Re: [Paddlewise] planing

From: "Peter Rathmann" <prathman_at_attbi.com>

> Michael Daly wrote:
> > If you want to plane, the wave speed must comfortably exceed the
> > kayak's hull speed in order to stay with you.  Otherwise you either won't plane
> > or you'll plane off the wave into the trough ahead and loose speed.  Around
> > here, wave speeds tend to be slow; I can often paddle faster than the small
> > waves, hence planing isn't a consideration.
> 
> No, wave speed doesn't have to exceed the hull speed in order to plane. 
> Your speed relative to the water must exceed the hull speed, but that
> can be much faster than the wave speed.  You get up to speed by going
> down the front of the wave, but then you can turn to be at an angle to
> the wave so you are moving both with the wave and laterally along the
> wave.  Look at the picture that was posted by Rob - the surfer there is
> moving much faster than the wave because he's moving mainly parallel to
> the wave front. 

That's a _breaking_ wave.  Kevin and I have been discussing non-breaking
waves in this context.

For a non-breaking wave, I can see that this could happen if the wave is
big enough.  The wave would still have to be moving fast enough for
you to have time to accelerate to planing speed before turning.

I tried that with a 25 foot sailboat off Cape May years ago, but couldn't 
keep the momentum.

Mike

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