"Greg" wrote in message
...

They don't "swamp" and sink.

I have seen pontoon boats "submarine" , where the wave over the front
pushed the bow down and then the momentum drove them well underwater. They
should surface again, but they may not be in one piece, and can certainly be
non running afterwards. Gear and people can be lost overboard.

In the Estero River I get wakes as bad as the waves in the gulf on all but
the
worst days.

Wakes on a river have their limits, and generally come in sets of two.
There is no limit to the size of the waves on an ocean, and they can be
relentless.

On a river, safe ground isn't that far away. A few miles out on an ocean an
you can be in a world of hurt.

Rod