Everything about Weather Gage totally explained
To have the
weather gage describes the more favorable maneuverability of a fighting
sailing vessel, relative to one or more other vessels with respect to the
wind. The term is from the
Age of Sail, and is now antiquated. It is any position, at sea, upwind of the other vessel. With closer proximity to land, tidal and stream effects, as well as wind variablility due to geography (hills, cliffs, etc..) also may come into play. An upwind vessel is able to maneuver at will toward any downwind point, since in doing so the relative wind moves aft. A vessel downwind of another, however, in attempting to attack upwind, is constrained to trim sail as the relative wind moves forward and can't point too far into the wind for fear of being headed. In sailing warfare, when beating to
windward, the vessel heels under the sideward pressure of the wind. This restricts
gunnery, as cannon on the windward side are now elevated, while the
leeward gun ports aim into the sea, or in heavy weather may be awash. A ship with the weather gage, turning downwind to attack, may alter course at will in order to bring
starboard and
port guns to appropriate elevations. Ships seeking to evade capture or attack, however, have the advantage being downwind if they're faster vessels or are close to friendly land.
The term has had a literary rebirth in the popular seafaring novels of
C.S. Forester,
Patrick O'Brian and
Alexander Kent.
One of the last times that
weather gage was perhaps a factor in a naval engagement was in the
Battle of the Denmark Strait in
1941 where the
German battleship Bismarck and the
heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen held the weather gage over the
British battleship
HMS Prince of Wales and the
battlecruiser HMS Hood. Being upwind the German ships had the advantage that their shells would carry further than those of the British, also the British ships had the disadvantage of spray being blown onto their optical
rangefinders.
The concept of weather gage is still useful in modern
yacht racing, although it's hardly ever referred to by that name. The sails of a boat disrupt the wind to leeward - this disruption is often called "dirt" or "dirty air". An overtaking boat on a downwind course can position itself to focus its dirty air on the boat ahead of it. Conversely a boat on an upwind course may find itself trapped in the dirty air of a boat immediately to windward. However right-of-way rules, which give priority to the leeward boat, can make it advantageous to be the boat without the weather gage especially just before the start or when the boat to leeward can point higher into the wind.
Weather gauge
Gauge and gage are often used as alternative spellings. To the extent there's a difference, a
weather gauge can be a form of
meteorological instrumentation for measuring
weather quantatively, such as a
rain gauge,
thermometer,
anemometer or
barometer.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Weather Gage'.
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