Your Experience in Really Rough Weather?

[LRC58Fan]

Hi Everyone,

I was just looking at this amazing Youtube video of a 500ft navy destroyer in rough weather (see video below) and was thinking what it would be like in a smaller boat (say 50 to 70 foot boat).

Does anyone have experience in this type of weather and have knowledge of how bad it would be in a smaller boat? I'm not sure if these waves are so big that a smaller boat might just ride over them with less drama.

Can someone comment?

Youtube Video of Destoyer in Rough Weather:

I'm interested in doing cross-ocean trips in a boat of the long and thin variety - something like a Dashew 64 or Artnautica 58 - and I'm just interested in learning what it might be like in one of these boats:

Artnautica 58

Source:
Log into Facebook

Dashew 64

Source: SetSail

 

[bayview]

Life in a smaller boat in those conditions has been described as living inside washing machine.

 

[No Mast]

...which can then be followed by drowning, which most didn't describe.

 

[sunchaser]

A key design factor of Dashew's FPBs is to outrun the storm, not go through. At 11 knots this is certainly the case if you pay attention to the weather. A careful read of his website and books clearly illustrates procedures for adverse weather avoidance.

 

[windmill29130]

I don't think you want any of that! Did you see that last wave she went up? Not me brother. You might be able to time and ride some out, but one of them will end your day real quick.

 

[Rustybarge]

I once went in a boat delivery trip in a force 6-7 for 3 days: your body becomes exhausted from the effort of standing up, and from grabbing onto rails to stop yourself falling over.

It's the crew that fails, not the boat.

Safehaven boats are made here in Ireland: there's some rough water videos on this page of smaller. 38' boats in atrocious weather.

VIDEOS ON YOU TUBE

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

My thoughts in such conditions range from "I wonder if farming sucks as bad as being a mariner" to
" How did my parents raise such an idiot for a son"
Several times in my life I swore that if I ever made it to shore alive, I would become a Librarian the very next day......YMMV

Getting ready to take one of those trips with that type of potential.

 

[ulysses]

What is interesting is that the camera, on what I would assume was another vessel was pretty well stabilized.

 

[dwhatty]

Been there. Done that. Don't ever want to do it again. And this was in ocean capable ships.

In a small recreational cruiser, such as most of us have, forgedaboutit (unless you have a death wish).

I have a friend with an IG32 sister to ours who is a retired Master Mariner, Unlimited Tonnage, All Oceans, whose last commands were in VLCCs, who says he would never go to sea again unless it were in a ship over 700' made of steel.

 

[markpierce]

Life in a smaller boat in those conditions has been described as living inside washing machine.

That's why I prefer being on a ship on the open seas/oceans. Gone through two hurricanes on ships and considered that interesting.

 

[ghost]

My sphincter only clenches to around factor 5. I'm not equipped to take a 50 foot boat in those conditions.

 

[hmason]

I would have no difficulty with seas like this if I were on a submerged nuclear sub.

 

[healhustler]

My sphincter only clenches to around factor 5. I'm not equipped to take a 50 foot boat in those conditions.

At factor 5, I can open beer bottles in mine. In those kinds of waves, it would become a cable cutter.

 

[Delfin]

Depending on whether you can get a fair lead, heaving any boat to on a para anchor or series drogue deployed on a Pardey bridle can turn a stomach turning pounding into an interesting but not terribly uncomfortable event. Larry Pardey describes heaving to in 100 knot winds off a para anchor and sunbathing on the lee side of the deck. I don't think he was lying.

Alternately, turning around and running before the weather trailing the right kind of drogue is second best.

Either way, if you insist on making your course into high winds and seas it will be miserable in most any size boat. Your choice is always to pull off the road by heaving to, or running at slow speed towing a drogue. IMO, anyway.

Duckworks - The Sea Anchor

 

[windmill29130]

I would have no difficulty with seas like this if I were on a submerged nuclear sub.

 

[Ben]

That video. Crazy.

Any Navy people on this forum? What is procedure during such weather? Do you minimize people in the bow and stern and try (if orders permit) to stay in the middle of the ship?

I mean from the video, it looks like about ~50-foot amplitude in the bow and stern. I may even be understating it.

 

[sbu22]

We just dove deeper.

 

[healhustler]

Well, there was that one day heading out Jupiter Inlet.

 

[Budds Outlet]

The Coast Guard boats do that at the mouth of the Columbia River.

 

[hollywood8118]

Well, there was that one day heading out Jupiter Inlet.

That definitely isn't a Northern Marine!

Nice photochop

HOLLYWOOD

 

[Xsbank]

I think anybody who is interested in crossing an ocean should seriously read Dashew's website. There are videos of crossings andd blogs of people who have done it and to ice the cake, he is giving away his treatise on ocean weather. It's a wonderful read because it has first-person reports of weather experiences, is very well written and will likely keep you up well into the middle of the night reading it

Watch the video and read the blog about the delivery of Sarah Sarah from New Zealand to Annacortes ( I saw her in Pender Harbour recently).

 

[FF]

As most cruisers only operate in modest weather (few tackle the North Atlantic in mid winter) most never see Bearint Sea conditions.

For a blow , most will retire to a sea bunk , like a Concordia berth , and grab a good book.

 

[Wxx3]

What is interesting is that the camera, on what I would assume was another vessel was pretty well stabilized.

I have seen this video everywhere, which makes me assume it is actually from a game.

It simply looks shopped.

that said, that long, skinny boat would not be pleasant under most conditions.

11 knots will NOT outrun an Low pressure system, and that's assuming you know exactly where it is going, which you wont.

The lack of bow rise will be shipping a lot of green water over the bow, as in like a submarine.

All those windows, forget about it.

 

[HiDHo]

I'm retired Navy and of my 22 years, 16 where spent at sea on destroyer escort (fast Frigate), WW2 type 2250 destroyers and on one luxury liner, a Belknap class guided missile cruiser.
Worst duty was on the extension of the dew line out off Nova Scotia in the Winter, maintaining a radar picket station doing five knots in a fifty mile circle. Very easy to do one finger pull ups when the bow drops into a trough.
Saw seas washing over the main deck strong enough to pull the 2 1/2" fire hose out of the bronze threaded ends. Steel bulkhead flexing and rivet heads popping off.
But you only remember the good times like when a USSR Echo 2 nuky sub rammed us and put us in a French Navy shipyard for 4 months.
Bill
MMCM USN Retired

 

[Mako]

Well, there was that one day heading out Jupiter Inlet.

I was gunna guess Sebastian Inlet.

 

[Ben]

Saw seas washing over the main deck strong enough to pull the 2 1/2" fire hose out of the bronze threaded ends. Steel bulkhead flexing and rivet heads popping off.
But you only remember the good times like when a USSR Echo 2 nuky sub rammed us and put us in a French Navy shipyard for 4 months.
Bill
MMCM USN Retired

Holy Crap! I bet you have some serious stories! Any books on that Navy experience you might recommend? Stuff like that put my minor gripes in perspective.

 

[bayview]

There is a real pIX of someone doing that in Moro bay inlet CA. He apparently made it out.

 

[Donsan]

I was gunna guess Sebastian Inlet.

Aw, my favorite inlet! I pulled a similar stunt with a 24' Wellcraft.

Really a terrible inlet and it is bad all the way to the ICW but there was a recent dredging project to renourish the beach. Might have deepened the shoaling channels in the river.

 

[AusCan]

I actually enjoy being out on the boat in a good swell. Obviously not like in the video above, but after a big storm and the wind has died down. Occasionally you get a 10-15 foot swell without any chop on 20 second intervals, and the water is like a glassy roller coaster ride. I've even been out on my old 17 foot boat on days like this and although you need to keep on your toes, it is a lot of fun. It's a bit like skiing moguls.

Big winds, breaking waves, turbulent inlets, and washing machine water are a different story. I try to avoid that stuff.

 

[sunchaser]

11 knots will NOT outrun an Low pressure system, and that's assuming you know exactly where it is going, which you wont..

Sure it will, if you know where to go and have several a days notice. As pointed out by XS, Dashew's weather and storm books are a marvel in this regard. Even better, communicating with him will allay your suspicions on the man's knowledge. As a weather guy you would find this communication interesting I'm sure.