When a sailing boat is hove to in heavy seas, it creates a wake on it windward side as it drifts downwind. This wake, which is actually a Von Karman Vortex Street, smooths down the approaching breaking waves. If the boat puts out a sea anchor it will also create its own Von Karman Vortex Street providing even more protection for the vessel.
When a sailing boat is hove to in heavy seas, it creates a wake on it windward side as it drifts downwind. This wake, which is actually a Von Karman Vortex Street, smooths down the approaching breaking waves. If the boat puts out a sea anchor it will also create its own Von Karman Vortex Street providing even more protection for the vessel.
Larry Pardy has reported that the waves start to lose their power in the slick created by the Von Karman Vortex Street as much as a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to windward while drifting downwind at 5/8 to 3/4 knot in 70 knot winds.
"Karman vortex shedding is a self-excited limit-cycle oscillation of the entire near wake reached via a supercritical Hopf bifurcation of the steady wake at the critical Reynolds number of Rc ~48."