I happened to be towing a rather large Styrofoam block the other day for about 3 miles. It turned out to be quite instructional.
As the Adventure was cruising along with this block, I started fiddling with the tow distance, wondering if wake position could improve the combined speed or towing efficiency. Sure enough, just like any wake ride, the Styrofoam's position on even this small wake wake made a significant difference.
Cruising along at about 2.8 MPH, the block was riding in this position. I couldn't see it at the time, but the camera shows the block bow digging in against one of the wake swells.
Pulling the line ahead a little at a time, I got up to 3.6 MPH using the same pedal speed. Notice here the block nose is clear of the swell, not pushing any water.
I was quite surprised at the huge difference -- almost 30% improvement in speed, for free! The upshot is, if you have occasion to tow a small boat or kayak, rather than tie it off, if you play with the tow distance a little bit and have a GPS, you may find a sweet spot, saving time and fatigue.
This is not an special case. Below, you can see this large tandem kayak "drafting" off a Hobie Revolution at 5.4 MPH to save energy, while a second one is drafting off the first -- same principal. It works!
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