How does the line change with the strength of the stream in Steering the Tideway
The increasing stream tends to make the central part of the river with fast water flow much wider. BUT it also has a tendency to throw you out of the stream round corners if you are on the edge of it.
Beware the bends becoming a wider arc because as you turn the current pushes the side of your boat and can make steering the turn more challenging as you are effectively rowing across the stream.
The edges of the current on the Tideway have little eddies – you can sometimes actually see the edge of this area. The eddies will push your boat out of the stream and into the slower water if you are close to the boundary.
These eddies make re-entering the fast flowing centre of the river challenging. If you take your boat parallel to the boundary, you won’t be able to move across it as it pushes you constantly out of the stream. To cross the boundary, you must put your boat at 45 degrees to the edge so you go over the top of the eddies and overcome their strength and get the hull of the boat across the edge and into the centre again. This is very aggressive steering, but trust me, if you are out of the stream you’re going very much more slowly and you need to get back into the middle really quickly before you are further disadvantaged.
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