What’s the right way to head into a Wave?

[RutgersAl]

Hoping not to face this anytime soon. But what’s the right way to navigate waves? Just Bow first and hope for the best?

 

[hughespat57]

That's a very open ended question, that is going to start with a lot more questions.
Search on "titles only" containing "waves" and you will find many discussions here.

The most basic issues are what size waves, what size boat, what location?
Seamanship and boat handle have some basic constants, but there are also many more variables.

Youtube Haulover Inlet - a narrow inlet, tidal currents, wind direction, size of boat.
You will see days and times that are no problem at all.
Other times outgoing tide and on shore winds and there are big "standing waves".
A "standing" wave is like whitewater on a river, it is the water flowing and the wave isn't changing position.
Same inlet different time of tide, different winds and you get breaking moving waves, a crossing the bar situation.

Youtube capsizing at Boynton Inlet - an inlet with a dog leg break wall and a sand bar offshore slightly north east.
Center console crosses the bar and decides to U turn in front of a breaking wave.
Now your vessel is surfing the face of the wave, bury the bow and the stern can go right over the bow "pitch pole".
This crew "broached" the wave push the stern around, the gunnel digs in and the boat rolls over.
To his credit while he made a bad decision, there were surfers right in front of him other side of those waves and I believe he feared hitting one and veered off to late. Better would have been to cut the throttle, take it head on with just enough power to hold position until it passed under.

So basics,
transiting open water, 3-4 ft waves, I try to "quarter the waves" don take head on, run about 20-30 degree off left or right. Same with mild following seas, not directly on the stern, slightly off.

Inlets and bars following sea, you have to stay straight and be going slower than the wave until one pass under you.
They try to follow the back side of that wave in, but never faster than the wave so you dont over take it.

 

[RutgersAl]

Just the type of response I was hoping for! Thank You! I will check out the other threads and videos.

I'm planning to boat Barneget Bay in NJ, slipping out into the Ocean once in a while, in a 30ish footer. Looking at Sundancer 310 and 340's.

here’s the Boynton Inlet vídeo in case anyone else in interested.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

That's a very open ended question, that is going to start with a lot more questions.
Search on "titles only" containing "waves" and you will find many discussions here.

The most basic issues are what size waves, what size boat, what location?
Seamanship and boat handle have some basic constants, but there are also many more variables.

Youtube Haulover Inlet - a narrow inlet, tidal currents, wind direction, size of boat.
You will see days and times that are no problem at all.
Other times outgoing tide and on shore winds and there are big "standing waves".
A "standing" wave is like whitewater on a river, it is the water flowing and the wave isn't changing position.
Same inlet different time of tide, different winds and you get breaking moving waves, a crossing the bar situation.

Youtube capsizing at Boynton Inlet - an inlet with a dog leg break wall and a sand bar offshore slightly north east.
Center console crosses the bar and decides to U turn in front of a breaking wave.
Now your vessel is surfing the face of the wave, bury the bow and the stern can go right over the bow "pitch pole".
This crew "broached" the wave push the stern around, the gunnel digs in and the boat rolls over.
To his credit while he made a bad decision, there were surfers right in front of him other side of those waves and I believe he feared hitting one and veered off to late. Better would have been to cut the throttle, take it head on with just enough power to hold position until it passed under.

So basics,
transiting open water, 3-4 ft waves, I try to "quarter the waves" don take head on, run about 20-30 degree off left or right. Same with mild following seas, not directly on the stern, slightly off.

Inlets and bars following sea, you have to stay straight and be going slower than the wave until one pass under you.
They try to follow the back side of that wave in, but never faster than the wave so you dont over take it.

Great reply, Way too complicated a question for a single 'best answer'. Probably the best example of where there is no substitute for experience. of course you cant get experience with out actually running in the various wave conditions so understanding some basic rules is the place to start and then determine how your boat best handles the conditions.
No one rule is know your limitations and always err on the side of caution.
Carpe Diem

 

[mrsrobinson]

The best how to video I ever saw on this was done by 2 girls who have a 30' center console. It WAS amazing. I can't find it now, but will share if I do.

When in doubt, sloooooow down.

 

[PlayDate]

Just the type of response I was hoping for! Thank You! I will check out the other threads and videos.

I'm planning to boat Barneget Bay in NJ, slipping out into the Ocean once in a while, in a 30ish footer. Looking at Sundancer 310 and 340's.

here’s the Boynton Inlet vídeo in case anyone else in interested.

The guy in the video was an idiot. He did exactly right on the first two waves leaving the inlet. Bow first and managing his power. THEN he proceeds to do a 180 degree turn in front of an incoming wave wrecking his boat and endangering everyone on board. There was no reason to do this and transiting inlets on the East Coast is serious business.

If he wanted to turnaround....he should have gone further out and rode the back of a wave, managing his power and speed into the inlet.

 

[hughespat57]

There was no reason to do this

I agree a bad choice of action, and East Coast Inlets and bars are very dangerous often because they are so deceiving. They can be very easy one day and a total B***H another day.

However watch it closely, as he come over the last wave there are a half dozen surfers in front of him.
I disagree "no reason" I don't think he saw them bobbing in the waves until he got on that last wave.
Then made a bad snap decision.

Catastrophes are rarely a single big mistake, they are usually a series of small mistakes.
1. Most boaters that know this inlet go further south before going offshore, avoiding the worst of the bar.
experience/local knowledge
2. Not paying attention to the fact there may be obstacles in your path at any time.
Maintain a lookout/Situational awareness
3. Have a back out plan in your head at all times, constantly be accessing where/how you can bail out if things go bad.
Crew Resource Management/Risk Management

This doesn't come naturally to most people, and rarely the average recreational boater.
As a former Surfman these things were driven into us.

 

[FootballFan]

Inlets and crossing bars are different than waves in the open ocean.

 

[Irie308]

The best how to video I ever saw on this was done by 2 girls who have a 30' center console. It WAS amazing. I can't find it now, but will share if I do.

When in doubt, sloooooow down.

Think you're referring to the Gale force Twins

 

[Creekwood]

The standing waves in inlets on an outgoing tide are the ones that are the most challenging. I have only been through one one time with an experienced charter captain. He made it seem easy, but experience with the boat’s characteristics and power and the actual inlet was critical. Seems like the most important thing is to avoid stuffing the bow so keeping momentum and bow up (outboards or I/Os trimmed out and/or tabs retracted). Open water waves - just don’t go faster than the “slamming” speed. Often 45 degrees wont be feasible if there is narrow channels, lots of traffic, or it that’s not the direction you need to go. Head on results in more slamming. If you are on plane in open water, trimming the bow down results in less slamming when running into the waves.

 

[Strecker25]

Good discussion and interesting how much variation there is on different bodies of water.

here in the Great Lakes it’s either comfortable or nearly unbearable, not a lot of in between

in our 290 in anything over 2’ (remember Great Lakes have very short and steep waves) boat just pounded the bow and rattled everything loose. If I came off plane in those conditions it was barely moving forward. I generally tried to zig zag and quarter them if possible but it didn’t have much deadrise so I got a fair amount of slap coming over the top.

the 410 is so much heavier I can get away with taking them sharper on the bow and it doesn’t pound. We still avoid anything beyond a 3’ forecast and if caught in more than that back down to about 10 knots to push through. At those speeds we can get away with taking them head on without too much pain

also a timely thread for this weekend. Today is one of those stay tied to the dock forecasts on Lake Ontario


Today
East winds 15 to 20 knots becoming northeast 10 to 15 knots. A chance of showers this morning. Waves 3 to 5 feet subsiding to 2 to 4 feet. Waves occasionally around 6 feet.

 

[Little Ducky]

One thing I know for sure.

Once you think you figured it out one wave will catch you off guard to take you for a ride and toss everything inside you boat like you were robbed.

 

[northern]

In any rough water make sure all items in the boat are secured. If things start to shift in rough water you will not be able to secure them. All big items on the boat are screwed or strapped down. Loose items are placed on cabin floor and stuff in the galley are placed in the sink. Next know your waves. Long frequency waves on the ocean are up and down. Storm waves are steep and blow at you. Large following waves can swamp the back of your boat if you go too slow. The worst wave we ever hit was when we cut behind a freighter. We were a mile back but the waves were very steep. We went up one and down the next the frequency was so short the front of the boat went into the wave when we came down it. We were going 5 knots. The boat almost stopped. Thinks fell of shelves and we had the wave on the front deck. All was well we had two big waves perhaps 10 feet tall. The rest were 5 or so feet. Point is wake from any boat is going to be big if boat is big best to avoid them if you can.