Large waves

[bob johnson]

Re: Large waves

.......but in that area it wasn't that bad since it is so narrow with the high cliffs. It got real bad right near Opal Mtn.

I have found that places with high banks especially cliffs on a river system channel the wind up and down the river...even if it was qurtering that rivers path off the river.

the Hudson River in NY gets like that. A stiff wind picks up from the NW and catches the river and runs right down it...it can get nasty in a hurry
especially when the tide is moving up river.

bob

 

[fishingdan]

Re: Large waves

Sounds like you did well. You looked for a leeward spot, but couldn't find any. You kept the bow high and moved at a speed you were comfortable with. I don't know what else you could have done.

On the ocean, the waves often have longer intervals between them (ie how close they are to each other) and sometimes one can ride between the waves for much of a journey. On lakes in wind like you had, the waves have very small intervals and beat the snot out of you. As noted above, most boats can handle rougher conditions than their owners.

These types of stories always remind me to check the capacity of my bilge pumps. You really should have two on the boat and at least one of them needs to have a high capacity. This is a good article that speaks to the topic:

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/bilge_pumps.htm

 

[basalt51]

Re: Large waves

First thing my family learned houseboating at the SW desert lakes was to not be caught out in the open water after 2pm. On our first trip to Lake Powell we found ourselves enjoying the water in the morning, and moving the houseboat to a new spot in the afternoon.

Well on the second or third afternoon we were caught in a 3x5 mile canyon channel as an afternoon thunderstorm whipped up. Within minutes waves were crashing over the bow of the houseboat and running completely through and out the back several inches deep. We were towing two low-profile ski/speed boats and within 10 minutes the rope on one snapped. The owner of the boat stupidly dove off the back of the houseboat, without a lifevest, and started swimming. He didn't stand a chance as the wind was blowing the boat faster than he could swim. Since he was dead unless we did something, we slowed the houseboat, pulled in the other boat (pulling it in and actually getting someone on the bow and into the boat was an adventure itself), and my Dad went off to pickup the guy in the water. They eventually recovered the other boat and went downwind to find a sheltered cove.

We continued into the wind at a steady Pace for an hour or two until the storm passed as the marina recommended not turning the houseboat during such a storm (we didn't know why they would bother telling us that at the time). Finally we went back and met up with them and decided from then on if we were moving, it was going to be in the morning.

Wind and/or large storms in the afternoon turned out to be a regular event the rest of the week, and just about every other trip we've taken in August and september to Mead and Powell.

One thing is for sure, that guy jumping off the back off the houseboat is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

 

[4JawChuck]

Re: Large waves

I had the family out fishing on Southern Lake Manitoba last summer, if you don't know this lake it is very shallow in the south end and is about 9 feet deep even 5 miles out. The clouds rolled in fast and so did the wind which was about 30 mph and climbing, I pulled the anchor and told the wife and kids to face backwards and sit on the floor of my 16' Tuffy.

As we got 2 miles from shore the rollers got to be about 4' tall and I was getting soaked, the pounding we were getting was scaring the crap out of me and the size of the waves breaking over above the boat and my head was something I don't ever want to repeat. Luckily because of the shallow water the distance between crests weren't longer than the hull length and I could get her up to speed and stay on top of them...the pounding was ferocious and I was having trouble staying in my seat. Kids were crying and the wife was hangin on to them for dear life.

I tried to put a happy face on the scene by smiling the whole time even though I was scared witless. I can't count the number of times I said the words "hang-on" when we were about to crash through a 5 footer.

Needless to say we made it OK and the boat passed a durability test but I'll tell you...when I see clouds rolling in I don't wait for the wind to pick up anymore, we drop everything and head in at WOT. Those shallow lakes are deadly when it picks up in a small boat.

Be careful out there.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Large waves

One thing I found to work well on my old 16.5 glass hull, keep the speed down (10-15MPH?) so the boat it trying to climb up on plane, bow pointed up, and then just ride up-down the swells. If you trim/time it right, your boat's angle will match the angle of the waves so you don't come crashing down on the next swell. Maybe some spray as the boat settles into the wave, but not crashing into the wave.

Works good until you come across one of those breaking 7'ers and the boat rocks over and dives into the trough The wave frequency and height, (and boat length) has a lot to do with this working and I wonder if it would have worked as well on chris's 20'er as it did on my 16.5'er.

 

[_chris_]

Re: Large waves

One thing I found to work well on my old 16.5 glass hull, keep the speed down (10-15MPH?) so the boat it trying to climb up on plane, bow pointed up, and then just ride up-down the swells. If you trim/time it right, your boat's angle will match the angle of the waves so you don't come crashing down on the next swell. Maybe some spray as the boat settles into the wave, but not crashing into the wave.

Works good until you come across one of those breaking 7'ers and the boat rocks over and dives into the trough The wave frequency and height, (and boat length) has a lot to do with this working and I wonder if it would have worked as well on chris's 20'er as it did on my 16.5'er.

That is kinda what I did, I was just below 10 MPH with my outdrive trimmed up and the bow sticking straight up in the air. This worked pretty well, on the first wave of the set I would roll right over it(even the 7 footers) and gently come down the back side but then that would shoot me up the second wave and then I would slam down right into the third wave with the bow down and that was when the water would come over the bow. I found that if i gunned it a little after the third or fourth wave in a set I could get back to cutting into them.

The scariest part was when the bow is straight up in the air and the wave is even taller than that. I couldn't imagine being in a smaller boat. If I had a bow cover most of my worries would have been gone but watching 10-30 gallons of water rushing over the bow made me nervous.

One other nice thing was I took my ski locker cover off so that the water coming over would rush into there and straight to the bilge instead of running down the floor of the whole boat.