Hi Trevor,

Thought about this a lot since, and of course this weekend during cruising
as well.

Yes, there were things I could have done in hindsight and I think you're
right, taking them on the stern was a possibility however I was fairly close
to shore and taking them on the stern would have meant turning into shore.
But by turning and dropping power it would have worked. So doing the same
thing but taking them on the bow would have worked as well. Learn, learn,
learn.

This weekend I was a lot more aware of this type of thing and found that it
wasn't too hard to deal with the various wakes I encountered. I didn't
encounter anything near what I wrote about last week but even if I had I
felt much more capable of dealing with it.

This time when being overtaken from behind I altered course slightly for a
while beforehand (heading away from the overtaking boats), then after being
overtaken I would correct back a little more acutely, getting back to my
original line while taking the wakes more directly. Once through the wake, I
would correct once again back onto my original course and all was well with
the world. Obviously I was looking a lot further out than before and being
more aware.

I also did this once when meeting another boat coming towards me on a
parallel course. He was moving about my speed (6-7 knots) but it was a
working boat with a displacement hull (trawler style) and he was moving a
fair amount of water -- quite an amazing amount really, he must have been
heavy. Gently steered away from him and then cut back in a little more
sharply, took the wake and then resumed original course.

After a while I found this becoming sort of a habit or a reflex. I began to
notice less that I was doing it. Also the adjustments were probably not
really that noticeable since I was looking further.

All in all, although the experience was a bit upsetting, if it had not
happened and had the people here not given their input this valuable lesson
would have taken longer to learn.

And if I may digress, I was very pleased with how my boat handled when
cutting some of the larger or more confsued wakes this weekend. She has a
fairly good vee going on and she cut them, even coming down off the top of
them right into another without any slamming or pounding. I don't know how
else to say it except it was very knife-like.

I have been in other cruisers that have pounded down off the top of waves,
almost sounding like a big drum, but my boat seemed to do it almost silently
except for some spray squirting out from the bow.

It was actually kind of cool and increased my confidence on her ability to
take care of us.



"Trevor Dennis" wrote in message
...
Paul Writes

From behind us came three big cruisers, each around 30', making about 20+
knots it seemed. They passed us close on the port side, maybe 200'. They
were lined up one directly behind the other and they were close enough
together that all three had passed before the wakes reached us.

I am *very* new to all this, but if the boats were overtaking you their
wakes would approach from your stern quarter. Could you have steered to
starboard thus taking the wake square on to your stern? Obviously less
comfortable than bow-first, but more stable than beam-on, and you'd not
impede the overtaking vessels.

--
Trevor Dennis
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