Wake from larger boats... non issue or safety concern?

onesea said:
The problem is that occasionally can be enough for a nervous crew or 5 year old daughter to put them off...

Scenario for you Motorboat in river doing probably a little over the speed limit, one 2 foot wash in tow. Us in tender sunny day going to go sailing.... See the boat coming try and get as far as possible from wake. Slow dinghy down head into it as slow as possible dinghy slamming and pitches water into the dinghy soaking wet 5 year old... No amount of consoling a days sailing cancelled it was nearly a month before I could get her out to the boat.

No one is asking MOB's to reduce speed whenever they see a sailing boat, just consider the effect of there wash when they are in proximity of other boats. Is it really that much of a problem to alter course a few degrees to give the extra 100m clearance or reduce speed a couple of minutes earlier instead of at the entrance to the channel or harbor? or drop below the speed limit if there wash is excessive?

Some of the views on here makes you realize why Yachties have such a bad reputation....
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100% agree with you.
 
The film doesn't really tell me anything I don't know already, but I have choices.

I can choose to navigate close to Cowes, where there are 50 foot mobos overtaking my smallish mobo, and if the Red Jet or the 4kt tide + WindOverTide don't get me, the Red Funnel probably will. The situation where all is calm apart from the motorboat wash is an unusual one.

Alternatively I could choose to drop North a bit and cross North of Bramble Bank, then it's just a matter of playing "frogger" across the shipping lane, and avoiding the container ships or commercial traffic.

The Solent does not exist purely for the pleasure of the smallest boat owner. Again, there is a choice here: people can rant about this until it becomes their obituary, or they can work around it and try to enjoy what the place does offer.
 
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JumbleDuck said:
Perhaps, but it is perhaps less unreasonable to hope that they might make small adjustments to their courses and speeds in the interests of friendliness. Good manners cost nothing.
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I am not sure if you are aware how much normal marine traffic already tiptoe around us WAFA's. Most power driven vessels avoid us like the plague due to our propensity of changing direction without warning at any given time, and of course the firm belief amongst us that 'power gives way to sail' - a top trump card that beats every other colreg
 
One simply can't expect a perfect world or its inhabitants to all be reasonable or intelligent people. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to grip for dear life onto the boom whilst lashing down the mainsail outside the entrance to the Hamble channel and other such places needlessly made turbulent by cretins with engines.

As with riding a bicycle or motorcycle and wishing to stay alive with four functioning limbs, one has to assume that no-one is aware of your presence (even though its only probably one in ten), no-one is in full or competent control of their vessel/vehicle (ditto), a minute minority actively wish to kill you (it happened to me on a bicycle), some will be under the influence of one substance or another (it happened to me in a car crash), plenty will be distracted by their mobile phones, someone will plough into you having just had a heart-attack (its happened to me in a truck), etc.

One can't legislate for idiots. One just has to remain fully aware ('keep watch', if you like) and constantly think for everyone else. It just goes with the environment and is part of the fun. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised by good manners and - more importantly - good seamanship. The rest of the time is what swear-words are for!
 
There are a few things you can do to avoid the problem and if you watch the fleet around you, you can often figure out what that is.

For example, when exiting the Hamble, motor towards Southampton and put your sails up well away from the stream of mobo's that are heading out for the day. Repeat when coming home.

Try to avoid the obvious mobo route from Hamble to Cowes. If you watch the mobo's they almost all take the same route, its almost as if there is a hidden track they are following.

We have also trained the family to watch for wash and to call it out, especially if somebody is on deck or in the heads. The wash itself is not the problem it is being taken by surprise.
 
Babylon said:
One simply can't expect a perfect world or its inhabitants to all be reasonable or intelligent people. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to grip for dear life onto the boom whilst lashing down the mainsail outside the entrance to the Hamble channel and other such places needlessly made turbulent by cretins with engines.

As with riding a bicycle or motorcycle and wishing to stay alive with four functioning limbs, one has to assume that no-one is aware of your presence (even though its only probably one in ten), no-one is in full or competent control of their vessel/vehicle (ditto), a minute minority actively wish to kill you (it happened to me on a bicycle), some will be under the influence of one substance or another (it happened to me in a car crash), plenty will be distracted by their mobile phones, someone will plough into you having just had a heart-attack (its happened to me in a truck), etc.

One can't legislate for idiots. One just has to remain fully aware ('keep watch', if you like) and constantly think for everyone else. It just goes with the environment and is part of the fun. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised by good manners and - more importantly - good seamanship. The rest of the time is what swear-words are for!
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Dear me, it does seem that you are accident prone. What a misfortune.
 
Small multihulls are particularly vulnerable to wash, especially in light winds where there is little load on the sails to counteract the extremely violent motion generated. I got caught out big time trying to sail into Poole past the chain ferry. A succession of mobs came past leaving me completely dead in the water, I actually had to start the outboard to get out of the situation! Lesson learnt, now I factor in such considerations early on and tack straight across their bows as they approach me.........

On a serious note I think it's just part of seamanship. Manners are nice and I do think there are occasions when we could all be a bit more considerate of each others needs, especially in crowded waters, but the bottom line is these things happen, we all know and expect it, and if you get into a situation where it might be particularly dangerous (as it was for me in Poole) then you should be looking at your own seamanship rather than just passing the responsibility elsewhere.
 
I think when you are actually underway, you have to be prepared to face waves, however generated. The real danger is to stationary boats, whether anchored, moored, or tied up, when understandably, things are lying around.
 
Triassic said:
...I think it's just part of seamanship. Manners are nice and I do think there are occasions when we could all be a bit more considerate of each others needs, especially in crowded waters, but the bottom line is these things happen, we all know and expect it, and... you should be looking at your own seamanship rather than just passing the responsibility elsewhere.
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Yes.
 
Yes. I often display appalling seamanship by following a narrow buoyed channel out of our home port instead of showing consideration to those in a hurry by venturing into the shallows. My boat is insured after all, so what would it matter if it foundered?
 
PhillM said:
We have also trained the family to watch for wash and to call it out, especially if somebody is on deck or in the heads. The wash itself is not the problem it is being taken by surprise.
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This was banged in to us on my CC and DS courses in the Solent.

The most inconsiderate wash I've seen was in Weymouth Bay just outside the harbour entrance when a mobo went past some kids in Toppers before slowing down, he must have been about 20m from a young lass in a Topper. I hope it didn't put her off sailing.
 
I suspect very few mobo owners realise the effect their wash has on sailing boats. When you are hurtling along on the plane, skipping from top to top, it can be fairly bumpy anyway so hitting a bit of wash from another boat makes little difference to a RIB (and could actually be considered exciting!), and the bigger cruisers are probably not affected so much due to their size.
 
On our Powerboat Level 2 course, the effect of wash was constantly hammered into us. Though our instructor was a dinghy instructor, so that's probably why!
 
Babylon said:
I've lost count of the number of times I've had to grip for dear life onto the boom whilst lashing down the mainsail outside the entrance to the Hamble channel
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To be fair this is about the only place we ever really have a problem. On the Elan it's an inconvenience really, not a problem, but it is very rare for us to go through the dropping sails (especially mainsail, which needs rolling) evolution without having to warn those working on the deck of incoming wash. And it's the reason we now have a standard practice of sheeting the main on hard as soon as the sail is down to lock the boom in place, otherwise it can swing wildly with wash, and it's the only thing to hold on to when stood on the cabin roof rolling the main. So yes, it's a small issue, and yes we have applied seamanship to solve it. It is a lot, lot worse for lightly crewed small cruising boats though.

Basically caused, as others have said, by big Mobos seeing the end of the Hamble markers in the same light as a National speed limit sign on exiting a village, rather than waiting until through the busy section before opening the throttles. Or conversely waiting until the last minute before chopping the speed.

Slightly unusual place though, as it's about the only place where the obvious place to drop the sails is not inside the speed restriction. At Cowes, where the wash is a lot worse than outside the Hamble in general, we would drop the main well inside the river.
 
johnalison said:
Yes. I often display appalling seamanship by following a narrow buoyed channel out of our home port instead of showing consideration to those in a hurry by venturing into the shallows. My boat is insured after all, so what would it matter if it foundered?
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That would rather depend if the shallows were a hazard to you or not. It is good seamanship to avoid exposing your vessel to unnecessary risk, so if you can use the shallows and by doing so avoid conflict with those using the deep water channel then do so, I often can and do . If you are constrained by draught then I would suggest your vessel is probably quite capable of surviving some wash, providing you are suitably prepared for it, which would again be good seamanship.

This thread asked if wash should be a safety concern, I think most definitely so if you are in a dinghy or similar, but not in anything larger providing you are properly prepared.
 
thecommander said:
On our Powerboat Level 2 course, the effect of wash was constantly hammered into us. Though our instructor was a dinghy instructor, so that's probably why!
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You say that but, in Mersea Quarters, it's the dinghy sailors ferrying crew around in RIBs who are speeding at half-displacement through the trots just as you're trying to pour a cup of tea or serve dinner.
 
Triassic said:
That would rather depend if the shallows were a hazard to you or not. It is good seamanship to avoid exposing your vessel to unnecessary risk, so if you can use the shallows and by doing so avoid conflict with those using the deep water channel then do so, I often can and do . If you are constrained by draught then I would suggest your vessel is probably quite capable of surviving some wash, providing you are suitably prepared for it, which would again be good seamanship.

This thread asked if wash should be a safety concern, I think most definitely so if you are in a dinghy or similar, but not in anything larger providing you are properly prepared.
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I suggest that you try grounding your boat on Pye Sands and see what it feels like.
 
Something that is not always fully appreciated is the effect of even a moderate wash when it reaches shallow water. When my grandkids were toddlers we anchored off a beach and rowed ashore in an inflatable. A wash from a boat suddenly got very steep & flipped us over. There was no speed limit and he wasn't very close and probably unaware of the problem he caused, but if he had looked astern occasionally he would see how his wake behaves at the shoreline. The kids were scared for a time but soon recovered, the two cameras never did.
I believe it was this effect of wash and shallow water that caused the fatalities with the Harwich Seacat years ago.
 
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