Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

shadetreetx · May 27, 2011

24' 1990 Grumman w/70 Yamaha. 3' deck forward of the seats. Totally original boat.
3rd trip.
Went out today with 8 adults and 2 kids. We were running with (down wind) the waves on Lake Conroe, maybe1'-1.5' waves and 4 adults up front with 4 & the kids aft.
Weight distribution was fine and 2500 rpm, maybe 10 mph.
All of a sudden the boat virtually stopped and a huge amount of water ran from bow to stern.
Everyone ran aft and we wound up with 3 to 4" of water on the aft 1/3 of the deck.
It slowly drained off and we kept going.
I have been boating for 35 years and have only had this happen on a Hobie cat.
What I think happened is we "surfed" over a wave and then stuffed it in the second.
Has anyone experienced anything like this before on a pontoon?
Any suggested design changes to stop this from happening in the future?
It definitely got my attention.
Thanks

Mi duckdown · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Too many adults Aft? Rogue wave?

5150abf · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

I did that on a brand new pontoon once, it happens and the good thing is you aren't going to sink a toon, the water just runs off the boat and you are fine where a regular boat you are full of water now, I did myself though showing how well the boat turned, I spun around and chopped the throttle leaving me right in front of the huge wake I just made but as you said it just rolled down the deck, no harm no foul.

It is a little freaky to see water rolling down the deck though, I think you are right with the cause, I was out in my fishing boat a few weeks ago in big wind and waves and got that same thing, rode over this wave just to dump me in the trough of the next one, it is part of boating and may take another 36 years to happen again.

lncoop · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Yep. Called submarining. As 5150 said it happens, but not that often. The good news is while it's skeery

, barges tend to right themselves in such a situation.

Snowfish · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Back in the day, we used to do it on purpose! Bunch of guys on my 24ft 1976 Weeres, everybody run to the front, and Wow!

Washes the deck really nice!

southernboater · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Happened to us once . We were running with the wind but against the tide. Like you described, we went over the first wave and under the next. The kids loved it. I thought it was neat, once my heart started beating again.

a1nowell · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Shadetree,
Conroe is my lake also, it has been very windy the last 6 weeks. In October at LBJ I had 8 adults on my 24 JC Tritoon with weight pretty evenly distributed. I would start to get water over the bow at lower speed, went away when the boat got up on plane.

scoutboater · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

I've done it as well. The first time I did it was an accident, and honestly scared the s*** out of me

After that, I would do it on purpose just to scare the passengers. I do get a little sadistic sometimes....

shadetreetx · May 28, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Thank you for all the replies.
I am happy to hear that this was not a particularly unique event.
I agree with southernboater that an EKG running when it happened might have been fun to look at!

While my wife does not want a repeat performance, I think when we redo the carpet etc, we will install the 3/8 risers to help the water drain if it happens again.
Has anyone ever had a pontoon sink that was not holed?
This is the first boat have have owned with no flotation.
Bob

5150abf · May 29, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

That is kind of the beauty of a toon, they are very hard to sink since they have 6 seperate air chambers so even if you breech one there are 5 more to hold the boat up, not sure what "holed" is.

Foam in a toon is actually bad, unlike a regular hulled boat there is no way to get to the foam if it gets water logged like in a regular boat so if that happens in a toon you almost have to get new tubes.

rrhodes · May 31, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Be careful those of you that do this to scare your passengers. I have seen an older Toon do this once on our lake and 2 of the people went over the front and into the water. Luckily the Captain killed the motor because one of the passengers ended up under the toon and took a hard hit to the head....

Lawnmedic · May 31, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Yep, had to pull people out of the lake from a toon that did the same thing. When the front submarined, the boat stopped, throwing everyone forward, and several people and gear off the front. They had caught a roller off a cruiser. Lots of bumps and bruises, but no serious injuries.

OldePharte · Jun 1, 2011

Re: Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Yeah, I did it once. In my defense I had a couple in the front loungers (500# total) when the Bosslady decided go up and talk to them. About the same time I had to go in between 2 cruisers that we coming at me, and I managed to catch both wave peaks as they met. As the Bosslady was bent down talking, the resultant wave broke over her back. About all I could do was catch shoes and towels as they floated past.

Since then, I ensure that I have more weight towards the stern to get a little more bow-up.

We have had neighbors hitting waves too fast with one tearing off the front gate and the other lifting all the front lounges off the deck. They had to sit on them to get them to a level where they could see where they were going and limp back home.

Lots of water over the bow this afternoon/pitch poled!!

Cadet

Commander

Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Petty Officer 1st Class

Seaman Apprentice

Chief Petty Officer

Petty Officer 3rd Class

Cadet

Vice Admiral

Chief Petty Officer

Seaman

Chief Petty Officer