Crossing bars with breaking waves?

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cardude01

cardude01

Guru
Joined
Nov 26, 2012
Messages
5,290
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Bijou
Vessel Make
2008 Island Packet PY/SP
I’m so glad I don’t boat in an area where I would have to cross a bar regularly. This kind of stuff would scare me to death in my slow boat.

The prudent thing to do is not to attempt a bar crossing in conditions like this obviously, but I suppose for a smaller boat staying out at sea until the tide changes may not be an option?

The closest Gulf inlet I have on Longboat Key (Longboat Pass) has breaking waves all around it on many days it seems, and I’ve been too sacred to try it. I want to test it out with someone who has experience first.

https://youtu.be/9lsAnmnFPIo
 
Yup...gnarly stuff.

If I lived in such an area and had a boat that wasn't fast enough to stay on the backs of waves, I'd get me one of these (after ensuring cockpit drainage was up to the job and the aft door was strong enough) https://www.burkemarine.com.au/pages/seabrake
 
Over the top, hokey, poor quality video:

 
Easy. Go somewhere else. If you have to go through breakers all of the time your luck will run out one day just like those guys in the video.
 
GFC said:
Here's another NZ video that shows how to do it safely.
Click to expand...

Good ifo, but their boat had the speed to stay on a waves back...many boats here don't. Overtaking waves, flat transoms, and slow vessel speeds make for surfing and broaching, which is where something like a Seabrake would come in handy.
 
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We only have one bar crossing in the area at the Murray River mouth. (Australia's largest river) I haven't had the guts to try it yet. I'd love to though, as there is 600 miles of navigable water if you can make it through the mouth.

The problem there is the channels change daily with the shifting sand and there is no permanent path through. The flow varies tremendously depending on rainfall and how much the irrigators are pulling off it. Boat traffic through the mouth is minimal, maybe one boat a week, and very rarely a full displacement boat. One day if I can get the local knowledge from the few that have done it, I may give it a go. My boat handles the surf better than most, but I still have concerns.
 
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cardude01 said:
Why in the world were these guys in the RIB trying to get out? That’s insane.
Click to expand...

I think the logo on the side is for a surf shop...on site fin replacement service?
 
Yeah I guess they did, but damn, some of those breaking waves were really big.
 
What we noticed, back in our sea kayaking days, was that it's not easy to judge wave sets from the back before a surf landing.

Think I'd give it more than the suggested 20 minutes in our boat...

Those Kiwi's in that video are nuts, even if their holds were full of fish and out of ice. That river current looked to be 1/2 knot slower than their boat :eek:
 
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Our bars are tame compared to up north, but I have seen Oceanside and Mission Bay with legit 10 ft breakers. Been out there, well close, on an outrigger to check them out but would never consider taking the boat through anything too crazy.
 
Benthic2 said:
Don't attempt to cross any bar when there are a dozen people shooting video of you as you approach it.
Click to expand...


Haha! Exactly. The cameraman knows it's the law of averages. One boat is guaranteed to broach or do an insane hull slap.
 
Short quote from a Practical Sailor article about sea anchors (deployed from the bow to minimize being blown backwards in a storm) and drogues (trailed from the stern to reduce vessel speed and thereby reduce the chance of surfing and broaching).

Tests conducted by the American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers have proven that a boat running before waves is likely to broach when waves approach a height equivalent to 35% of its waterline length. Steadied by a drogue, however, a boat will withstand waves as high as 55% of waterline length. And there are other virtues to towing a drogue.

Most often boats lose control running off before heavy weather because they are going too fast. Leaping off the top of one wave into the back of the one in front will, sooner or later, present problems. Calming your pace so that you stop short of pitchpoling, get a grip on broaching, and put a stop to pounding can be a simple matter of towing a drogue. Most of those available have shown that they can cut top speeds in half.
Click to expand...

https://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/26_15/features/4059-1.html

What worries me is how hard it might be to retrieve the drogue, especially if once through the bar the harbour is really small.

In our local case (long narrow mountainous channel funnelling onshore winds with an abrupt turn into the marina and a beach 200' downwind) if a drogue was used because of steep & short frequency waves, you'd have to start pulling the drogue in as you approach the marina in time to make the turn around the floating log breakwaters.

There has to be a better way...
 
Short teaser quote from Yachting Magazine...good article :thumb:

It was going to be a wild ride. With the wind against the tide I could expect a wild confusion of heavy breaking seas coming in behind. With our modest speed these breaking crests would be overtaking us; combined with the shallow water on the bar, this suggested that there was a strong risk of broaching and capsizing. OK, we were in a self-righting lifeboat, but in the confines of a narrow channel there is not much time for a second chance before you get washed ashore where the boat will not self-right.

We could have stayed out at sea and waited for the conditions to improve in the morning. Not only was that not a very appealing prospect, but it went against the spirit of the test. Besides which, we had a secret weapon on board that in theory should allow us to survive the ordeal: a drogue, which these slow lifeboats carry for use in just these conditions.
Click to expand...

https://www.yachtingmagazine.com/using-drogue
 
I don’t think my boat has the HP to overcome the drag of a drogue. Plus, I have a pretty square transom, a transom door that would probably buckle if a big wave hit, and my scuppers are too small to drain the cockpit quickly enough if it was swamped.

My plan, if I see the inlet that I wanted to come in is gnarly looking, is to just hang out outside until the tide changes or the wind/waves die down.
 
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cardude01 said:
My plan, if I see the inlet that I wanted to come in is gnarly looking, is to just hang out outside until the tide changes or the wind/waves die down.
Click to expand...

....said the wise skipper who will live to boat another day.
 
Series of videos from the New Zealand commercial fishing industry with good footage and interviews. Gnarly stuff...

Getting it wrong - part 1

Getting it right - part 2

Making the decision - part 3
 
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