Biggest seas you have been in?

[bowman316]

Just wondering what the biggest seas are that anyone has been in? And what size boat was it?

I was in 4-5 ft seas in my 16 ft runabout, Out in the gunpowder river. She handles it well, with a high transom and windshield on the bow to fend off waves. Just make sure the bilge is working.

That is why I hate bass boats that are 3 inches off the water. No protection.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Just wondering what the biggest seas are that anyone has been in? And what size boat was it?

I was in 4-5 ft seas in my 16 ft runabout, Out in the gunpowder river. She handles it well, with a high transom and windshield on the bow to fend off waves. Just make sure the bilge is working.

That is why I hate bass boats that are 3 inches off the water. No protection.

What are you talking about. I have more than 3 inches of air between the bass boat and the water most of the time.

A foot feed, and knowing how to drive, and a bass boat does just fine. Bilge pump on, hydrostatic life vest and kill lanyard at all times.

Highest seas I've been in is in the North Atlantic in the winter on a destroyer tender. We lost about half the lifeboats out of the davits. They're normally about 30 feet above the water. I got washed up to my butt one time. I was most of the way up the ladder from the 02 to the 03 deck at mid ship.

I had to run up the mast to fix a VHF antenna one time. It was swinging about 30 feet over the side, 120 feet off the water. I was a bit younger then.

I enjoyed the ride. The chow lines were short.

John

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Being on the west coast in the pacific ocean, 4-5ft swells are not that uncommon. My 17ft grew (ss170 slickcraft) handles them very well. It's when the wind picks up and you get white caps that it can get nasty.

As for the bigest swells, that would have to be around 10-12ft. That was years ago off the southern coast of Victoria BC. I was out in a 20ft sailboat with 3 friends.

Two of em hid inside the cabin while my friend and I stayed up on deck at the helm and maning the sails. Boat was tilted at a steep angle, diving down the valleys of the swells and back up, waves breaking over the bow.

It was an intense experience and one that I will never forget.

p.s. Wear your life jacket!

Cheers!

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

30' breaking surf during a rescue off the coast of Monterey, CA in a 44' boat. I've also been in 10 breaking surf in a 17' RHI Avon. Both craft were well suited for the conditions and completely safe.

 

[dave11]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

About 5 ft seas in the Gulf in a 16 ft boat.

 

[JB]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Took both my Sakonnet 16' and Outrage 18' Boston Whalers from Miami Haulover to Bimini several times.

Max seas were probably 5-6' which the 16' handled pretty well. The 18' was fun when the water got a little vertical. A Whaler is a lot like riding a cork in bumpy water.

Did bury the bow of the 16' in green water, swamping the boat. Had gas cans floating around banging my shins. She lived up to Boston Whaler's claims and drove right out from under that water and was dry in 10 minutes.

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Twelve foot seas 78 miles offshore. It was a VERY long day. It was in an old LaFitte (shrimp boat) minus the outriggers. I didn't get sick but there were a few on the boat who did.

 

[BWR1953]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Four foot seas in a 17' low-draft center console, 12 miles out in the Gulf. Not bad really, just choppy on the ride out. After the winds calmed it was fine. Caught a nice Cobia that day!

 

[arks]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Bowman- you've seen my boat so I think you can appreciate this...
Not so short story:
When I brought our Silverton home from NC, we spent a rough day on the lower Chesapeake. The forecast was for occasional showers with calm winds but they were WRONG!

The day started out well enough, leaving Norfolk with low clouds and flat conditions. As we progressed north we encountered a few showers- no big deal. About 3 hours into the trip I noticed the wind picking up but wasn't too concerned because we were in a relatively large boat with no other traffic around.

The breeze was blowing from the southeast so for awhile it actually helped us make better time. Things started going downhill when the tide changed. With the tide flowing out (south) and the wind pushing north, the two opposing forces made the seas increasingly rough with short periods and steep, breaking crests. The Admiral got very nervous when the boat started 'surfing' every wave, occasionally lifting the rudders out of the water- which caused the boat to broach (turn parallel to the waves). At this point we both donned PFD's for safety. A couple times the boat leaned so far over it seemed as if we could almost touch the water from the flybridge. We took blue water over the bow a number of times but nothing blew out. We heard stuff down below crashing and knew the cabin was getting trashed but couldn't do anything about it. I estimate the waves were 6-8 feet but it felt much worse. As Captain, I really had my hands full, and it didn't help that I had only owned this boat for less than a week....

Anyway, I knew the safest thing to do would be to get into a harbor. Problem was that the sea conditions (waves moving south to north) made it EXTREMELY difficult to go any direction but north. I called the CG on 16 to tell them of our difficulty. They asked if we needed any help, and I told them I wasn't familiar with the area. A sailboat nearby suggested we follow them into the next river (Rappahannock) to get outta the Bay and into better conditions. I had a proper nautical chart but took their offer because of all the shallow water around Stingray Point- the LAST thing we needed was to go aground!

By now it was raining hard along with the wind. We communicated by radio to the sailboat for a few minutes and got visual contact just south of the river. The sailboat was one of those heavy-duty yachts made for rough weather. They had us follow them 1/2 mile behind, and it was hard to see them ahead. When we made the turn into the river (west) the seas really made me work hard to maintain a course. We persevered like this for about 30 minutes before the conditions started to improve. When it calmed down enough to move, the Admiral went below to see the carnage. The sofabed was across the cabin upside down and -everything- not nailed down was on the floor.

We radioed ahead to get a slip for the night and tied up at the crappiest, rattiest marina on the ENTIRE east coat. Place kinda reminded me of the movie 'Deliverance'... But at least it was calm! Our slip was next to the sailors, who were a cruising couple from San Francisco heading to Ireland(!). They were super nice people with an extreme sense of adventure. They had come thru the Panama canal and were working their way up the coast, where they planned to cross to Greenland, then on to Ireland.

The weather that day wasn't unusual for them, and they were stopping to do some routine repairs for a few days. We ordered pizza and had a great evening sharing 'war stories', then departed the next morning. Seas weren't much better on the open Bay so we went to another -much nicer- marina, made arrangements to keep the boat there, and called home for someone to come and get us. A week later I was back and took the boat the rest of the way home without incident. The boat ran perfectly the whole time and never took on any water. All in all, it was a good leaning experience for me, but the Admiral STILL won't go out if conditions aren't just right....

 

[BWR1953]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

arks - sounds like about a number 8 on the ol' pucker-factor scale!

 

[angus63]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

In the early 80's I sailed engineer in the Merchant Marine. I was aboard the US Lines S/S American Apollo, a large (800+ ft) container ship out of NY thru Panama to the Far East. We stopped in Sand Island, Hawaii for one day and shoved off for Guam. I was a young kid pissed off that we only had a few hours there wishing for more time. Enroute to Guam we ran into Tropical Storm Sergio. 30-40 ft. seas we were quartering at 6 kts. Bumpy but not too bad. Engine room alarm sounded that evening ( I was off watch) after the entire vessel shuddered. When I reached the hatch and opened the dogs a blast of steam hit me. Main generator steam turbine casing failed pouring superheated steam in the engine room. We got everyone out and on deck (all survived) and the plant went dark. We vented and waited. While waiting to reenter we turned broadside to the rollers and began that awful rocking. We had containers 4 high on deck and the list was increasing. 10,15,20+ degree rolls with that agonizing dwell waiting for her to right. This went on for hours until we could lightoff again. Some of the rolls were so big the cables securing the top deck containers parted and we watched containers become surfboards for a moment until they broke up and their contents littered the Pacific. I was young enough then to feel invincible then but I could see fear in the eyes of many the entire episode. We lost over a dozen containers before we started making way again.


Good news was we turned back for Honolulu for repairs and six days in port. In those 6 days I spent almost three months pay and smile when I think about the time I had there!!!

Image resized to : 75 % of its original size [ 800 x 533 ]

As a kid we fished a 36' Novi double-end wood lobster boat. We lost the plywood rudder in the ocean entering the inlet in 6-8' breaking steep. I was probably 12-13 yrs old and remember the green rollers breaking over the stern and knocking me around. My father trying to hold onto me and operate the throttle to get us out of the breakers. We lost alot of gear washed over but made it home by dragging buckets over the side to steer.

Nowadays I fish outside the inlets often by myself. If tide and wind make conditions dicey, I call the Mrs and anchor outside the mess until I can get thru without white knuckles! Wisdom now dominates guts!​

 

[wizbang 13]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Hey there Angus 63, I was hit by Sergio, 18 nov 06, 200 west of Acapulco in my 34' sailboat. Second time hit by hurricane, also Lily north of Bermuda around 92. But the biggest wave, and guessing waves is like guessing fish weight, was a knockdown rogue wave that hit us in a gulf stream warm eddy. Never saw the wave, heard it. Every item in the boat smashed into the deck. Imagine a ketsup bottle flying only 4' and breaking on wood, spraying ketsup on the overhead like something out of "CSI". All on the same boat,12 ton ketch.

 

[angus63]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

Hey there Angus 63, I was hit by Sergio, 18 nov 06, 200 west of Acapulco in my 34' sailboat. Second time hit by hurricane, also Lily north of Bermuda around 92. But the biggest wave, and guessing waves is like guessing fish weight, was a knockdown rogue wave that hit us in a gulf stream warm eddy. Never saw the wave, heard it. Every item in the boat smashed into the deck. Imagine a ketsup bottle flying only 4' and breaking on wood, spraying ketsup on the overhead like something out of "CSI". All on the same boat,12 ton ketch.

Hey Wiz, this was Oct 1982 in the Pacific. It was a hurricane for days before we crossed paths as a Tropical Storm. When we were in the troughs the crests were level with the bridge wing of the vessel in my previous post. You can imagine what it was like without propulsion.

 

[walt-oxie1]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

I remember it well. We had just loaded all provisions and bait to head out for the week. We left out of Morehead City to go out grouper and snapper fishing for the week. The inlet and seas were slick as glass on the way out. The weather forecast looked great for the week. About 12 hours out, the sky started to turn black. The wind started picking up and the thunder started to rumble. Then the rains and the seas picked up. At first, they got up to 4-6, about an hour later, 26-30. It got rougher than a cob that day. The old 53' steel hull held her own well that day. I went up to the wheel house and was looking out. I could see nothing but water around us when we were in the trough. We continued going out to the fishing grounds and the seas and weather layed down. We dropped lines when the seas got down to about 16-20. The next day and for the remainder of the trip the water was like glass.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

I really don't know how big the waves were, but the ship was 327 feet long and the bridge wing was about 60 feet above the waterline. We were in the North Atlantic, south of Greenland, in a raging storm.

I was on Bridge Watch, steering the ship, while a buddy of mine was standing in an open hatch, between the bridge and bridge wing. We took a dip, buried about the first 50 feet of the bow in a wave, and rolled to starboard about 25degrees or so. My buddy, "Frenchie," got caught by a crossing wave and was knocked on his butt. Fortunately for him, he was knocked inward, into the bridge.

I don't think the waves were 60 feet high and the fact that he caught the top of a sea while we were in both a dip and a roll, supports that assumption. What I would say, is that from the perspective of a 17 year old kid (me) steering the "boat" in heavy seas for the first time, they were frickin huge!

BTW Angus, that was a steam turbine boat too. Built in the 30s and I sailed aboard her in the early 70s. I was a topside sailor and damn glad about that - I had no interest in being around superheated steam!



???

 

[Les Robb]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

25ish but we cheated we were on a cruise ship to the Bahama's during a hurricane. Probably the only drinkers on board not sick. (Besides the crew)

Fun time

 

[arks]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

arks - sounds like about a number 8 on the ol' pucker-factor scale!

Yeah, that's about right- for me at least.....for the Admiral it was more like a 20.
She told me later that all she could think about was how difficult life would be for our daughter after both of us drowned at sea.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

We were in 10 -15 footers on the way home from work one day. Solid aluminum crew boat. Felt safe but we caught air a few times and hard on the kidneys.

 

[4JawChuck]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

3-4 footers in the south basin of lake Manitoba, the water depth there is 9ft or less so the period of the waves was very short and they were breaking over with winds of 80km/hr. This was in a 16 foot Tuffy Sportsman with 3 inches of freeboard, going slow just got us wet and filled the boat as the waves brokes over so I gunned her to get on top and plowed through the bigger rogue ones at about 40km/hr

Scared the heck out of the wife and kids and the pounding was unbelievable (my kidneys were sore for about two hours after) but we got home OK. Loading the boat was interesting because the waves were so big on the beach I had to time them to get her on the trailer.

Not the most fun I ever had on a boat but it sure gives you an idea of what is survivable and possible, we called that day the baptism by fire and now big waves don't scare the kids (they were crying that day!). Ever since I have had total confidence in the boats durability even though it has such a shallow draft, she didn't get a single crack and we got some air on the bigger breakers.

I watch the weather and cloud formations more carefully when we are on the big lakes now. Eyeball rev 1.0 and vertical wet finger rev 1.5 are how I judge when its time to go back....screw the weatherman!

 

[salty87]

Re: Biggest seas you have been in?

a ferry i've never been on...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8fa_1201491534