What wind speed starts to make trouble?

[Jerry_NJ]

I operate a small 14' 9.9 HP Discovery Aluminum for fishing on two lakes in NJ. One, Round Valley, is high and wide open to the weather. It is approximately round with a diameter of about 2 miles... enough to get a chop with even light winds. That said, I'm not sure what constitutes light winds.

The boat is heavy for its size, is deep using the long shaft outboard and with plywood decking to make it a V-bottom Bass Boat.

In general I'd like to fish drifting or using a 40 lb electric motor in one of the first three speeds, not either of the top two speeds. I also note I have some problems getting my boat centered on the trailer, another critical wind issue with me.

All this said I've never really given the wind speed any specific attention.... I just go and sometimes have trouble because of the wind.

This time, thinking I can get out tomorrow, Monday, and decided to look at the wind forecast... I see winds around noontime to be forecast at about 12 mph, out of the south - or about head into the boat launch ramps, the docks will not provide a wind brake.

Given my description (also I am retired, and in reasonable physical shape for such an old age, but now have more trouble "man handling" the boat during loading - I'm 6' 5" and 230 pounds, so no light weight either) is a wind of 12 mph a troublesome wind, or just a breeze? I always pull the boat on the trailer, standing in the water and using my arms and the bow line to bring the boat onto the trailer, perhaps 5' short of the bow stop, then use the wench.

 

[Peter Eikenberry]

This is really too vague a question to ask unless someone is familiar with the lake and local conditions. I would say that 12 mph shouldn't be a problem but 15 to 20 would be. But then again it depends on the size and geography of the lake, the direction of the wind, the fetch (how far the wind blows over open water) and so on.

 

[1216bandit]

I would agree with the above. I dont think those winds would cause waves that would give you problems on a small inland lake. I can see it causing some aggravation maybe at the launch. If it is a busy launch dont be shy about asking for help should conditions be challenging launching or loading

 

[Scott Danforth]

depends on the size of the lake. 9mph is enough to get a good chop on some lakes I have been on, yet on smaller ones, not enough to do more than ripple the surface. 12mph for a small lake, no problem. 12mph on the windward side of a large lake and your looking at some chop.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Thank, I don't get out much any more and my small boat is larger than a 14' Grumman ProFisherman that I could center on the trailer (needing only a couple of inches to get the keel on the center of the rear roller) and just "adjust" while getting ready to drive home - launch has never been a problem.

I was out on the subject lake last Friday late in the afternoon (usually a quiet time for wind) and was out only an hour when I decided to head back because of the wind. I had some trouble loading but no big problem. Thinking tonight as I have time tomorrow and it should be up to 70 degrees and has a forecast for 12 mph winds in the early afternoon - I haven't checked on the wind forecast yet tonight. In any case when I saw 12 mph I thought that might just be a bit too much.

The subject lake has wind warning beacon/flashers at the launch area and at the far end from that area, I'd guess a bit over 2 miles of open water high on the local terrain, water is pumped up there from a river about 4 miles away and a lot lower. I have had to "Run" for shore a couple of times there, wind came up too fast to get back to the launch area, just beached the boat and sat the blow out. The point is this lake gets the worst of any wind in the area.

I'd prefer seeing a forecast for under 5mph and my wait for another opportunity before it gets too cold. I don't think 12 mph is dangerous but could be a back breaker getting the boat back on the trailer (as said the winds will be almost dead-on into the ramp area, just enough angle to give trouble but not enough for the docks to break the wind on the sheltered side.

 

[Twidget]

What people consider bad chop on lakes is an interesting proposition. When I first moved to Fort Worth, everyone vacated the lakes when the wind got up to 20 mph or so. I had just moved here from Abilene and on that lake, when the wind died down to 20 is when everyone went out.

 

[JoLin]

I'd prefer seeing a forecast for under 5mph and my wait for another opportunity before it gets too cold. I don't think 12 mph is dangerous but could be a back breaker getting the boat back on the trailer (as said the winds will be almost dead-on into the ramp area, just enough angle to give trouble but not enough for the docks to break the wind on the sheltered side.

I've never had to muscle an aluminum boat onto a trailer, but I would consider 12 mph to be breezy rather than windy. It's too bad you haven't been tracking wind conditions during the times you go out. Can you find any archival weather data for a specific day when you had an issue retrieving the boat? Like here?

http://www.wunderground.com/history/

We're always conscious of forecasted wind speed and direction around here because a 20 mph east or west wind wind makes for fairly snotty conditions in the Great South Bay. Docking my boat in a 20 mph east wind gets 'interesting' because, as in your example, it's blowing me into my slip. Tricky.

 

[tpenfield]

Depends what you call trouble . . . I've been out in a similar sized boat in 35-40 mph winds, and that was definitely trouble. On a small lake, 20 mph should not be too bad. More a matter of what you feel that you and the boat can handle.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Thanks all, here at 8:30 AM the weather forecast is sill 12 mph at noon and there after for a few hours.

JoLin, I though "boy would it be nice to have a calibration" for my lake and ramp... the thought of looking up the weather history occurred to me but I discounted it on the grounds of .... whatever, don't remember. You link to the weather underground encouraged me to check, thanks. Last Friday the winds of record for my zip code, within a couple of miles of the lake was 9 mph. When I left the lake without much trouble, I thought I should check on the winds before coming here. Wednesday looks better.

It was only 40 degrees when I got up this morning, that's another factor for trouble loading. Last Friday I had cut-offs and water shoes on and simply waded up to about 3' deep and pushed the stern over an inch or two (worked out to be too much, discovered after pulling out of the water",

I have a pair of double loading vertical roller to help center the boat, but they are at such an angle that the lower end of the roller is a hard edge that is taking paint off of the boat. Was good paint, this Discovery is about 25 years old - my old Grumman, yet to be junked, is about 35 years old and the rollers came from that trailer. Yesterday I took another look at the rollers and it look like if I mount the rollers hung from under the trailer frame rather than on the top of it, lowers the rollers 3" or so, may put the roller contact at the bottom of the hull. This will hit a structurally strong point and not be a problem scrapping off paint.

 

[crb478]

By all means set the rollers up so that you boat can only go on in a centered position. You may need to add another set farther forward also. My trailer has about 2 inches of wiggle room side to side, and I want to get it down to 1 inch, just haven't taken the time to do it yet.

 

[shrew]

The key to "wind" is Speed, Direction, and Fetch (amount of open water), and Lee. What really matters is what is blocking the wind in the direction it is blowing, and how much open water between the wind and you. Sitting tucked behind and island or peninsula is much different than having 5 miles of open water between you and the wind direction. Get shore between you and wind and it can be a pleasant day.

 

[thumpar]

We usually won't go out if it gets much over 10mph. Not that we can't but we just us the boat for fun and the wind can ruin it. We were out one day and the wind picked up to 20+. Between the boat traffic and the chop it made for a bad day so we just left after about an hour.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I didn't go out today and walking about I noticed several times the winds were rather strong, even down here and with many trees nearby.

As I mentioned above I am considering moving the mounting on my Dixon (or something like that) boat guides below the trailer rail, rather than on top of it. I also mentioned these guides have two rollers each that are about 12" long, but hit only on their bottom edge, not offering a lot of help and taking some of the hull paint off. This may be a better subject for the "trailer forum" but I mention here and can provide more information and ideas if others contribution here would like to "hear". I took pictures of the guides, which I have taken off the trailer for the time-being.

To do the job I think hardware like that used to mount a trailer jack: large (1/2" perhaps) bolts/nuts and heavy bars with numerous (pick what works) holes to clamp the guides on the underside of my trailer frame. The provided bolts and heavy bars (really heavy plate material with the edges rolled over to add stiffness) are completely adjustable (within the limits of the provided holes), The "U" bolts and "bars/plate" are in fact too small for the width of the roller framework. My guides are similar to: http://www.iboats.com/Fulton-Custom...01774384--session_id.807705639--view_id.38712 except I have two rollers each side and longer rollers, about 12" long

Side question, I seem to have a knack to lose a post just as I am about complete. I now notice that typing this new entry I could have recovered my previous post attempt, but I just now looked at the top of this edit function and see I am offered a chance to "restore" or "discard" I will discard as I have retyped with new information all of that stuff. This is a great feature - I'll try to remember it next time I screw up a post I spent 20 minutes typing (typo-ing).