"Thom Stewart" wrote
Neal has made that statement about waves before and as usual he's full
of S--t. His whole scenario is riddled with wrong stupid assumption. The
first and dumbest is comparing a displacement hull with a Surf board.
Can anyone that has ever been in a Sea way ever tried to control a
displacement hull in near free fall on the face of a wave with a rudder?
A wave that large creates a sucking action into the wave. Something he
is ignoring or is completely unaware of. He assumes his hull would be on
a level plane like a surf board when in reality it would be heeled
badly. Badly enough that you'd could only hang on. You wouldn't be able
to move.

I don't know about what Capt. Neal said but if he said to try surfing down and across the
wave then he's got it right IMO. It makes perfect sense to me. I'm glad we think alike.
Your wrong about a wave making a sucking action. Look at the link I gave Joe. It has a little
circle in the wave. It shows which way the water goes. The arrows show the opposite of a sucking
action. Being a woman I know all about sucking action. :-). Just kidding, don't get all excited, Tom.
You said the hull would be heeled badly. I don't think so. Rogue waves travel fast. Very fast.
Just imagine the apparent wind. If the wave was going fifty miles an hour and the wind was calm
you'd have a fifty miles an hour wind at the top of the wave. That's what blows the spray back.
But at the bottom of the wave the wind would be less but still strong enough to keep the boat level.
It would be blowing against the tilt of the wave so things would balance. That's why I said to sheet
the sails in tight.

When he make statements like that, it is because he is speaking through
a "Sock-puppet" but I've read his mentality on waves before and it is
DAMN STUPID AND DANGEROUS!! His "Cut the Mustard" carries a broken
Boom, Which according to him, happened in a wave entering a channel.

Whatever, but it sound like he's got it right to me..... Tom, I was reading a good book last night. This is
what it says about big waves and sailing in them. It agrees with what I'm saying. That's mostly why I said it.

"4) If truly enormous seas threaten to engulf the vessel you can try oil...... You can cut away some or all the warps
and begin to steer by hand, bearing off a little when the yacht rises on a big sea. This will require careful steering,
and crew exhaustion will become a factor. Let's hope you will never get to this point."

This is the fourth of four steps to sailing in heavy weather. The first three are heave to, lie ahull, run with the
storm with warps trailing astern. Know who wrote it? Hal Roth in his book, After 50,000 Miles.
So your telling people to not listen to Hal Roth, Duh, I think he's got more experience even than Capt. Neal does.
And certainly much more than you do......
Joe's talking about one big rogue wave. Exhaustion's no problem, careful steering's the most important thing.
Just like I said.

Cheers,
Ellen