Do blue water pleasure boats run into seas like this very often?
Man, I wouldn't want to be out there. Coastal boats are looking better and better to me. Or maybe I'm just a wuss?
Bluto-as FF said, if not careful pleasure boats do encounter seas like that. Hopefully good planning prevents that. But, you also have to realize that a much smaller boat will handle those seas much differently than a several hundred foot ship. Those look like very big swells with a reasonable wave period. A much smaller vessel will simply make like a roller coaster and ride up and down over them. A very uncomfortable ride to be sure, but not the massive slamming you see from a ship in the same seas. The ship's length keeps the stern down as the wave rolls beneath and as the bow goes over the crest it stays in the air until the balance point moves aft, sort of like a teeter-totter. Then the big slam!