Turn Styles

One of the trickiest parts of racing is the turn. The tightness of the turn, the angle of the turn (total change of direction), the wind and water conditions, and other canoes all play a big role in how to complete your turn to best advantage. Let's start with some immutable truths about turns. Our focus here is on OC6s.

1. Turning slows your canoe. There is just no way around it...(get it...around...it) your canoe will slow down while turning. Why? Because there are lateral forces acting on the canoe by reason of it folloiwng a course that is not in line with the hull. Going straight is the best angle of approach to make your canoe go fast. That is why they are designed with a long narrow waterline. Any time it is sliding or moving across that straight line, it is experiencing increased drag. And drag slows a canoe.

As well, when you turn, it is usually because your steerer has utilized a stroke to make the canoe turn, and that stroke also slows the canoe. It is also common for a steerer to continue to steer until the appropriate arc is achieved and that means drag right up to that point.

2. A turning canoe, barring external influences, will continue to turn, and in an ever decreasing radius of turn, until it stops. And it will stop. The term used is "yaw" and it means that the canoe is rotating on its axis. This is what happens when you turn your vehicle too tightly in the snow and the back wheels start to come around. The vehicle is no longer tracking, but is rotating.

What is the significannce of yaw in your canoe? Well it cannot be avoided. We don't have front wheels that turn as we do in a car so the hard and fixed hull just has to slide across the water a bit. Where the pivot point is in your canoe is dictated by speed, by trim, and by hull design. External influences including wind and current will impact on the angle and radius of the turn as well.

3. A propelled canoe like an OC6 in a race going around a 180 degree turn will be at its slowest and in its tightest arc about 2/3s to 3/4s of the way around the corner. I can't tell you why, I just know it is true. The canoe tends to stall there no matter how good your paddlers and how effective your turn. While it is true that it stalls at that point, you can still alleviate the stall by working to make the canoe go a little better through that point. When I raced a bit of K2 years ago, Ian Mackenzie used to tell me to go hard into the turn; in other words to accelerate the boat going in. The theory was that you blasted into the corner trying to carry as much speed as possible into the turn.

This has apparently changed, at least as far as Ian in concerned and for what it is worth, I have always thought this. You ease off a bit going in to the turn and then begin to motor as soon as you initiate the turn and accelerate all the way around. I have a theory. Going in hard will certainly result in the boat slowing significantly. The effort you use to go in fast deprives you of the snap you need to pull your boat around the turn. More force acts on the canoe in the turn than going into it. If you rest a bit going in you can bring up your effort to maintain your speed through the turn. And a fast canoe turns more slowly than a slow canoe, which means that if you go in too fast you may have trouble bringing your canoe around.

4. Wind on the beam of a canoe will impede it from turning. It is a little easier if the wind is on the inside of the turn because propelled canoes like to turn their nose into the wind. (As an aside, can anyone think why? I know the answer but do you? Hint: A canoe sitting still will simply turn beam to the wind and slide sideways.) But if the wind is on the outside of the turn you have to get by that point where the wind is right on the beam of the canoe or it will stop turning and begin to slide with the wind. The trick is to turn sharply when you have to in order to get past that point as quickly as possible. As a member of the crew, you do have to help here because the faster the canoe is going, the easier to turn it when into the wind or away from it. Your steerer will crank on the blade to force the stern around while you paddlers must be banging away to give it the speed to get past the heavy steering which, of course, slows the canoe down.

If the wind is from the outside, the stern must be pushed into the wind. You need lots of force (speed) to do this manouver. If the wind is from the inside, you must get the stern moving faster than the bow to get it to come around because the whole canoe will be sliding downwind. Speed is a little less important until the canoe has the wind on the beam and then your steerer will need you to give it some gas to force the bow past the wind and get the nose upwind.

By the way current behaves a bit differently. A canoe will turn a little more quickly when into the current and a little less quickly when away from it. If you turn a canoe's nose so that the current is on the side of he hull, the canoe will tend to turn and quickly. If away from the current, the boat will just tend to slide along when you turn it no matter how fast it is going. With the current, less water is actually acting on the hull as it moves along, unless you have a huge speed differential between current and canoe.

5. How tight a turn? Okay so you have to complete a 90 degree turn or a 120 degree or 180 degree turn. Do you come in wide and go out wide? Do you come in tight and out wide? In wide and out tight? It depends. First you have to consider the course and the line you will want when you get finished your turn. I included in the "course" the wind and current. Second you have to think about the other canoes you are racing. Remember no one cares how fast you go as long as you go faster than the other canoes. And turns can give you a great big advantage or an insurmountable deficit in a race.

The basic rules are these, mostly for steerers, but true for others as well:
a. do not contact the other canoes
b. do not put yourself in the line of a canoe that is being badly or erratically steered
c. if you think there will be contact be prepared to push off with your paddle and not your hands; if you use your arm, you will lean out of the canoe and may cause your canoe to huli, or you may get your hand or arm caught between canoes which hurts and may cause you to ruin the race for your crewmates, and, if you push off with paddle do not hit anyone, and push off where you are least likely to interfere with the other canoe's progress
d. tell the other boat what you are doing if there is some issue about the line you are each taking or the fact of impending contact
e. if you can, take a wide in and wide out approach and once you, as steerer, have initiated the turn and the boat is arcing (it will get tighter, remember), begin to paddle on the inside of the turn (note that turns are almost always to the left). And I mean paddle and paddle hard. The more you paddle, the more you can hold the canoe's turn arc and carry more speed. Steerers need to be motors here. Work hard for your crew so that they have to accelerate the canoe only a little and not a lot

There is of course lots more about turns, but turns are critical. If you think of your crew as an engine with a limited amount of fuel, and a tendency to slow down as fuel is used, you will begin to work hard to make your turns as easy and fast as possible to preserve your crew's energy for when it is needed in the race. You will be fresher and you will prevail over crews that did not save their energy.

See you on the water.

Brent