How to drive in big water

[Yellowfin123]

Originally Posted by FinmanPoozie

This'll be a bit long but it's all true.

Memorial Day weekend in 2002 on a Tuesday I picked up a new boat. A Monark King 190. Bottom of the barrel boat looking back but I had no clue back then. The boat had zero strakes, had a kicker on the starboard side & had a big lean to the right (me + the kicker). Gunnels were 98", but the chine was only 71-72". This was also the 1st boat with a steering wheel that I was ever in. The boat never made a left turn for some unknown reason.

Ran it locally for a couple days to get the feel for it. No biggey.

On Friday, to Lake Ontario we went.

The wife & I had a weekend trip planned around Henderson Harbor. I read all about "watch the weather" & I did (bluebird skies & breezy), so I crossed the bay to show off the boat to my parents who were camping @Westcot Beach if I remember correctly. it was a bit breezy & I was going with the wind.

2 miles maybe crossing the bay. No biggey.

While I was there, the breeze turned into a major wind....and I had to get back to my dock. The campground is really protected so the wind was pretty calm.... until I passed into the bay & caught the lakes full wind, and now I was going dead into it.

I had to angle to my left because there was a point that broke the wind. To my right was the wind head on.

This boat was deep. Sitting in the seat, the gunnel would be up to your shoulder. The gunnel was nearly as high as the top of the Merc 125 that it came with. Hopefully that paints a picture. That boat was like holding a sheet of plywood and walking into the wind. It was terrible...no strakes, never made a left turn as long as I owned it.


What I wound up doing was angling up a wave, reach the crest, skoot to my left, angle down into a trough & repeat. Maybe i moved 10' with each crest, maybe 5'... I was just trying to stay alive. I always had a clear view of the next crest & of the point in the distance. Going straight into a wave took water over the bow, so I knew that was wrong. My hope was that I'd get lucky with the correct angle going up & down so I didn't roll the boat.

BUT-- One time in a trough, I looked to my right and the water was at least 1 1/2' above my head and I remember suddenly becoming aware of all around me was water. No land. I swear, I'm not exaggerating & there was no single moment where I was more outright terrified that I might not make it to land again. My wife called my cell after I was gone for hours, heard my voice and she went into a panic mode hearing me. All I said was "I can't talk right now" & threw the phone on the floor...can't talk with that much stuff going on.

The majority was me being a newbie, me not knowing my boat, me putting a kicker on the wrong side, me going to a lake where I should not have been, me not knowing what "read the weather" really meant, and me being clueless about what a boat can actually do... a rope bounced over & wrapped around my prop, killing the main engine. While sloshing around, I had to reach over & undo the tangle. The boat was fine, I was not... my nerves were shot. I still had 1 3/4 miles to go after that mess up

That 2 mile ride back to the dock took me almost 4 hours. And I was shot for the weekend. Even 12" rollers made my stomach sink, so I left the boat docked until we came home.

The following year, I traded it for a Lund 2025 Pro-V. The dealer said the next owner went to Ontario, got caught with the boat not handling well & traded it in for a SmokerCraft 2 weeks later.

For 8 or 10 years, I got goosebumps whenever I described all of these details... it's all true. Every word.

After all of it, I was told: "If you see the big boats docked on a sunny day-- stay on land because there's a reason they didn't go out"...bit more in-line with how to read the weather

I've gone to Ontario again but stayed in the bays, never had the courage to hit the main lake yet.

It's all true. There were so many things I shouldn't have done that weekend!!!

I attached a pic of the boat that I found online. When you're sitting in that & water is over your head and on a full 360 degrees--- it's scary as ****!!

Happy fishing!!!

WOW!! that was some great reading... that was 1 of those times that if you stuck a piece of coal up your butt it woulda came out a 10 ct diamond

[hydro870]

Originally Posted by REW

JT,
A common reason for boats sinking is to either spear a wave - where the bow gets buried in a wave, or you pitch pole ,where water floods the boat from the stern.

So, if you are running in waves that are several times taller than your boat, you do not want to drive directly into or away from the waves. Either of these cases could easily swamp a boat.

Rather, you want to quarter the wave. So, if you are going into a wave , you do not point the nose of the boat into the wave, but rather you hit the wave at about 45 degrees. So you go 1/2 sideways up the front side of the waves, and then slide down the back side of the wave 1/2 sideways as well. This means that the boat will be doing huge rocking from side to side as you negotiate each wave - but you will be doing the driving through the waves safely without swamping the boat.

Some folks suggest that the motor be trimmed down so that the bow cuts the waves. That may be all right to a point, but if you have the nose trimmed down and then encounter a much larger rogue wave, the entire boat will get buried in the wave and you will sink.

I would rather trim up the boat so that the front 1/3rd of the boat takes the wave, splits the wave and deflects water to each side of the boat, - rather than having the wave come over your head.

I know that there have been more than one time when I was faced with huge waves for a run back to the cabin. In these cases, I figure that I take about double the distance to get back to the cabin. This is because I will hit the waves at about 45 degrees and stay on that course for about a mile or so. Then, I will make a cut back and come back at about 45 degrees for the next tack against the waves. This continues until one encounters waves that may be driven head on. Then, the course can straighten out and the boat driven straight back.

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/heavy2.htm

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/waves.htm

http://www.docksidereports.com/rough...amanship_1.htm

http://www.unitedmarine.net/blog/ind...in-rough-seas/

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/trail...vy-weather.asp

This is great info, but what is "pitch pole" where you would get flooded from the stern? I never heard of that so I want to make sure I never do it. How does it happen?

[Misdirection]

Originally Posted by hydro870

This is great info, but what is "pitch pole" where you would get flooded from the stern? I never heard of that so I want to make sure I never do it. How does it happen?

Pitch pole or pitchpoling is when you come over a large wave, stuff your bow, and the next large wave turns your boat sideways. If that second wave is big enough or you dont have enough power (or dont use it properly), it'll roll your boat over.



Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[Gary Korsgaden]

Notice this boat up and out of the waves. One very important point boats for big water can accomplish. This takes power and hull design. Know the capabilities of the boat you have and avoid anything conditions more then that

[ErieTroller1958]

One of my biggest fears with boating in heavy seas is the possibility of getting the prop entangled in something that won't let go, like a fishing net or anchor rope. The transom swings into the waves and within seconds the boat is swamped.

[bbheli]

Some of these stories remind me of being young and dumb and what we don't know.

Many years ago, young and foolish we had started an annual trip to Little Bay De Noc. The normal routine was roll in town by 8AM load the cabin up head to the store for food and alcohol, come back eat and roll into town to the local pubs and shoot pool with the Indians and talk of the gals. Next morning my buddy wakes up hung over walks out the cabin and says its raining he's not going out. I told him go in the bait shop and get a rain suit and comes back out with his new suit on and coffee in hand as the sky is darkening and says he is going back to bed.

I said screw i I came to fish and fired up the small rental boat and out I went. No electronics just the map of the spots. Nailed a bunch of nice Walleye in less than an hours time. Suddenly I realized it was getting much darker near midnight kind of dark but it was early morning and the winds kicked up the waves got big tossing me all over I could not hold a direction and I could not see over the bow of the boat.

The rain started pounding and I headed towards what I though was the direction of the camp. visibility less than 1000', I was not seeing the camp just tree lines but with the weather I knew I needed to beech the boat. As I hit each wave the bow pointed straight up and I had not knowledge of how to work the boat for the waves. I got to land beached the boat that had a lot of water. I used a can to to bail it out and took cover under a tree when the rain kicked up even harder. I was an adventurous kid and a boy scout so I was not concerned plus I was young and dumb with no fear it was all just fun and adventure because I did not know anything about fearing the weather and just figured the boats job was to float but it was just uncomfortable rough but I was like I know how to swim.

That all changed when I heard a noise in the brush and saw a black bear and a cub. It was just watching me but now fear set in. I was never that close to a Bear.

I slowly moved to the boat rather scared as I have never been that close to a bear and started wondering if he would attack me and thinking how will I fight him with the claws and teeth being my worry so I picked up a big rock thinking I would ram it in his mouth and stab him repeatedly with by fishing knife. I got in the boat and tried to start the motor and had to tilt it by hand to clear the rocks and it would not stay running and I kept getting pushed back to shore. By the fifth time the bear started to move closer so I started the motor again, I lassoed the stringer of fish and launched them in the Bears direction and got in the water to pull the boat out off the shore as far as I could jumped in and started heading out.

I learned many things that day.

Never let ego or desire allow you to disrespect the weather.

Fear what you don't know so you have respect for the unknown.

Try to never go out alone on the water in any conditions.

Gave up fishing for many years when Family life set it but having returned to it the first thing I did when I purchased the boat was to take a coast guard class. I'm still searching for someone that ca teach me more about handling big weather because thinking back I was nothing more than lucky.


When I made it back my buddy asked how I did and I said great he said where are the fish I said the Bear ate them. He said- "BS" LOL

[tmifshrmn]

Got a new boat, new to me, and was ready to troll for walleyes. Went out of Northeast. When we went out there were boats everywhere. As the day went on, we noticed more and more of the boats leaving. By the time we decided to give it up, we were one of the last, if not the last to leave. The waves had built to 3-4 footers and we had one break over the front of the boat, just a small amount of water but enough to send the message. My buddy was unsure since this was the first real experience with this boat and with me driving. Did enough of the right things and got back to harbor with no real problems. Good experience. Moral of the story, don't wait until you are the last boat on the water. If others are leaving, there's probably a reason, heed their example and head in.

[alpellla42]

Originally Posted by REW

JT,
A common reason for boats sinking is to either spear a wave - where the bow gets buried in a wave, or you pitch pole ,where water floods the boat from the stern.

So, if you are running in waves that are several times taller than your boat, you do not want to drive directly into or away from the waves. Either of these cases could easily swamp a boat.

Rather, you want to quarter the wave. So, if you are going into a wave , you do not point the nose of the boat into the wave, but rather you hit the wave at about 45 degrees. So you go 1/2 sideways up the front side of the waves, and then slide down the back side of the wave 1/2 sideways as well. This means that the boat will be doing huge rocking from side to side as you negotiate each wave - but you will be doing the driving through the waves safely without swamping the boat.

Some folks suggest that the motor be trimmed down so that the bow cuts the waves. That may be all right to a point, but if you have the nose trimmed down and then encounter a much larger rogue wave, the entire boat will get buried in the wave and you will sink.

I would rather trim up the boat so that the front 1/3rd of the boat takes the wave, splits the wave and deflects water to each side of the boat, - rather than having the wave come over your head.

I know that there have been more than one time when I was faced with huge waves for a run back to the cabin. In these cases, I figure that I take about double the distance to get back to the cabin. This is because I will hit the waves at about 45 degrees and stay on that course for about a mile or so. Then, I will make a cut back and come back at about 45 degrees for the next tack against the waves. This continues until one encounters waves that may be driven head on. Then, the course can straighten out and the boat driven straight back.

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/heavy2.htm

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/waves.htm

http://www.docksidereports.com/rough...amanship_1.htm

http://www.unitedmarine.net/blog/ind...in-rough-seas/

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/trail...vy-weather.asp

Thank you for the information.

[last chance]

I've just got to post about our first trip to Erie back in the late seventies. we didn't know crap about Erie. the only thing we knew about fishing it's was what we were told by friends who fished it. we bought some gold and silver nuggets and launched our 16' tri-hull open bow and went fishing. we were just drifting and letting the boat do the work. we were catching fish but hadn't reached our limit when the water got rough. but instead of heading in we went behind west sister and fished the calmer water. by the time we got our limit, the main lake had gotten really rough. we started in with the huge waves hitting us heat on. we were taking more water over the bow than the small sump pump could keep up with. I told the owner we had to do something even if we went back to the island. his reply was a bit sarcastic when he said if you think you can do any better your welcome to try. I said I will give it a try but if I wasn't doing any better I was heading back to the back of the island and beach her until the storm was over. the boat was getting full of water at this time when I started driving. at first, I hit a wave with the right corner of the boat then turned the left corner into the next wave. doing this kept the big waves from coming over the bow.

so I kept going until the sump pump caught up. we looked like a few wet dogs that had been caught out in the rain. my young nephew was all covered up head and ears in a poncho. when he stuck his head out and started making fun of us about being so wet and laughing his head off. then I caught the next wave head-on. the water came gushing in and went up the bottom of his poncho then came out all around his head. he was soaked from the top of his head to the bottoms of his shoes. I just said what was that that you was laughing at, and his dad the caption of the boat, and I just started laughing, but we made it into the marina.

they didn't see how we made it in with our boat. I told them we were blessed and we never got into a big hurry. it took us over 2 hrs and a full 6-gallon tank of gas to get in. then they told us the coast guard was telling them that there were 7-foot waves. then the marina told us 3 boats had sunk so far, one bass-type aluminum boat had sunk in the harbor and been brought in with the whole bough torn out where it had been raised from the bottom. another boat that had passed us going much faster had sunk it was an 18' tri-hull open bow. and 1 man and 17 yr old boy was still missing. we knew it was that boat from its description, the other boat had sunk in the mouth of the harbor and was still setting on the bottom. it didn't pose any threat to other boats so thought it could wait until the storm had passed.

we did learn so much after surviving our 1st trip. never take a small tri-hull boat on Erie even on calm seas. never go out without a recent weather forecast. always make sure to have a marine radio on board, even a cheap one. and always have a signal kit. I now go out in a larger boat and have new and used signals with a signal mirror and distress flak and a whistle. and have went to the light signal but still have my old rocket and hand held flares on board.