Bridge piers creating a wind tunnel

Sailkb

Member
Thought I would share a new experience I had the other day. I was on a rather large lake on a windy day. I was running with a 15+ mph wind having a great time. I came to a fork in the lake. One side had a bridge running across the channel. I thought it would be interesting to sail under the bridge. The peers were probably 30' apart. I noticed a 'gust' of wind as I meneuvered under the bridge, but didn't think too much about it. For no particular reason, I decided to turn around and sail the other channel. I was just messing with the idea of sailing under the bridge. As I approached the bridge on my return I was, of course, pointing; with the narrow opening between peers, was forced to tack just prior to entering the bridge. However, the wind just shot up as I approached to what I would guess 25mph category. It startled me enough that I forgot to tack hard and actually got in irons. This 25mph wind just pushed me back as I tried to get control of the boat. Well, long story short, I must have made 6 or 7 attempts to get through these peers but as soon as I would approach, this wind tunnel would catch me in this very narrow space and I would not execute the tack correctly and get in irons. I would have beached the boat and just pulled from the shore but the shore was lined with large rocks; and with that wind, would have just beat my boat up. FINALLY, after at least 20 minutes, I was able to squeeze past the peer as I pointed up this wind tunnel.

I guess my question is, is this a rule of thumb? Don't sail under bridges? or at least lower bridges with rather narrow peers? Am I right, can bridges create a sort of wind tunnel? Or was it my imagination and my lack of tacking skill just caught up with me. .....I do know this, the whole deal was scary enough and exhausting enough that it really put a damper on what was a really fun time on the lake otherwise.
 

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