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Thats not how it works - your boat sits on top of the water and moves with the tide. You don't fight it. Wind and tide in the same direction makes the sea calmer, because the apparent wind is lower and the waves get flattened. When a slow boat crosses the channel they typically follow an S shape as the tide takes them one way and then the other way. If you expect it to take ~6 hours and you have 3 hours of flood followed by 3 hours of ebb, they will pretty much cancel each other out. Particularly in the Dover straits where the streams go from 0-3kts fairly uniformly. There is nothing complex about creating a passage plan to cross the dover strait. Portsmouth to Cherbourg is a different challenge, but still not particularly complex.No need to mock boyo. It makes you look an even bigger tw@.
I'd imagine that if the tidal current AND the wind are in the same direction, and you are in poorly powered vessel, it makes the route across The Channel a vey difficult one to navigate by eye. I'd hazard a guess that in an overloaded boat and a weak engine, most of the effort would be fighting the sideways movement,
Motorboats are infinitely easier to drive.Hence...
I'd also hazard a guess that a skilled sailor would navigate it easier with a sail only powered vessel.
- work out how fast you are going to go
- calculate the net effect of the tide and adjust your course to steer
not from one year to the next.Hence - tidal currents can affect crossings - especially when they are combined with other factors.