Tom Kirkman wrote:
Are you saying you can pick a spot, several hundred yards, heck even 50 yards away, and simply point your boat at it and then have it track directly there with no further steering input?
If you can do that, you have set hundreds, perhaps thousands of years of maritime knowledge on its head.
I'd say... when in wind or swell... it can be difficult to hold the nose straight at an object... on ANY vessel.
Some conditions will cause a boat to turn in a single direction, such as a crosswind which typically turns you into the wind. Some slight corrective helm input is required. This input will vary as the wind intensity varies.
Sometimes the seas will cause you to roll and then turn. How you react with helm input can exacerbate the turn rather than help. In swells, sometimes you can just let the boat roll / turn and it will come back on its own. Your course can be kind of a snake wake, swinging left and right of the destination. This is normal and not worth fighting with lots of helm input.
I believe this is the typical problem people have on the Pro Anglers due to the smaller amount of rudder in the water. They over-react. Slowing down the input and sometimes even ignoring the boat's changes in direction that are caused by swell can make the over-all effort of getting from point A to point B easier. You just need to be aware of it. Don't expect the boat to track in a straight line.
Seas change, winds change. It's always a challenge!