I like these tips more and more. Captain John would do great voice overs for any profession.

Thanks for the comments. This is but one factor that a skipper can use and is based on known tidal or ocean current. This can change over periods longer than an hour as the tidal current cycle changes or the area of ocean current changes in strength or direction. And, of course, you will always deal with leeway--a separate factor altogether--on all courses except those well off the wind. Steering errors and yawing (on downwind courses) add to the mix. In the US Coast Guard, we taught the collective of all factors to be "current". It's a good idea to always steer several degrees upwind of the intended destination.

Thumbs up and saved. Thanks for posting.

Excellent exercise. Surely somebody must have a smartphone app or a simple programmable calculator sequence that will input the desired track, current track/velocity, do the vector math, and quickly display the course to steer data faster than using a map, pencil, straightedge, and dividers... I think some high end chartplotters will also do this.

Most excellent tip! Thanks for sharing.