could easily short tack along the city front to take advantage of the countercurrent during a flood. Use your boat speed to determine when to tack back or watch for the tideline. If you're on the north side, I've seen sailboats tuck inside the cove just outside the gate and wait until there's enough slack and more wind to get going again. Or use your motor but what fun is there in that (Seriously, I don't know why more people don't learn to race - it's a great way to learn tactics for different situations.)

[Dsanduril]

I just happened to be using the flood this past Sunday morning to bring a boat in the Gate after a passage down from VI. One day after the full moon, so spring tides. We arrived at the sea buoy at 0730, the last hour-and-a-half of the ebb were painful, the flood after that was fantastic. Here's a pic of the predicted current at 1145, making headway outbound against that would be tough, especially if trying to tack down the throat of the Gate. As you can see, even working the shorefront off Crissy Field isn't a piece of cake under those conditions. Track over ground "tacking angle" would be terrible on any 4-8 knot boat.

[Cheechako]

........ because you weren't motorsailing............

[sailorladd]

My first guess was the tide coming in....

[Searles]

As Jim has said you water bucking the tide,going the other way you would have been flying ,mor attention to the elements will improve your sailing experience.⛵️⚓️

[tmarks11]

Originally Posted by Yangyangyyy

But we already were sailing upwind as much as possible , close hauled, the wind needle pointing right on the edge of the no-go zone wedge on top of mast.

You should be sailing close hauled based upon your genoa telltales, not based upon what the masthead flags show you. They really aren't very accurate, nor meant to be used in that way. They just get you close, the sail telltales tell you the truth.

To tack through only 90 degees, your apparent wind angle will be about 32 degrees (YMMV, depends on wind speed and boat speed). If you are 45 degrees apparent wind angle, you will tack through about 120 degrees. If this doesn't sound familiar to you, then there are a zillion internet resources. Important concept.

https://sailingmagazine.net/article-permalink-914.html

Also, you could have a problem because you can't sheet the genoa in as far as it should go based on where you are running your genoa sheets. How about some pictures?

[piloto]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Actually, the attitude of the boat (as in "beam to the tidal stream") doesn't affect the tidal drift. The whole body of water is moving, and one is swept "down stream" equally, no matter what your heading might be.

But I agree t hat his poor progress up tide was surely due to the effects of the flood entering the gate. Something one learns about early on if racing in SF Bay!

Jim

0k, here's my story of "racing in SF Bay", but it doesn't really count because I was "racing" out of SF Bay....Leaving the Bay for a shake down run to Drake's Bay through the potato patch, it happened to coincide with the double handed Farallons race. My friend and I, who were to be bound for Mexico shortly after, happened to cross the starting line (which must have somehow coincided with the outgoing tide) at the sound of the gunshot and proceeded to pass south of the islands, only to be met head on by the fleet and the radio blaring "you're going the wrong way", to which I replied "I'm not in the race!" How many fortuitous circumstances can contribute to that? (I shredded the aged spinnaker on the way out).

[Yangyangyyy]

What app is this screenshot from? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

I just happened to be using the flood this past Sunday morning to bring a boat in the Gate after a passage down from VI. One day after the full moon, so spring tides. We arrived at the sea buoy at 0730, the last hour-and-a-half of the ebb were painful, the flood after that was fantastic. Here's a pic of the predicted current at 1145, making headway outbound against that would be tough, especially if trying to tack down the throat of the Gate. As you can see, even working the shorefront off Crissy Field isn't a piece of cake under those conditions. Track over ground "tacking angle" would be terrible on any 4-8 knot boat.

Attachment 242991

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by Yangyangyyy

What app is this screenshot from? Thanks!

That shot is from OpenCPN (the charting program I generally use) with the otcurrent plugin.

There’s an online resource at L-36.com SF Tidal Currents.

I’m sure there are lots more, SF Bay tides are pretty heavily studied. NOAA SFBOFS and PORTS systems provide real-time and forecast currents throughout the bay, although they aren’t particularly user friendly.