Re: [Paddlewise] Jetski wakes

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Daly" <michaeldaly_at_home.com>

> The size of the wake is proportional to the displacement (weight) of the
vehicle.
> This is true for boat wakes and for the vortices coming off of aircraft.
The
> exception is power boats that plane - since they are not displacing.
Shawn's
> observation that the wakes are smaller makes perfect sense.

That is only partially true.  Hull configuration and shape make a huge
difference.  A case in point are the NY Waterways ferries here in NY Harbor.
Their wakes ares unbelievably huge and ugly; and they are tearing up pier
pilings and bashing around boats in marinas or moorings or underway.  The
ferries are not all that large but a messy wake.  The wakes seem to have
teeth and when you have been hit by one, you feel most definitely Maytagged.

The worse confrontation I had with one was the time a NY Waterways ferry
pulled out its slip just 30 feet in front of me.  It emerged at full
throttle without warning as they are wont to do anyway but was probably
necessary because of a strong current that would have otherwised pushed it
into the pilings lining the outer end of it slip.  That current was against
me anyway and I was just working my way upriver so I could do a decent ferry
glide crossing high enough up river to be able to hit my destination on the
other side of the river.  My kayak did a valiant attempt to climb the wake
but it had a mean curl at the top and broke over my head.  What a drenching
I got but luckily I did not pitchpole backwards.  Right behind that mean
first wake were some more but of less violence and I rode over those albeit
they were pretty much of the same height.

Oh the pleasures of urban paddling in a busy harbor!

ralph diaz

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