Does a canoe (in a canoe race) that is drafting off a lead canoe, create a drag on the lead canoe?
I love to race outrigger canoes. I draft off of other canoes every chance I get.
Most paddlers don’t seem to mind but some complain that I’m creating a drag on their canoe even though I’m following 2 to 5 feet directly behind them. One guy dropped out of a race because I was drafting him. He later told me that I caused him to hurt his back. I told him that I’m sorry and I’ll never draft off him again.
I think that it is the mental pressure of having a competive canoe drafting that is what the lead canoe paddler is experiencing and not any physical drag.
When paddlers draft off of me, it just makes me I want to paddle faster and drop them. One time another paddler and I took turns leading and drafting. He said to me, “Let’s play leapfrog”. That was so much fun.
I can’t see how a canoe drafting off a lead canoe can cause a physical drag on the lead canoe. If you think that that is possible, then can you explain it me?
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8 Answers
Yes, the drafting of the lead canoe can significantly reduce the average energy expenditure required to maintain a certain speed & it slightly reduces the energy expenditure of the lead canoe. The amount of the drag is barely noticeable.
No drag.
Leap frog sounds fun. I have done that on the highway driving cross country.
No drag. If the water molecules between the canoes were bonded somehow, the answer might be yes. Otherwise, the water molecules act like miniscule ball bearings, and those ball bearings can be pulled apart.
The lead canoe works harder than its drafting companion, but works no harder regardless of whether that companion is there or not. The wake of the lead canoe exists whether or not there is another canoe to take advantage of it. The extra work is in generating that wake. It’s like geese in formation. @kritiper gets the cigar.
Thanks you all.
One canoe paddler told me that the drafting canoe disrupts the natural flow of the lead canoe’s wake. And that disruption radiates back to the lead canoe to create a drag. Doesn’t seem possible to me.
I doubt it. The lead canoe’s effort has to do with the resistance in the water in front of him, and possibly the wind also I guess. If the wind matters then maybe if the wind is behind him (helping him push in the right direction) and the canoes behind distrupt the wind that could aide him, maybe that slows him a little compared to no canoes behind him, but I wouldn’t go canoing on a windy day anyway.
It might break the concentration of the lead canoer, which would lead to reduction in his efficiency and annoyance towards you.
In bicycling and auto racing, the leading vehicle also benefits from drafting, e.g. “Trailing cars fill in the lead car’s low-pressure wake, thereby cutting down pressure drag”. Water vessels very likely get the same benefit.
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