rough water navigation

[Dave S]

After a kinda scary experience last night out of sooke, I was wondering if maybe I could learn from this.

Right after we pulled our gear and decided to call it, we were motoring into 3-5 waves at 2-4 mph about 2 km east of secretary and encountered a set of waves that were nasty steep and cresting. I didn't back off the throttle and pointed straight into the waves. We got pounded by one and buried the bow in the face of the wave. Most the water was diverted over the windshield and down the sides, but we ended up with some water in the bilge. Pump on and kept going but was shaken a bit. After that I backed off the throttle and went into the wind swell at an angle. That seemed to help. Just looking for advice on the best practices for navigating in rough waters.

My boat is not huge. 16' Arima Sea Explorer. Floats well though.

 

[Big Green Machine]

I always try to hit bigger waves on a 45 degree angle, I figure this way you only get half the water on your bow.

 

[Lipripper]

Fair westerly with a good ebb??

 

[fish stalker]

I was wondering earlier. Is this usually this windy late july? Now that I have a boat and want to go fishing I swear its been windy like crazy.

 

[scott craven]

I would be more inclined to take them head on myself.
better to take one over the top than over the side.
when you hit a wave straight, the boat splits it and most of the water runs off.

wind and tide opposing causes waves to come in
short intervals making it very lumpy & difficult to navigate.

 

[Charlie]

In 3-5 "foot" "wind chop" and at 2-4 mph you are at trolling speed. Regardless on the direction of the wind you are going to get tossed around in a 16' boat. At that speed, that is regardless whether you point your bow into them or not. My advise in "wind chop" is actually speed up enough, until you are comfortable and don't pound yourself to death. It usually makes no difference in wind chop at what angle you take them.

The entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca can actually get real rough. That far in it is usually just due to wind and wind chop, and does not have the large swells, but it can.

Now caught in rough seas, with large swells, adding a 3-5' wind chop, I wouldn't recommend a 16' boat even being out there. If you do happen to find yourself in that position I would highly recommend not running any speed that drives that bow into the upcoming swell and highly advise taking those swells at a 45 degree angle. If you don't, you are very subject to breaching, and very well could find yourself upside down.

If you are going to get a boat and take it out on the water, those Coast Guard courses really are a good investment.

 

[Tips Up]

A 16 fter is going to get kicked around now and then. When you get stuck in a situation like you did you may take some water as you found. Navigating rough weather is something you learn from experiance.
Sounds like you fended alright and learned from it.
You will learn what your boats limitations are and just as important what your limitations are.
If you were not comfortable with the situation you were in you likely will avoid it in the future.

Sounds like you kept a fairly level head which is key, learned from the experiance and will be a better boater for it.

To avoid the situation consider the variables that created the situation. Opposing wind and current. Next time out you will probably look at the wind forecast and the current strength and direction. You will be able to predict the water and know when it will likely pick up.

Tips

 

[reelfast]

the 'general' USCG recommendation is to take big waves at an angle. to approach them head on is to risk burying your bow in the wave. with the winds and resultant wind waves, i would be wondering what anyone was doing out there in the first place. the fish can wait for calmer waters, you only have one life to live. of course i am a retired guy who gets to pick the days for adventure

 

[the fog ducker]

we get nailed a lill further up the coast quite often ,

i travel up to 30 miles a day quite often , weather can creep up on you in a real hurry ,
, straight into it the best I can , I dont want the waves pounding either side of the bow to much , thats when you take a beating or pounding , , sometimes i use my throttle a bit , ta get over and outta the nasty ones , take your time , dont panic ,SLOW down !!! ,, you'll be laughing about it at the dock in short order,,when trying ta get outta ther to quickly , things can go south , and fast !!

by no means am I a wcvi salty , like some on here , but have had some gooders..

( worst one ever , was coming back from Swiftsure , all the way bak ta Beale , NASTY !!! Westerly straight at me )

ps , watch deadliest catch , those guys are a certain breed , always straight in !!....

Be Safe Out There

felix

 

[trendsetter]

In a small runabout like that it's usually the second wave that will breach the bow if you take them head on. The first you ride up then the bow goes down and straight into the middle of the second wave. I've had this happen to me a number of times in my 17' runabout. At least you weren't in a bowrider; your boat would be at the bottom of the strait!

When I'm running in chop I do pretty much what charlie suggested. But also trim the motor up a ways and run enough throttle to keep the bow up in the air. 45 degree angle is best but sometimes you will hit a wave head on. They don't always come at you from the same direction and in tide currents and such you can quickly find yourself in the middle of waves coming from all directions.

It's a good time to check your bilge pump and ensure that it's really big enough to pump out the water if you take several waves over the bow in succession. I recommend a minimum of 1500GPH for a single pump.

 

[reelfast]

ps , watch deadliest catch , those guys are a certain breed , always straight in !!....


felix

staged for your viewing enjoyment! the real harry days are long gone as derby fishing was eliminated decades ago. you now fish to a quota and can pick the days that are best weather wise for safety. what you see on TV is made more exciting by being out there when you should be tied up. but who would want to watch a buch of flat water pot pulls?

 

[bushwackin]

Anyone have any favorite techniques for running downwind in following seas? I like to follow the swells the same speed or a little slower even on a little angle. A few times getting caught way out with a big wind picking up and having to head back with the swells following it's been a little freaky. When a big wave starts breaking right behind you it lifts the back of your boat up and tries to throw you sideways. I think that's called broaching. Anyone have any tips to avoid that dangerous event?

 

[reelfast]

with a following sea, try and surf the backside of a wave. by adjusting your speed to the speed of the wave you can retain steerage. once you go over the top of a wave, that wave is pushing you and you had better apply lots of power or you will in fact broach.

 

[bushwackin]

Well, surfing it would be the wave pushing you right? You mean stay on the backside of the wave with your bow facing up a bit right? Which takes more throttle but is safer. But if they are close together you'll still get the ones behind you breaking on top of your stern

 

[Sharphooks]

I was in some following seas off La Perouse last week. I almost broached by not paying attention to my trim tabs and the trim of my main engine. Once I figured out the correct tab and trim setting and held off on the throttle, the bow would rise up out of the trough and up the front side of the next wave instead of burying into it.

Pitch poling I think it's called---got my undivided attention when it happened.

 

[beemer]

in a big following sea reelfast has it right. Get on the back of the wave and try to match the speed of the wave. I would add trim up as much as possible to avoid stuffing the bow . Use your power carefully and have a good bilge pump.IMHO a following sea is far and away the most dangerous.

In regards to the original post about running a small boat into big waves , I would suggest that you don't hit them square on but at about a 25 degree angle. If you find yourself skiing down the backside of a wave you do not want to hit the trough square on. There is a technique called "rounding" where you turn you wheel when you hit the bottom of ther trough to avoid sticking the bow.When you are operating a small boat in big seas the name of the game is to keep the bow up. When you see the bow falling add power , when the bow is too high back off the power.Trim is super important in all big sea situations so be careful , one good wave can swamp a small boat and things go downhill rapidly from there.

beemer

 

[reelfast]

you can get really good at this, or really in a bunch of life threatening trouble, by running in and out of depoe bay down on the oregon coast. long ocean swells build up on the miles long sand flat to the W before they crash into the riprap. getting into the port is a matter of backside surfing until your wave of choice starts to break, then its on the throttle for some fast acceleration into the 'hole', a narrow opening in the rocks that leads to the bay. can be pretty exciting when the swells are out of the SW or W, which is most of the time.

 

[fshnfnatic]

Some good information here,guys.I run a 16.5 D.E. and agree with Beemer about a following sea being most deadly.It
somehow doesn't seem that way after youv'e pounded into it for awhile and then make a turn to surf it in,but if your not
payin' attention the next thing you know there's a 100 gallons of water in your boat!!

 

[Sea Ranger]

A few years ago I was in my little 14 ft K&C trying to get back into Sooke harbour. It was a nice day out but there were a few waves close to secretery, We were going slow but a wave broke over top of me and filled the little boat with water. Long story made short... we made it in but I noticed that if I had put up the canopy before the wave hit most of the water would have deflected back into the water. and since then I always put up the canopy if it looks a bit rough. My boats a bit bigger now and we still take water over the bow but not much comes into the boat and in my book if you are going to buck into the waves I try and hit them square on(with the canopy up).... Steve.