"Joe" wrote
I worry about my engine room hatch and cabin doors caving in.. in a
thumble. I would hope to punch thru, and not roll or tumble, or pitch
pole.... I dont think a big cat would have a chance of punching thru.

My big wave tactic would be to motor sail straight into it full
throttle, once the boat went vertical it would be a bad day/night.


Are you crazy, Joe? That'd never work. Did you see the Perfect Storm movie?
Remember what happened when the Andrea Gail tried to do the same thing, It
almost got to the top but when it was almost straight up and down it went over
backwards. No, not a good plan.
This is what you should try. Act like your boat's a big surfboard and do what
surfers do. Check out the wave and look for the side that's getting shorter. Turn
your boat so it's going towards the small side about forty five degrees to the wave.
Then wait till the wave catches up and as you go up it keep steering forty five
degrees or so. Pretty soon you'll be going very fast. You'll be surfing along the
bottom part to middle part of the wave away from the side where it's big and
breaking. The face of the wave will give you the power to surf along. You can
adjust your angle to control your speed. You should try to sheet your sails in
tight because the apparent wind is going to be forward.
If your lucky pretty soon the wave's gonna get smaller and smaller. They're tall
but probably not more than a couple of miles wide. If you can keep control you can
just ride the wave till it gets small enough to handle. You've seen surfers do it on TV.
There's no reason a boat couldn't do it too.

Cheers,
Ellen