Have you ever sailed in waves as high as your boat's beam?


Capt. Mooron wrote:
Oh yes Doug... I'm certain you've done it all... and nobody here has ever
sailed in seas the height of their beam! Gosh knows that would never happen
to me... way up here on the North Friggin' Atlantic!! Sheesh!


You seema touch defensive. Did I imply that nobody had ever had any suc
experience?



Nonetheless..... I doubt a 10 ft ocean wave is going to capsize my
vessel... even if it's breaking and beam to.

That was the point of my earlier post. Perhaps it wasn't made clearly
enough. Conditions that may result in a wave-induced rollover don't seem
as dangerous as the physics suggest they are.


In 60 ft of water at the mouth of the bay here that opens onto the
Atlantic... I get waves to 30+ feet and breaking.

While current-driven overfalls can get pretty bad, I'd be surprised if
60' deep water ever gets 30' waves.

I've not only managed to turn my sailboat 360 degrees in those waves... but
in a 30 ft Cape Islander fishing boat... on many occasions.
I guess you just learn to deal with the ocean conditions if you want to go
out in that kind of weather.


And if "learning to deal with the conditions" results in a few capsizes
or broken-up boats, then what? Very limited margin for error and a very
steep learning curve.

DSK