RE: [Paddlewise] Weatherhelming versus Weathercocking Usage

Dave wrote: -
>I got bollixed up and misused "weather helming"
>to refer to a boat which was lee cocking.  I did
>not realize weather helm was an exact substitute
>for weathercock.
>Does anybody have a link to an authoritative etymology
>of these terms?


G'Day Dave,

Kayakwiki (<http://kayakwiki.org/index.php/Weathercocking> and
<http://kayakwiki.org/index.php/Skeg>) describes weathercocking, leecocking
and lee helm, but doesn't mention weather helm.

Last time this came up in a debate on skeg's and rudders I remember seeing a
post written by Kris Buttermore describing skeg's, It was on a site
associated with Guillemot Kayaks. The site uses all four terms. Kris uses
three.
http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Technique/index.cgi/noframes/read/23212 .

Kris' usage suggested a subtle difference for the terms weathercock and
weather helm, or leecock and lee helm. The part word "helm" seemed to be
used to indicate a property of the boat or what the helmsman had to do to
correct its tendency to turn up or down wind and the suffix "cock" or
"cocking" to indicate what the boat did.  A bit like Indonesian that uses
prefixes and suffixes with imported western words to turn them into verbs,
nouns, adjectives etc.  Quoting from the page just to illustrate: -

"The skeg simply prevents unwanted turning into the wind (weathercocking)
and balances the hull to the wind (neutral weatherhelm)"

and

"Since a rudder acts like a fully deployed skeg it can actually make some
otherwise well balance boats leecock"

Further support for this is in the number of usages as a present participle
on the internet. As a rough check try looking up weathercocking (874),
weatherhelming (50), leecocking (236), lee helming (146).

Worth noting that an internet search suggests hardly anyone in the sailing
community uses the word leecock which seems to be mainly used by kayakers.

Anyway as I understand it the more common usage is that "weathercock" is
when a boat turns up wind and weather helm the property of a boat or
possibly what one does to a boat, that makes it turn up wind. Likewise "lee
helm" is the property of a boat that makes it turn down wind etc and to a
smaller extent kayakers using "leecock" for when a kayak turns downwind.

Maybe all a load of dingo kidneys though!! Can any sailors shed further
light?


All the best, PeterO
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