Are you an all Weather Trawler?

[Dave_E]

If using your trawler during inclement weather counts... I stay aboard every Friday night , rain or wind at our marina in LaConner, WA all year long. I feel like, if I visit the boat, stay aboard, operate the systems and use her... she stays healthy. At 41 years old, leaks can pop up any time and a visit once a week, helps me keep ahead of problems. Besides that... I love being on the boat, weather be damned (I know, easy to say when your tied securely to a good dock with the shore power plugged in).

Dave

 

[markpierce]

I much prefer aimed at waves rather then them hitting me from the side or stern. Prefer pitching over rolling.

 

[Al]

Yes, travel in the rain, and snow, and sleet, and hail, and even on occasion sunshine.

My limits relate to wind. If it is really windy and if that wind is going to be against the current, then I’ll stay at anchor or at the dock.

Ditto! at 28 feet, 2' seas and over is check mate.

 

[Al]

Krogen 42

Will keep an eye open for you as you pass Pond Reef, North of Ketchikan. Have those large Chinese benocks, so don't be pissing overboard on the SB side!!!

Have a safe trip Stripper, if you need anything in K-Town, give me a shout
907-225-8287

Al

 

[caltexflanc]

Wifey B: Yes, but at 3' I haven't ever found one that would make me stay in. Maybe if it was 3' at 1/2 second. I've seen some 3' Chesapeake Chop that was a bit rough but even that wouldn't keep me in.

That depends on the boat, now doesn't it?

 

[BandB]

That depends on the boat, now doesn't it?

Wifey B: Yes, but at 3' and then someone mentioned 2', I'm shocked that one has an issue with any boat. I see why so many never run outside the ICW. Our RIB's handle 3' at any period I've encountered without a problem.

 

[201807]

Don't judge. Ours is not a blue water boat. 3 foot waves on a river is kinda high. We will wait until it calms down.

 

[BandB]

Don't judge. Ours is not a blue water boat. 3 foot waves on a river is kinda high. We will wait until it calms down.

Wifey B: I'm wondering if all of you are judging wave height correctly. It is the difference between the crest and the trough. That means a 3' wave is only 1.5' above a calm sea or flat water surface.

 

[OldDan1943]

That depends on the boat, now doesn't it?

and the skill and experience of the Captain and crew.

 

[AusCan]

I’m a bit surprised at the mention of 2 or 3 foot wave limits. That would discount 98% of the year for boating around here.

I just had a look at the weather over the next 7 days. Waves constantly over 4 feet and up to 11 feet. Still planning a couple days trips. Too rolly for anchoring out in most nearby spots though.

 

[caltexflanc]

Stacked 3 footers on the nose on the Pamlico Sound, for instance, or San Pablo Bay for another, will A) keep 98% of the boats in the marina that might otherwise go out. B) even in a bigger boat, like ramming into a 3 foot berm every few seconds. There's a reason you don't see many if any boats out on an otherwise nice sunny day in June with those conditions. I know, I have taken a hull count many times when we were one of the 2%. Not so much a matter of captain and crew skill, but of their tolerance, given how their boat reacts to those conditions. And as one of my favorite borrowed sayings go "the true sign of a captain with superior seamanship skills is he avoids putting himself in the position of having to use them". Boaters who avoid conditions they don't like to deal with have my respect.

 

[BandB]

Boaters who avoid conditions they don't like to deal with have my respect.

Wifey B: I totally agree with that and if any of the 2' or 3' conditions bother them, they shouldn't go out. I'm just a bit shocked to hear people say they don't go out in 2' or 3'. It wouldn't eliminate 98% for us as it does for AusCan but would eliminate at least 60% of our boating.

 

[MurrayM]

Wifey B: I totally agree with that and if any of the 2' or 3' conditions bother them, they shouldn't go out. I'm just a bit shocked to hear people say they don't go out in 2' or 3'. It wouldn't eliminate 98% for us as it does for AusCan but would eliminate at least 60% of our boating.

Depends on the area.

If the wind is strong enough to pile up 3’ waves in a twisting, narrow waterway with sections of short fetch, they are going to be steep and closely packed. We get conditions like that a lot and spray goes over the pilothouse when punching into it, and going beam to is definitely a bad idea.

Also, brackish or fresh water piles up faster and steeper.

 

[ak-guy]

Rain, fog, even snow probably wouldn't stop us in our Allweather. Depending on where we want to go and the wind direction we would avoid beam seas. Our little boat is quite seaworthy but it bobs around like a cork and has a roll that can hurt you if you are not holding on. We are planning a last outing before hauling out for the winter in the next few days, temps in the 30's to low 40's and wet.

 

[dhays]

I’m a bit surprised at the mention of 2 or 3 foot wave limits. That would discount 98% of the year for boating around here.

I just had a look at the weather over the next 7 days. Waves constantly over 4 feet and up to 11 feet. Still planning a couple days trips. Too rolly for anchoring out in most nearby spots though.

It all has to do with the level of comfort. My wife really doesn't like getting tossed around, so her tolerance isn't as high as mine. Even so, I'd just as soon not have quartering waves that might spill my coffee.


The other issue is the boat. You have a motor sailor. In my sailboat, I don't ever recall even considering the seas before heading out. First of all, a bit of sail and 6' keel does wonders for the ride. Secondly, I think expectations are a bit different in a sailboat. Seas that were exhilarating in the sailboat are simply no fun in the power boat.

 

[O C Diver]

A lot also depends on wave direction. Was out in Albemarle sound and the Alligator river on Saturday. 2 hours in 2 to 3' beams seas with three 4 to 5' waves every couple of minutes just to make you hate the sounds of NC, was enough to make anyone miserable. Once I was in the Alligator river, winds picked up to 35 knots. Wind fetch was short enough to only yield 2' seas and white foam. It was so miserable that I had a 40' sailboat use me as a wind block down the Alligator and through the Alligator Pungo canal. 30 miles with a sailboat 300' off your beam and a$$, using you as a wind block.

You haven't been beaten until you do 4' plus short chop on the beam, in the sounds of NC.

Ted

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: A few posts now on beam seas. One thing I've learned is that many trawlers and full displacement boats perform very poorly in such seas. This would definitely be an area type boat comes into play. As we have planing and semi-planing hulls, we're able to match speed to waves and also to go wider routes to hit beam seas at better angles and don't experience the same issues in beam seas of the height discussed. Plus we are stablized.

 

[OldDan1943]

People talk a lot about beam seas. Try quartering them, tack port and starboard at regular intervals so as to maintain the desired course.

 

[O C Diver]

Wifey B: A few posts now on beam seas. One thing I've learned is that many trawlers and full displacement boats perform very poorly in such seas. This would definitely be an area type boat comes into play. As we have planing and semi-planing hulls, we're able to match speed to waves and also to go wider routes to hit beam seas at better angles and don't experience the same issues in beam seas of the height discussed. Plus we are stablized.

Kind of tough to do when you need to stay in a channel as opposed to running aground or surfing through a field of crab pot markers. Certainly the mundane express lane of the ocean offers you those advantages. For those of us who are all about the scenery of the journey as opposed to the destination, we endure the bumps and potholes of the road less traveled.

Ted

 

[Bigsfish]

OldDan. Easy to do in south Biscayne Bay, more difficult in many areas in the ICW.

 

[OldDan1943]

OldDan. Easy to do in south Biscayne Bay, more difficult in many areas in the ICW.

3Ft waves in the narrow part of the ICW? Never saw or heard of that. I'll take your word for that.

Psst, there are always exceptions to every rule.

 

[AusCan]

Wifey B: A few posts now on beam seas. One thing I've learned is that many trawlers and full displacement boats perform very poorly in such seas. This would definitely be an area type boat comes into play. As we have planing and semi-planing hulls, we're able to match speed to waves and also to go wider routes to hit beam seas at better angles and don't experience the same issues in beam seas of the height discussed. Plus we are stablized.

Every boat has its pluses and minus’s.

The worst for me is beam seas when there is no wind to use the sails to stabilise the roll. Even at 45 degrees to the wind there is a lot of coffee spilled in those conditions. If there’s 10 or 20 knots of wind in the sails, no problem.
Going with the waves is a dream with a canoe stern. That’s when I really love being out in rough water. (As long as the waves aren’t breaking; that gets a little too stressful)

 

[koliver]

Timely thread.
Nov 1, I get my shelter back after a summer out. So tomorrow, Halloween, I will make my annual homeward (for the boat) trek to Vancouver. I have been watching Windy.com and conditions look good. Winds are negligible, sea state is low, .7m and falling for the time I will be exposed, and I can choose to have the swells behind me by going out through Active Pass, or hope the predicted height is not exceeded and get some beam on by going out through Porlier.
I haven't looked to see if there is rain, I just presume there will be. In fact I would prefer not to need to hose the boat off when I get to the marina.
For a few days Windy was showing a much better day today than tomorrow, but early this morning when I checked, they looked the same, so I chose to wait. Tonight, it will be windy, 15 to 20, but those winds die off and the sea state diminishes by the time I get through the pass, if Windy is correct.

Accuracy of prediction at this time of year is never a sure thing. Last year, after poking my nose out through Active Pass, I had to turn back, as the wave action was too much. I was finding a 3' to 4' square wave on the nose that would stop my boat so quickly that my fwd facing cupboards were coming open. My boat is usually comfortable in up to 6' waves, but won't do square ones.

Hopefully the hardest part of the trip will be the walk from the marina to the Waterfront Skytrain, to begin the journey home.

 

[BandB]

3Ft waves in the narrow part of the ICW? Never saw or heard of that. I'll take your word for that.

Psst, there are always exceptions to every rule.

Wifey B: I was curious how we went from 3' to being unable to tack or maneuver in the narrow ICW. Seems to me it would be one or the other but not normal to have both at the same time.

 

[OldDan1943]

Wifey B: I was curious how we went from 3' to being unable to tack or maneuver in the narrow ICW. Seems to me it would be one or the other but not normal to have both at the same time.

SMILE
People like to add conditions and exceptions.
All this talk would be mute if the ICW is drained for cleaning. :lol:

 

[caltexflanc]

There are quite a few spots along the entire length of ICW, Bogue Sound for instance, or the entrance to the Alligator River, where the channel itself is quite narrow but the water is wide and shallow.

 

[BandB]

SMILE
People like to add conditions and exceptions.
All this talk would be mute if the ICW is drained for cleaning. :lol:

Wifey B: From what I'm hearing from a captain taking an older trawler up the coast right now, if it doesn't get some dredging soon, it may also be moot.

 

[OldDan1943]

Wifey B: From what I'm hearing from a captain taking an older trawler up the coast right now, if it doesn't get some dredging soon, it may also be moot.

BandB, for as long as I remember, people have always said, "The ICW needs to be dredged." Long after I am dead, the new generation will be saying, "The ICW needs dredging."
The only way the ICW would get the attention it needs is if it were used in major commerce transportation. Consider the Mississippi River..... barge traffic is important for moving oil, grains etc. If a complaint is filed, the area will be dredged a lot sooner than a stretch of the ICW on the east coast.

I would like to see the inlets dredged more frequently so as to remove the deltas in those areas. Usually the shore line of an inlet is a collection of rocks.

Not many boater are prepared to meet a boat coming in as they are trying to get out to the ocean. Things can get a tad bit exciting passing through an inlet while trying to avoid the shallow deltas, the rocks and a larger boat, that is more restricted in by its draft and ability to navigate the 'narrows' at a slow speed.
I have made it a habit to pass the inlet, going out, checking for a large boat coming in. If it is safe, I will then pick a safe path to pass through the inlet.

I am surprised more accidents do not happen at the 2 lane inlets especially with smaller boats. For some reason, the smaller boats fail to understand, not all boats are a nibble as their boat.

And the last words heard on the VHF were, "I have the right of way."

 

[BandB]

And the last words heard on the VHF were, "I have the right of way."

I once heard a sailboater tell a tow with 16 barges that he had the right of way. Very politely, the tow captain responded, "First, you don't, but regardless please keep in mind that I can squash you like a little insect."

That ended the fight over space.

 

[OldDan1943]

I once heard a sailboater tell a tow with 16 barges that he had the right of way. Very politely, the tow captain responded, "First, you don't, but regardless please keep in mind that I can squash you like a little insect."

That ended the fight over space.

Now that is funny.