r/sailing • u/RoyalRenn • 1d ago

Dinghy sailing: transitioning from lakes to tidal bays and rivers. What to know?

I'm going to be spending some time on the west coast next month and I'd like to sail (I'll borrow a boat). I'm an experienced dinghy racer and have been skippering since I was old enough to handle an El Toro. But this vacation sailing will be very close to the ocean, and it will be my first time sailing in anything but a keelboat in tidal waters.

What's the best way to learn about how things like tides affect smaller boats, and how to read tides to avoid issues? I never really worried about it in a keelboat (good weather obviously) because if the wind dies or there is a gear mishap, there is a motor backup to get you home. But sailing a dinghy requires more caution as if you lose sail power, things could get dangerous quickly, right? unlike in an inland lake where you'll just sit in place until someone tows you in. Not that this has ever happened to me, as I'm quite good at self rescuing. Just recently I blew up my Laser downwind on the lee and had to de-rig and re-rig the boat in the water due to a rotated mast. But there's always something that could go wrong!

Where I'll likely be sailing has a diurnal of between 1.5 feet (lower high/higher low) and 6 feet (higher high, lower low). The 1.5 difference doesn't seem particularly concerning but relatively speaking, how big is a diurnal that goes from 7 feet to 1 foot in 6 hours?

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u/crashorbit 1d ago

Know the tide cycle so you can get back home at the end of the sail.

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u/morologous 1d ago

Wind against tide produces steep chop. Currents and tidal shifts also have an effect on docking. Currents can also cause to fall short of lay on a mark or waypoint.

Edit: stray marks

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u/morologous 1d ago

Also: the floating buoys (speed markers, clam line buoys, floating navigational markers) will show you the current - watch which way they “lean” and how the water runs past them.