comments interspersed:

Simple Simon wrote:
You are about as stupid as the other motor boat captains
who continue to plague this group even though I have pointed
out time and time again how unwelcome they all are.

Big rogue waves are not necessarily breaking waves. You
should realize this. Don't you even recall the fact that in
the open ocean, off soundings tsunamis are not even noticeable
from the deck of a ship or a sailboat. This is because even
thought they may be 100 feet tall they have such a long
wave length that are more like the rise and fall of the tide
than a wave.

I think you'll find that a Tsunami, doesn't gain height until it
approaches shoaling water, but agree, that a "rogue" is not necessarily
a breaking wave.

Not all rogue waves are like you poor motorboat schmucks
envision. You idiots watch movies like the "Perfect Storm"
and see some stupid fishing boat attempting to motor up
the face of a huge breaking wave and think that is how
it is done. Any fool knows that is NOT how it is done in
a sailboat.

BG I don't need Hollywood to show me 30cm waves .... been dere done
dat, and normally, if we are in a storm like that we will endeavor to be
taking those seas on the bow, rather than head on, but a rogue doesn't
always give you the time to set this up (sometimes, head on is all you
can do BG and you're happy to be able to do that).

Any ballasted sailboat has a much greater ability to remain
upright on the face of such a rogue wave than a motorboat
without such an advantageous stability curve.

G now your an expert on stability? I doubt it.

Now, back to the question of big ships being more damaged
by these freak waves. Yes, they are. They can be stove in
because they present far more area to water crashing down
on the structure and they are not designed to survive such
forces. Small vessels have smaller surface area and only
need to withstand much smaller forces. If this were not
the case one would not see so many unbroken light bulbs
littering the beaches where such fragile items have landed
after voyages of thousands of sea miles.

Your general lack of experience is showing again .... stick to small
sailboats in Tampa Bay.

otn