"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ps.com...

That's a description of experience in 5-6 footers on the West Coast.
99% of pleasure boaters, including me, won't normally venture out when
prevailing conditions create 5-6 foot windwaves. With this experience
and similar frames of reference, it's hard to visualize 7 footers
springing up unexpectedly with wind speeds of 10-15 knots. Maybe the
laws of physics are different on the East Coast, or maybe the
unfortunate crew with the new boat overestimated the height of the
waves.

I know nothing about west coast boating or the effects of wind or storms on
the near shore line. I do know that the Northeast sea states are seriously
affected by the near shore bottom topography, relatively shallow water
extending many miles offshore in some areas and the irregular, rocky
shoreline profiles. Sea state can vary dramatically, location to location
under the same general conditions of wind or offshore storms.

Ask any recreational boater who, for the first time, travels south on Cape
Cod Bay on a calm, flat beautiful day, transits the Cape Cod Canal then
become unglued as they hit Buzzard' Bay and their whole world changes.

Eisboch