Does Your Bow Splash and Make Noise? Fuhgettaboutit!

Over the years, I’ve had paddlers be concerned about the excessive noise and splash their bows cause while moving. They’ve convinced themselves it’s affecting there performance and I can tell you conclusively in most cases it’s not! I had always felt through intuition and my background that it did not seem plausible for these assumptions.

I reached out to a Master of Engineering in Naval Architecture and small craft design and got his opinion on the matter. Here are some take scientific take aways.

1. Bow waves coming over the top may actually help disrupt this energy from the bottom of a hulls running surface and help speed up the boat.

2. Noise from the splash of waves to the side of the bow is not a sign of inefficiency or loss of performance.

3. When it comes to efficiency, how the stern wake looks is the real tell tale sign.

4. Ensuring alignment of the boat is parallel to the water is crucial for efficiency and thus our speed goals. I was thrilled with this one because in my coaching I tell students their stern is heavy and it looks like they’re plowing corn more often than not.

5. Moving forward on the board and engaging more water line can create a very positive result. This is related to #4 in that, you may be riding stern/tail heavy and lifting your bow without realizing it, thus your board is not moving parallel to the water.