On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 18:29:14 GMT, WaIIy
wrote:

I lived on Lake Erie (near Cleveland) for 6 years and near the lake for
50 years and have never see or reliably heard of 12 footers.

The highest I have been in are 7- 8 footers and wouldn't like to do that
again.

Lake Erie is notorious due to the closeness of the waves. Everything
is a chop 1ft-2ft-6ft chop.

Of course, when it is rolling or fairly flat, it's wonderful (if quite
brown).

Lake Ontario is not dissimilar. Wave heights given on the Canadian
marine weather channels are for mid-lake...the place where the longest
fetch will produce the highest waves.

I have been out in sustained south to west to north 40 knot winds off
Toronto. After a very short time this produced six-seven foot waves
(with a 30 mile fetch up lake) or four-five from the south (23 miles).
By contrast, the strongest winds were from the north (40-45 knots
sustained in an October gale), but the waves were two feet or so due
to the short (1-2 mile) fetch.

Probably the worst (and the rarest) is a north-east to east gale due
to the 200 mile fetch. I went west to east right into the teeth of a
sustained 30 knot September gale and got very choppy six-footers. We
have an aft-cockpit sloop and with a No. 3 and a double reefed main we
were making hull speed close hauled. Lots of falling down waves and
green water on deck, but as it was sunny, it was fun. Took all day
(seven hours, maybe) to get eight NM back to our club due to the long
boards we had to make inshore and then off again. Terrific sailing,
however.

To sum up: it depends where you are in the Great Lakes and where the
wind (obviously mainly westerlies) is coming from. A huge wind with
little fetch can give you a great run down the lakes on beam reaches.

R.