Boat submarining question

[Jimwhall]

I came across a video that showed several boats on seemingly smooth water or maybe going over the wake of another boat suddenly nose diving, filling the boat with water and potentially (though not in these videos) causing serious injury and boat damage.

What freaks me out is that I cannot see why this is happening. It looks like these people just drop into a hole in the water. I've got about 30 years boating experience, 25 on one boat: a16 foot sylvan aluminum hull Sport Select. The Sylvan hull is extremely light and the bow has a decent flare to it. I have been in Grand Traverse Bay on this boat with five people and in some decent waves (3-4 feet by my eye) but I have never, not once, come close to having that much water come over the bow. Admittedly, I'm a fairly conservative driver these days.

Now I have a larger boat (horizon 190) that seems to have a fairly sharp bow and it is much heavier. Is there more danger of this in a heavier boat? Or is this just YouTube craziness?

 

[Alumarine]

I'm thinking those are jet boats if that's the right term.
I've seen large seadoo type bow riders do that.
They can put it in reverse at full throttle causing the bow to fill.

It is possible to stuff the bow with any boat but it would involve waves or rollers of the right size for the boat.

 

[Texasmark]

On the wake thing, it is the following water from the lead boat's transom that is forcing the following boat's bow into the back side of the lead boat's bow wake. I have experienced it before and had enough sense to control my boat, understand what's happening and figure out how to pass such a boat with minimum problems. Seems if you get perpendicular to the wave and slow your speed to synchronize with the wake, pass through it and then accelerate back to where you were, you have no problem....it's when you get 20* for a number off parallel to he wake, traveling at about the same speed, and a good wake at that, like from a 20' + deep V, high dead rise at the transom, at cruising speed for a model, with respect to the size of your boat in the wake.

 

[Scott Danforth]

the videos you see are usually inexperienced boaters following too close to another boat.

then again, while anchored, the bow wave of a freighter hit us, first wake wave raised the bow, which then came down due to gravity and plunged into the second wake wave filling the boat with about 200 gallons of water.

that is where the beer and bilge pump come int.

 

[Earl Cordova]

You need to understand the limitations for your boat.
IMO driving a boat is harder than driving a car,
but a lot of boaters seem not to realize that.

 

[tpenfield]

I have seen those videos, where someone with an inboard ski boat while going at a good clip jams it into reverse. The bow buries itself and the boat is fairly well flooded.

I would recommend you stick to more typical use of your boat

 

[lineman09]

i just sold a H190 the one in the pic .. never had any wake or waves come over the bow even in a boat parade which tend to get very rough i think your good !!!!

 

[Jimwhall]

i just sold a H190 the one in the pic .. never had any wake or waves come over the bow even in a boat parade which tend to get very rough i think your good !!!!

LOL awesome thank you!

I'm not too worried about it, but those pictures did freak me out just the way it seemed to suddenly happen. Of course with some of those images you just don't see what the real conditions are.

To answer other people's questions, a lot of them do seem to be jet boats. One was a Mastercraft. When the waves get too big I am pretty careful. I just can't imagine somebody doing some sort of trick that would involve slamming a boat into reverse at speed. That seems like it's asking for a whole world of hurt

 

[Jimwhall]

You need to understand the limitations for your boat.
IMO driving a boat is harder than driving a car,
but a lot of boaters seem not to realize that.

I believe there is a lot of truth to that. People don't always respect the fact that their boat doesn't have brakes and they're working on an uneven surface. As a kid I went through number of prop strikes with somebody else driving the boat. That always hurt. Made me more careful driver. As I got older and was paying for my own boat I got really careful LOL

 

[Earl Cordova]

........ People don't always respect the fact that their boat doesn't have brakes .......

When I first owned a boat and would let friends drive my boat,
I let an adorable woman in a small bikini with big boobs drive my boat.

We had been cruising for 10 minutes out in the middle of the lake with no boats close to us
and all of a sudden she lets out a really loud scream, "Where is the brake pedal ?".

 

[poconojoe]

When I first owned a boat and would let friends drive my boat,
I let an adorable woman in a small bikini with big boobs drive my boat.

We had been cruising for 10 minutes out in the middle of the lake with no boats close to us
and all of a sudden she lets out a really loud scream, "Where is the brake pedal ?".

Was that supposed to be one of those blonde jokes? Ha!

Sometimes I get into my boat and go for the gas pedal! After a second, I realize I'm in the boat, not my truck and the throttle is not down there! Duh!
Pure habit, but funny!