Rough Seas question

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Wow that’s amazing. Usually the energy expended to power through those size seas takes a knot or two.but then again I’ve stood in the cockpit when people were saying it was 8-12 and never saw a wave above my line of sight to the horizon. Pictures or it didn’t happen.

You're right, you have to push the throttles up above normal 1,800 RPM cruise at anything on the head over 4'--but not much. I found the boat did want to come out of the water when the occasional 10 footer hit. Cruising below 18 kts., she does want to fall off. It was the 2015 day those two teenagers left Jupiter(?) and were never heard from again. A very nautical day in the afternoon. I may have been conservative.

 

[Pascal]

Wow that’s amazing. Usually the energy expended to power through those size seas takes a knot or two.but then again I’ve stood in the cockpit when people were saying it was 8-12 and never saw a wave above my line of sight to the horizon. Pictures or it didn’t happen.

90% of boaters over estimate the wave sizes.

 

[whoover]

I know 100% of express cruisers over estimate wave height.

Walt Hoover

 

[Phasma2128]

I know it’s flat as a pancake in the middle of lake st Clair right now

I also know that 72% of all statistics are made up on the spot

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

So what does it take to get your props out of the water?

 

[Dan Mapes]

Going into or quartering seas is one thing. Sloshing around in a following sea is no fun at all especially if going slow. I found that the auto pilot was useless in many cases. While it can keep the general course what inevitably happens is the AP corrects along with a wave to the beam doubling the affect slamming people/things around. Being able to anticipate the next wave and take action can smooth the ride.
We crossed from West End to West Palm once when the winds clocked and it was genuinely sloppy at hull speed. But any faster and the odd surface wind waves would catch us and pitch the boat. I throttled up (as Randy suggests it is a better ride that goes faster) going South across Ontario into the seas once and the S.O. wanted no part of it. So I backed down and found a more comfortable course until we got to the Southern shore.
We were in an '85 43' MY. Three to four was the absolute limit for us and one has to be ready for the often larger seas at odd or different angles.
The advice to leave guests to an alternative is well founded if rough water is anticipated. The S.O. uses Bonine.

 

[rsmith]

So what does it take to get your props out of the water?

A travel lift

 

[Freeebird]

So what does it take to get your props out of the water?

A travel lift

Buwahahahaha!!! That's when a LOL simply doesn't get it.

 

[Freeebird]

I know 100% of express cruisers over estimate wave height.

Walt Hoover

And 91.238% of the rest do as well. No offense to anyone here, but it's the absolute truth. Sometimes it's for dramatic effect, and sometimes it's just misjudging. I'm all the time reading of people in 12' seas with their Sea Ray running 25 knots, and I just giggle. Some guy even posted a video with that type claim, and I absolutely laughed out loud when I viewed it. They MIGHT have been 4's.

It is, or at least was on YouTube.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Once water is shooting up through the bow pulpit, that's when you know you've got some seas.

 

[carolinacoast]

Bonine. Generic is meclizine. Far better for guests. Start a day early.

 

[RyanB]

You're right, you have to push the throttles up above normal 1,800 RPM cruise at anything on the head over 4'--but not much. I found the boat did want to come out of the water when the occasional 10 footer hit. Cruising below 18 kts., she does want to fall off. It was the 2015 day those two teenagers left Jupiter(?) and were never heard from again. A very nautical day in the afternoon. I may have been conservative.
View attachment 51209

I'm with Mr. Clarkson on this one. I hope to never hear the sounds of my props coming out of the water again. I wish I could have went faster into the larger waves but we found that anything over 12-13mph, we would teetertotter, waves were stacked on top of one another, and slam off the steep waves. At 12-13 we would break through the waves with the bow, but constantly fell off and pulled the props out.

We had this when bringing our 36' back to NY from MI, we crossed lake Erie on what was supposed to be a day with 1-3' waves with a 6-8 knot west wind (so blowing the opposite direction we wanted it to blow, but manageable). When we got into the lake, flags we flat out in a 30+ knot wind with ~6' waves on the bow. Running through the lake Erie islands wasn't terrible, but when we past the islands we had the entire lake building seas from Buffalo, NY onto our port quarter. The waves grew larger/steeper and there was, as mentioned above, the occasional 8-?' wave would pop out of nowhere. I'm talking burying the pulpit into the waves, and stuff floating around the cockpit as the water poured in, they were so tall. 105 miles of that and those big monsters rocked us, the great lakes and be a reeeeal beeotch.

The 3-4 footers will be okay but you'll likely have a few moments that will really wake you up.

 

[oscarvan]

I have been off shore in 10-15...... (reported). They were mountains. They even looked that big in the pictures, and then you KNOW they were large.

 

[mykim]

For many years I owned a 36 Sundancer. I learned what it can do and what it can’t do primarily by trial and error. I am preparing for my 600 mile trip to my home port. I very recently bought a 1994 48 Hatteras cpmy. One day of the planned trip will be in 3-4K’ waves. My assumption is that 3-4’ are not a challenge for the Hatteras. I am concerned about my passengers. I bought out Walgreen’s supply of Dramamine non-drowsy. I guess I would like to hear how large of waves you handled with your Hatteras? Any constructive input?

Fear not, the boat can take it and A LOT more. Just be sure everything inside is tied down, stowed or laid down. You'll be fine. We just completed a thousand mile trip with our 52C. Got into it in the Gulf with 6-8 footers and the occasional 10' plus. Running into the storm. Long damn day but the old boat came through like a champ.

 

[jim rosenthal]

If you can't decide whether to go, wait.

Far more people drown out on the water than do at the dock.

 

[jason.erbecker]

"Nothing is more dangerous than for a seaman to be grudging in taking precautions lest they turn out to have been unnecessary. Safety at sea for a thousand years has depended on exactly the opposite philosophy."
-Adm Chester Nimitz

 

[oscarvan]

If you can't decide whether to go, wait.

Far more people drown out on the water than do at the dock.

And 70% of all adult male drownings involved alcohol. Just sayin'

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

No worries about skeptics.

I mentioned this experience was the same day those two teens disappeared off Florida. Here's a dated image of my plotter showing me off Canaveral prior to the storm. (The chart orientation was the result of a malfunctioning fluxgate compass.)

We were dodging cells not too long out of Ft. Pierce. Pretty soon the storms started forming a wall. We powered through blinding rain on and off for almost 90 minutes taking water and spray up on the bridge--that was better than wallowing. We needed to keep at least some of the enclosure open for what visibility was there, so it was not the advertised Hatteras dry-ride. I don't recall lightening. Most of what we strapped down stayed. The salon TV broke loose on its swing arm and fractured its screen leaving some good dents in the wood surround. Worst of all was the port side fwd salon window--about 9' of truly frameless glass. It became dismounted at its rear and was hanging on by a thread. With my son-in-law (his first voyage) inside, I was able to get some tape to stick and pulled it in and secured to the desk leg. Hanging on the side deck with life jacket and safety line, it was easy to see the wave height in the troughs. Scariest was knowing my 100# daughter was on the secured end of the line and my wife was trying to keep us head-on--not a good look. Took way more than idle and/or skill available to keep us straight. Against orders, she kept looking over the side to me (guess she was trying to figure when to make that life insurance claim). Naturally, we'd get going sorta beamly and had waves hitting me on the side deck. She has yet to get the concept of differential throttle steering. It was a storm alright.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/2...membered-anniversary-diappearance/5514165002/

We at least had a pretty good wave interval for a while. Still, it was wild on the bridge, though, I could stand without assistance in the ER. Whoever on here said 'she creaks but she holds' was right on. That bow stateroom really was getting hammered. I do think this is when my freshwater tank ruptured. It got a little uglier before it got better, and Aslan's props saw a little air. We wallowed for a bit.

Anyway, we got north of the line and back into calm water and smiles. When it cleared, it cleared!

Made it to Ponce Inlet that evening. Very happy to see my family's color begin to return. The salon window held the rest of the trip. A week later, a micro-burst in Charleston took if out!


Oh well.

 

[rustybucket]

I've had our 52c in 10-12' following seas and everything was great. In the trough we were eye level with the crests (from up on the bridge). I've also had it in 2-3' quarter to beam seas and everybody onboard (myself included) was ready to hurl.

We get a lot of wind chop stacked waves in the gulf, just like you guys on the lakes. My boat being a convertible probably handles that better than a cpmy.

I'd be leery of your trip, especially being a new-to-you boat. For all you know the tanks could be lined with gunk/algae, just waiting for a few hours of rocky-rolly washing/sloshing to turn loose and clog every fuel filter you have onboard. You might consider finding a rough day here soon and just go out and ride around for a few hours, see if you can shake some of the bugs out before you start your real trip. Burn a tank of fuel through her in some rough water to attempt to clean the fuel a little.

Best of luck on your voyage, I second bonine a day early and also the relief bands, have heard good things for them. I'm getting a set for our boat.

 

[Dan Mapes]

That there is some of the best advice you can get right now. Make sure you have spare filters. BTW if they are 5 microns you can back down to 30. We normally ran with 5 but we are fair weather boaters. I swapped them out once on the Rondout in NYS and they were LOADED.