V boats - rough water handling

[Kracker Jack]

Originally Posted by SkunkBoat

I took these in the Med...These were 30' ish

That's a 450ft frigate bobbing up and down. I'm on a 550ft destroyer trying to come along side that oiler to take on fuel....we didn't get any. Kept popping the hose and spraying the deck with JP3.

Skunk, awesome pics!!!!

[SkunkBoat]

well, back on the subject of waves...

There's 3-5 and there's 3 -5. One can be ugly and dangerous and one can be a beautiful day on the water. The wind and period of the waves tells the story. A long period (8,9, 10 seconds) from a far off storm and a light local wind can be a great day even though the forecast 3-5 or 4-6 looks bad. You absolutely can't rely on the wave height forecast alone. Look at surfer websites to get detailed height/period/direction/wind. And look at the beach cams. ANd some guys can look at the local NOAA bouy data to see the real data and the trend.

And here in NJ there can often be a "Small Craft Warning 4-6ft winds NW 20-25kts.." But that NW or W direction means its flat from the beach to 1/2mile or more. I catch more stripers in November on days like that than in any other month or sea condition.

[bgreene]

We've migrated some from V boats so might as well.......

Worst I ever saw was from my family's 21 T Craft (much like the V ) as a Hurricane was headed offshore up the coast.

Knew it was an incoming tide so figured I'd just zip over towards the inlet and see what it looked like. Bay on Long Island was absolutely flat, no other boaters and headed to the mouth of the inlet.

Sat there in the boat in inky flat calm looking just about 50 feet ahead of me where the wave line started. Unbelieveable with huge seas just beyond that, progressively bigger to monsterous confused breakers beyond. I was very young but not all that stupid as I knew with the incoming if my engine died I'd still be in the flat calm, floating back in the bay. Kind of stupid but much like the camera boats that film surfers on huge waves, close up.