stuffed the bow on our 268 weekender this past weekend.

L

lime4x4

Member
Jul 24, 2007
341
Palmerton,Pa
Boat Info
1986 268 searay weekender
Engines
5.7 vortec alpha
Spent a week in the upper bay area of the chesapeake bay. We were hanging out at ski beach for the day. On our way back to the boat ramp which is about 6 miles away. Was up on plane doing 30 mph. In the distant i saw tug boat passing in the shipping channel. I have to cross the shipping channel to get to the ramp. When i got there the tug boat was gone but it left behind some nice rollers which is normal for that area. Well as i crossed the first set it wasn't bad. When i hit the second set the bow went up and came down hard and low. All i saw was a wall water coming at me. So i ducked behind the windsheild. The boat handled it great never came off plane and the boat didn't break into 2 peices. The wife was down stairs in the cabin and said it seems a little rough out there. When we first started boating in that area i would come off plane and just ride it out. Found out it's better just to power thru for a smoother ride
 
Lime, I'd say you got lucky that you didn't take on a larger wall of water and sink the boat. Boats just ain't designed to do that on a regular basis. Things shake loose, things break, and aside from the fact that the next time you do it your wife may just kick your ass for fun, it just isn't good for the boat.

Just saying........
 
I'm not making a habit of it. It's the first time i did that in 4 years of boating in that area. It wasn't a huge wall of water. The boat deflected most of the water. The rollers didn't even appear that big. I little bass boat hit them after i did and he got some air
 
Thats kind of funny, I think. :wow: :smt009
I always wondered if a mistake like that would break the windshield.
I'm glad the boat took it well.
 
I stuffed it a few times a couple of motnhs ago is some real bad weather in Tampa Bay. It ripped of my one of my fender holders but luckily it hung on by 1 bolt. I had it welded and all is good. Not fun to the the least.
 
Did it on my 240 on Labor day
1st time since I sold my jetski.
not scary but not so pleasing either....wet and cold afterward
 
I did it in my dads formula 292 Fastech on the way back from the blue angels in Pensacola I was running about 40. (boat tops out at 75) all got wet but not a problem it was a hot day.
 
I pulled that stunt the first week I owned the 245. It's not a big boat, but handled it very well. Wife had some complaint about getting wet in the cabin. I couldn't hear her though as the stereo was on...:grin:

Also did it with my little Starcraft Jet. NOT fun and it scared the living **** outta me. The ol' tin can kept right on going though...
 
I have never "stuffed the bow" but I launched my brand new 2010 Glastron GS249 completely out of the water hitting a big wake.

My buddy who was in his boat (34' Tolley) said it looked like that James Bond movie. He could see completely under my boat. It hit so hard I almost fell down and my wife shot me that "your a dead man" look as she hit the deck. I had only ever been on the water about 10 hours at that time ( I knew that because there were about 10 hours on the boat) so I was a complete idiot (not just a regular idiot like I am now).

I shut it down, my buddy pulled up to give me a ribbing and a father-son talk about crossing big wakes. We got everything back in the cupboards, made sure it was still water tight and kept going, much slower of course...... lesson learned.
 
Any boater who owns lakefront property in NE Wisconsin (read Door County) probably has heard of Rick Paulson. What they DON'T know is that waaaayyyy back in the day he designed and built his own speedboat EXPRESSLY for jumping waves in rough water.

Pounded the waves with this big-block, Arenson surfaced-driven, fiberglass over wood, handmade beauty for about 20 years until the hull finally gave up and cracked wide open. The drivetrain ended up as one of powerplants in the 50' service barge with the extending crane. He never went out in it unless it was rough. Going fast was boring; anybody could do that. But no one jumped waves like 'ol Rick.
He's a good sh*t,.....just can't run a business to save his *ss. (imo)
I know it ain't a SeaRay, but you gotta respect the effort. :)
 
I used to submarine my tri hull all the time. That thing would make a three foot wake that I would swing around and drive into, cutting the power just before hitting it. Usually had a bunch of the kids teenage friend in the bow that got baptized into boating. Literally! The old Glaspar would bail itself out and keep right on going. Young and dumb back then. I would kill anyone for doing that with Old Skool now a days.
 
Now that others have 'fessed up to stuffing the bow, here's my story.

I was on a 45' Bayliner Motoryacht that I'd chartered in the San Juans. We had just left port at Victoria, BC when we heard a NOTAM about a USNavy ship steaming at full speed out the Straits of Juan de Fuca. We were with another couple and we decided that might be fun to watch it go by. We hung around in the area and after a few minutes we could see, waaaay off to the south, a ship coming our direction.

I was at the helm on the flybridge with the other couple. My wife was down below reading. This ship was big and it was really coming fast. We were about 1/2 mile off the port side of the ship when it want past us and it was reallllllly flying. Oh, did I mention it was a BIG ship?

After the ship passed we encountered the wake. We were just at idle speed, just making way and took the wake at about a 75 degree angle. We rode up and over the first wake, then down into the trough and up the second wake. At that point I yelled to my wife below to hang on tight. The second one as so steep and tall that we now had lost all headway. We went down the back side of the second wake and were facing the third wake that was about 30'-40' tall.

The bow of the Bayliner stuffed right into the third wake. Now keep in mind we were on the flybridge and probably about 15' or so off the water. The boat shuddered to a stop and we took about a 1.5'-2' wall of green water over the venturi. I thought we were going down because of the angle we punched into the wave, but the boat popped back out of the wave. The wall of water we took over the venturi swept everything off the flybridge....towels, books, sunglasses, a portable VHF, sunscreen, etc., then washed over the stern.

Talk about scared sh1tless!!! We found out later that ship was headed toward the middle east because the first invasion of Kuwait had happened the night before and it was going to fight Saddam's army. We'd been out of touch with any news broadcasts for a few days so didn't know that had happened. It was quite an experience and one I don't soon want to repeat with Beachcomber.
 
They can haul some serious ass with those gas turbines and their bow really slices through rough seas.:thumbsup:
Sounds like an Aegis class frigate or destroyer because the pic GFC posted later is the NEW version of what I was on; an LPD =>Landing Platform Dock. (pictured below)

I've never stuffed my 'lil 26 footer, but got within inches of submarining the bow in some 8-12' rollers.
My better half was not pleased and hid below deck until we we safely back inside the breakwall.
 
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Scott, I have no idea how fast it was going but I'd guess somewhere north of 40kts. It was shaped something like this one, with a large square area amidships that had no windows, and there were a ton of antennas on board, from bow to aft. We were all amazed by the size of the wakes from that ship. Even the first one lifted us about 8'. It was quite a distance from the second wave and that's what allowed the Bayliner time to "settle down" in the trough before we started up the second wave. Then the third wave seemed to be much closer to the second wave and the trough was much steeper. I know when we went down into that trough we couldn't see out over the tops of the waves. AT that point we had almost no forward movement so it was the speed of the waves coming at us that made the bow stuff so far into the wave.

As the bow was stuffing its way into that third wake I remember thinking that we were going to be swamped and sink. The funny thing was, if we HAD swamped and sunk there's no way that ship was going to turn around to rescue us. They had a war to go to and weren't going to stop for some dinky 45' boat.

50599951_0.jpg
 
Great story, GFC.....pretty frightening.....basically SOL.....I see those types around the Sound occasionally, I don't remember ever seeing one seriously moving fast but I will be paying alot more attention in the future.....
 
Gofirstclass said:
They had a war to go to and weren't going to stop for some dinky 45' boat.
Click to expand...

I love how you use the word dinky to describe a 45 foot boat. A great reminder to how quickly mother nature (or giant naval ships) can make you feel small, no matter what size boat you're in.
 
Villian, since you're from the right coast you may not see many of these Bayliners around. Here's a shot so you can see how tall it is....

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