correct way to take on a larger boats wake

[markcw]

we decide to go over to hope nose for a look due to the calm weather and look across to mew stone. on the way we noticed a large sunseeker/princess cruiser going at full speed, directly in our bath so i throttle off and allowed him to pass in front about 4-500 yd away, not realizing the size of his stern wave i was told on my training to always hit a boat wake at 90 deg so getting prepared to go over, kids and wife warned of impending situation and i slowed down to a snails pace.

But the size of the wake, 3 waves were huge and the boat went over the first and the nose of our boat dug itself in the troff of the second wave and huge amounts of water went over the bow and drenched all of us and inside boat, paper work, clothing.

So what did i do wrong, should i of turned around and ran away to let the wake decrease in size.

I have shown a pic of our boat to give you an idea of it hull, and also some pics from the day, (Wife going to well happy she is in the photo) im dun for

 

[HARRY 76]

Good job I wasn't out there in my Bow rider

 

[rbcoomer]

Great pics Mark!

To answer the wake thing needs more experience than mine I think, but FWIW timing seems to be key! I wouldn't 'run away' as the wave on the stern could be worse, but practicing on smaller ones allows you to better assess the timing and angle of attack! Think how us 14 footers and smaller fare... Getting wet's part of boating however and I expect it once in a while - even on the Dart a couple of months back where we had a good few face-fulls of river... No wakes then, just choppy water!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

90deg is a good idea if you want maximum discomfort for crew and maximum water over your boat eg if you have mother in law on boat and you want to discourage her from ever coming again. Otherwise about 45 deg will reduce both discomfort and spray considerably, especially if you slow down but this is unlikely to get rid of MiL.

 

[[2068]]

Next time try a 45degree approach.
Slow down, but then power up a couple of seconds before it hits to get the nose as high as you can.

Then enjoy the ride

 

[Ripster]

Is that fishcombe cove there in the last three pics - I think so anyway. Looks very nice and sooo uncrowded. Swmbo looks very happy and at home at the helm, always a good sign. As far as hitting the wake in your boat - I 'll let one of the other guys with a similar boat advise the best strategy and speed, but from what I know it is oprobably best to take them with a little speed on to lift the bow and at 45 degrees to kind of ride over them. But as said, someone may give a different view. When I had the Monterey 250 , that is how we used ride larger swell or wakes. Also warning the crew to expect a bit of sway is always good, with comforting words along with it.

If you like, when I am down next, I will make a large Wake and you can try different strategies and see which one works

 

[rbcoomer]

90deg is a good idea if you want maximum discomfort for crew and maximum water over your boat eg if you have mother in law on boat and you want to discourage her from ever coming again. Otherwise about 45 deg will reduce both discomfort and spray considerably, especially if you slow down but this is unlikely to get rid of MiL.

+Hit them hard enough and you can try jumping all at once plus loose MiL altogether...

 

[strakeryrius]

Depending on how far apart the wake waves are, taking them at 45 degrees will allow your boat to settle off the back of the first wave before it has to take the second and so on. Tackle it like you would if you had to zig zag to handle big waves in rough sea conditions.

 

[markcw]

thing is if i was 45dg i recon we would of nearly turned over, for some reason the 3 waves in the wake were deep which is my we had enough distance to go over and down on the first wave, but no distance to come up due to the very step angle of the second wave. the amount of water was enough to frighten and drench the kids and mostly every thing in the cockpit.

 

[Cymrogwyllt]

The local pilot who also runs the 45 min trip boat (albeit 90+ capacity) seems to like hitting the wakes at 30 deg odd

 

[strakeryrius]

You will need to experiment with what feels right for your boat, but anywhere between 45 and 30 degrees off the wave should reduce the ill effects, and you are unlikely to broach if you have enough power on to lift the nose as has been suggested earlier.

 

[Ripster]

You may think so and if you were stationary you may well have need to hold on to avoid being thrown out (MIL tactic again!) but if you have a little speed on, you will tend to cut through the crests and so not dive so much and push the inevitable spray away a bit. As has been said, do some practice, I am sure you will have no shortage of wake makers on offer

 

[DAKA]

we decide to go over to hope nose for a look due to the calm weather and look across to mew stone. on the way we noticed a large sunseeker/princess cruiser going at full speed, directly in our bath so i throttle off and allowed him to pass in front about 4-500 yd away, not realizing the size of his stern wave i was told on my training to always hit a boat wake at 90 deg so getting prepared to go over, kids and wife warned of impending situation and i slowed down to a snails pace.

But the size of the wake, 3 waves were huge and the boat went over the first and the nose of our boat dug itself in the troff of the second wave and huge amounts of water went over the bow and drenched all of us and inside boat, paper work, clothing.

So what did i do wrong, should i of turned around and ran away to let the wake decrease in size.

I have should a pic of our boat to give you an idea of it hull, and also some pics from the day, (Wife going to well happy she is in the photo) im dun for

Take large wake broad side on and let it pass under you, no need to slow down.
just warn your crew as you will tip a little twice as it passes under you.

No splash, no bump , just a gentle underlation (two) and then resume course.

 

[Warpa]

90deg is a good idea if you want maximum discomfort for crew and maximum water over your boat eg if you have mother in law on boat and you want to discourage her from ever coming again. Otherwise about 45 deg will reduce both discomfort and spray considerably, especially if you slow down but this is unlikely to get rid of MiL.

about 45 deg is how i take the Seacat wake on the Solent, i also found going too slow will give you a drenching, i use the throttle on the waves to adjust the bow depending on wake size

 

[ash12]

Just put enough power on to get on the plane so you will ride over the crests instead of falling into the troughs inbetween the waves.

 

[oldgit]

"Take large wake broad side on and let it pass under you, no need to slow down"



Is this April the 1st or something ? .... The sort of wash mentioned here is going to be short and steep and by the sound of it the peaks were closer together than his boat was long.
Absolutely to do not want this sort of wash beam on under any circumstances.
The hole he would have fallen into and the depth of the trough would have thrown the boat everywhichway.

Head slowly into it at around 45 degrees for most comfortable entry and exit.

 

[ash12]

^^ +1

 

[DAKA]

"Take large wake broad side on and let it pass under you, no need to slow down"



Is this April the 1st or something ? .... The sort of wash mentioned here is going to be short and steep and by the sound of it the peaks were closer together than his boat was long.
Absolutely to do not want this sort of wash beam on under any circumstances.
The hole he would have fallen into and the depth of the trough would have thrown the boat everywhichway.

Head slowly into it at around 45 degrees for most comfortable entry and exit.

Please try it and then comment.

Its a technique I adopted when encountering the channel / north sea fast cats , they used to come very close.

A wave is just energy moving through the water, it will rise you up and lower you down, no problem , why try to crash through it at all when it will happily pass you by .

 

[markcw]

Is this April the 1st or something ? ....


Defently not, the wake realy took me by suprise, i did my rya level 1-2 on the solent, so should not be suprised, just before we hit it was when i realised how deep the wake was and re shouted to my wife and kids to hang on, but by then we had gone over and nose down. poor kids were trenched and had to change there clothing

Thing is the fly bridge cruiser was motoring, not cruising speed as you could tell by the noise of the engines, i can remember saying to my wife "god he motoring"

Thanks for advice, and personaly ive got more inportant things to do than come in here and tell porkies.

 

[Ripster]

OK DAKA - I will not rubbish it when I have never really tried it as you describe. I will try it next time we're out and if SWMBO is nearly thrown off the FB I will tell her it was DAKA's recommendation, shout at him