How to deal with a large boats wake

[Sianna]

Oh. no! Hold the front page - boat gets wet shock!

not worried about the boat getting wet more worried about the slamming over a huge wake, hence asking I was doing anything wrong, but thanks for your constructive and thoughtful comment.

 

[marcochi76]

What I’ve found is that it is sometimes definitely vital to slow down (maybe very slow if the wave is huge) to avoid jumping on the wave
But as soon as you reach the top of the wave you need to accelerate firmly to raise the bow and avoid stuffing it
But than you have to quickly decelerate to avoid jumping on the following wave
And so on

 

[Alicatt]

What I’ve found is that it is sometimes definitely vital to slow down (maybe very slow if the wave is huge) to avoid jumping on the wave
But as soon as you reach the top of the wave you need to accelerate firmly to raise the bow and avoid stuffing it
But than you have to quickly decelerate to avoid jumping on the following wave
And so on

On my little dory yes going over the crest with too much speed was exciting to say the least, wind under the tunnels and you could feel the boat wanting to do a backflip.

With the big rollers on the North Sea sitting on the leading edge of the top of the wave was the most comfortable, sitting at about 20ish knots just keeping pace, throttle backed off and looking for the next wave to sit on, surfing with a 75hp Johnson

 

[Chiara’s slave]

On my little dory yes going over the crest with too much speed was exciting to say the least, wind under the tunnels and you could feel the boat wanting to do a backflip.

With the big rollers on the North Sea sitting on the leading edge of the top of the wave was the most comfortable, sitting at about 20ish knots just keeping pace, throttle backed off and looking for the next wave to sit on, surfing with a 75hp Johnson

We do that in our RIB, whether the waves are natural or wake waves. Same in the tri, though when they are from ahead it gets, er, different. Not so easy to slow down and speed up. Turn a little, but mostly grin and bear it. In light weather we’ll stall the rig and pretty much stop when hit by a big power boat wash. I assume the owner is unaware of the havoc in his wake in most cases. It’s the ones only just planing that are the worst. If you mobo guys seriously want to screw over a sailing boat, it’s about 12kn you want. If on the other hand you’re a normal, thoughtful human being, either don’t plane, or plane fast and flat. Less wash at 25kn than 12 usually. And if possible pass behind, though abeam isn’t so terrible. And don’t do what the idiot on Monday did, and misinterpret a trimaran’s speed. He repeatedly turned to get in front, and by altering course about 45 degrees, managed to squeak in front so close I released the mainsheet to slow us down, wherupon we were nearly swamped by the wash. And that takes some doing on such a light, buoyant boat.

 

[Cerebus]

I too would have headed 90 degrees into the wake and popped neutral (for as long as I had steerage) and used a few swear words.

 

[Little Ricky]

Oh. no! Hold the front page - boat gets wet shock!

I got wet in the sea once. Terribly unexpected.

 

[Bouba]

Those boaters permanently tied up in canals yelling at passing boats annoy me....go live on land !

 

[ari]

Those boaters permanently tied up in canals yelling at passing boats annoy me....go live on land !

I find that at 30 knots, you can't hear them. 40 knots and you're gone before they're even out of the cabin!

 

[Alicatt]

I find that at 30 knots, you can't hear them. 40 knots and you're gone before they're even out of the cabin!

At 17knots the wash from our boat is about 1m high, so they will still be picking themselves off the deck by the time we are round the next bend.
Note to self: remember to switch off the AIS