We got waked...

My bro and his son were waked by a kid who had been drinking.
"They" decided the family would move away and the kid would not be driving a boat for a very very long time.
Results, the family did not move, the kid continued to drive a boat at high speed and no doubt continued to drink while operating a boat.
Broke my bro's leg, my nephew almost drown.

Yachtman said:

I disagree. You can run at 10-12 knots and have a small enough wake to not be an issue that tosses boats around.

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No, I definitely cannot. At that speed my wake is at its worst. A 2+ foot steep, breaking wake. As long as I keep to 7 kts or less, my wake is fairly small. At 16+ kts it's bigger, but not huge, nowhere near as big as at 10 kts. At 17 kts, it looks like the picture below. At 10-12, double that. And if I trim down further on plane, I can reduce it a bit.

"No wake" means no wake. It doesn't mean, a little bit of a wake.
The captain should know when to reduce his speed so he will pass a boat with a ripple, not a little bit of a wake.
IF more captains were reported to the authorities the more responsive the captains will be.

OldDan1943 said:

"No wake" means no wake. It doesn't mean, a little bit of a wake.
The captain should know when to reduce his speed so he will pass a boat with a ripple, not a little bit of a wake.
IF more captains were reported to the authorities the more responsive the captains will be.

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I definitely see way too many people pushing the limits in a no wake zone. But in general, I think the bigger concern in this thread is what's reasonable, expected, etc. when not in a no wake zone.

rslifkin said:

No, I definitely cannot. At that speed my wake is at its worst. A 2+ foot steep, breaking wake. As long as I keep to 7 kts or less, my wake is fairly small. At 16+ kts it's bigger, but not huge, nowhere near as big as at 10 kts. At 17 kts, it looks like the picture below. At 10-12, double that. And if I trim down further on plane, I can reduce it a bit.

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Same here. Only time I am at less than 16 MPH is in "maneuver" water or passing some slow vessel I cannot get at least a quater mile away from.

OldDan1943 said:

"No wake" means no wake. It doesn't mean, a little bit of a wake.
The captain should know when to reduce his speed so he will pass a boat with a ripple, not a little bit of a wake.
IF more captains were reported to the authorities the more responsive the captains will be.

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There`s a place called Cottage Point on our Hawkesbury cruising grounds. As well as a boat repair yard,KMYC with fuel outlet, a lot of moorings, houses with jetties(small wharves), a Marine Rescue base(a bit like Coastguard but not Leos), volunteer staffed. It`s a "no wash" area, we go to near idle when passing. I was impressed seeing a Marine Rescue catamaran returning to base, dead slow, almost no discernible wake, being good neighbours. KMYC`s fuel outlet has a potent loud hailer and VHF to call out wake offenders.

80 ft sunseeker predator doing 30 knots in a confined, shallow channel puts up a hell of a wash.
Bell End on the gold coast waked our 60ft 65 tonne and then came back half an hour later and did it again.
There were breakages.
And rude words said.

BruceK said:

. KMYC`s fuel outlet has a potent loud hailer and VHF to call out wake offenders.

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Reminds me of back in the day in Manly harbour here in Qld and there was an actual harbour master on the jetty and a turning basin in the harbour (back before every inch was marina berths)

We'd come screaming in (and a pile of other fast boats) with strong NE to SE, sometimes, running kites doing mid teens and drop and round up in the basin. (Multis and sports boats)

Old mate would be out screaming into his loudhailer 4 knots, 4 KNOTS.
No wake, but certainly speeding.

rslifkin said:

No, I definitely cannot. At that speed my wake is at its worst. A 2+ foot steep, breaking wake. As long as I keep to 7 kts or less, my wake is fairly small. At 16+ kts it's bigger, but not huge, nowhere near as big as at 10 kts. At 17 kts, it looks like the picture below. At 10-12, double that. And if I trim down further on plane, I can reduce it a bit.

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Now with that pictured wake and a close pass, I could very easily tuck into the trough and barely be "waked".

My AT seems to always have a bow wake.... stern wake at idle/steering speed, not so much.

boomerang said:

Now with that pictured wake and a close pass, I could very easily tuck into the trough and barely be "waked".

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That's the beauty of a low deadrise planing hull with no prop pockets or anything. It gives up some in deeper draft and needing to slow down in bad chop, but has plenty of lift to get the hull up and fairly clean water flow off the hull. So it doesn't produce the lethal wake some others do. And stuffing the bow down extra-far with the trim tabs cuts the wake down even a bit more.

I think it is the same as “reckless driving” both operators having control of speed and direction in a motor powered vehicle or vessel. No wake makers usually produced from sailboats, or self powered vessels.
IMO boat captains are responsible for making the boat safe while underway. That means securing anything and everything that might be damaged or cause damage while underway. It also means making sure those aboard know how to stay safe to avoid injuries from being aboard an unstable platform. The best legal way to prove damages caused by another boat IMO is with video evidence. Most everyone’s cell phone can video and photo record damages.
Hopefully going to court can be uncommon and rare if the boat is made ready for operation by making it safe to start with and operating it using basic seamanship skills.

Greetings,
Mr. HDH. Agree on the captains responsibility. It is ALSO incumbent upon the captain to keep a good watch or ensure that the person at the helm keeps a good watch to be able to anticipate any hazards and react in a timely fashion to mitigate said hazards. These patrol boats did NOT magically appear at high speed. I suspect
BOTH the captain and con were not paying attention and want to blame their inattentiveness on someone else.
HAS happened to me and other than being miffed at the waker, I was more angry at myself for not seeing it coming and preparing.

While I agree (mostly) with what RTF and others are saying about preparing your boat before departure (and maintaining an effective watch), there is also the situation where you are waked while docked or anchored.

I witnessed such an occasion while tied to the dock at Refuge Cove in Desolation Sound. This (at best) inconsiderate boater came into the dock area at a much higher speed than needed and maintained that speed until it was too late to stop his large wake from following him into the marina area. One poor unsuspecting lady on board a boat that was tied to the dock was actually thrown to the deck of the galley while trying to prepare breakfast for her crew. Luckily, she was not seriously injured, nor was anyone else. The guilty party did not even tie up, and just left, but at least he was now aware of the carnage and upset he created by his careless actions. Very caring individual I would suspect!!
Many times at that busy marina (local fuel dock, restaurant, and food store) people "bring their wakes" into the marina and give everyone there a "free ride", but that one was the worst by far that I have ever seen anywhere. I do not believe that as the Captain of my boat I have to keep it "seaworthy" (and stay alert) even when tied to the dock so that "wakers" can just be ignorant or self centred.

My "wake" leaving marina after making a four-second horn signal:

markpierce said:

My "wake" leaving marina after making a four-second horn signal:

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Looks pretty similar to mine at 5-ish kts for a no wake zone (idle gives a little over 4 kts, so I consider 5 kts to be about minimum continuous speed to get the engines at least a little bit above idle).

friz said:

He must have been passing very close for a cross bow to penetrate the hull. Although illegal and dangerous I like it. We owned a pontoon. Often at anchor swimming and fishing jerk skiers think we liked to have them buzz us even with a "diver down" flag. I kept a fishing pole handy with a Daredevil treble hook lure. We owned the pontoon for 17 years. Only hooked one. He had the good sense not to involve the FWC.

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To clarify, it was not his boat that got shot by the crossbow. His picture was of a guy that pulled into a marina at Dog River. It was a 30something express cruiser.

Sometime it is a difficult call between 'no wake' and 'maintaining steerage'.

So, boat builders create boats that can't be steered without making a wake? Thus, creating "illegal" boats?

markpierce said:

So, boat builders create boats that can't be steered without making a wake? Thus, creating "illegal" boats?

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No, I don't really think so but its a story some use
Its probably more that they have so much power that idle has them running 10 knots (guess) therefore a wash.

Click in and out of gear
Use a trolling valve on gearbox.

markpierce said:

So, boat builders create boats that can't be steered without making a wake? Thus, creating "illegal" boats?

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It's not that the boats can't necessarily be run at a no wake speed (although as mentioned, some either need trolling valves, 1 engine out of gear, etc. to achieve it). It's that when conditions become less than good (in terms of wind, current, etc.) it can become challenging to keep good enough maneuverability and maintain no wake speed. Fortunately, conditions like that are pretty rare for most boats.

Greetings,
Mr. mp. I don't think it's possible to run at absolutely no wake. Even a drifting boat leaves a wake. The issue is, I suppose, an "acceptable, minimum wake" perhaps no more than wind or current driven.
I've heard than any wake that doesn't curl is considered minimum. Not sure how true that is.


Mr. rs. Our small boat (23' PennYan Sportfish) handles abysmally at idle speeds (500RPM) but does quite well at 900RPM beyond which point it produces a wake that, in MY opinion, is above minimum. When maneuvering I do bump her in and out of gear along with stop to stop wheel manipulations. Looks like I'm grinding coffee.

RT Firefly said:

Mr. rs. Our small boat (23' PennYan Sportfish) handles abysmally at idle speeds (500RPM) but does quite well at 900RPM beyond which point it produces a wake that, in MY opinion, is above minimum. When maneuvering I do bump her in and out of gear along with stop to stop wheel manipulations. Looks like I'm grinding coffee.

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Those are the times where some discretion is required. Even in a no wake zone, I'd be looking at what's around me to assess whether slightly more wake is at any risk of bothering or damaging anything / anyone. If not, stretch it a little and make life easier. If there's easily damaged stuff close by, well...


Wind can also be an interesting factor. I noticed an interesting effect last year coming up the Oswego Canal against a 20-ish kt headwind. For the wider areas of canal, I was only needing to slow down a little bit past docks, not nearly as much as normal (down to 1100 or 1200 rpm from 1300, when I'd usually be down to 900 or 1000). The headwind was knocking a lot of energy out of my wake, so for the docks and such that were slightly further away, my wake was flattened to nothing by the time it reached them even at the higher speed.



And of course, there are always the people who interpret a no wake zone as "go as slow as your boat can" and only judge based on speed, not the actual wake. I once got screamed at ("slow down, you're going way too fast!") for doing 5 kts past a guy in a smaller boat that was doing about 2.5 - 3 kts. I was making no more wake than he was, but he was moving well below my idle speed, so going as slow as he expected would have been a challenge (and completely unnecessary).

RT Firefly said:

The issue is, I suppose, an "acceptable, minimum wake" perhaps no more than wind or current driven.
I've heard than any wake that doesn't curl is considered minimum. Not sure how true that is.

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I wish that were totally true.... Maybe 80% of the time. A canoe might not appreciate your ripples.

Dropping in behind someone to avoid a wake suggests you will experience 1/2 the wake until you fall behind and then, you will experience the wake when it comes together.

I have always taken the wake on my bow. Now I read, taking the wake on the stern my be a better idea?

OldDan1943 said:

I wish that were totally true.... Maybe 80% of the time. A canoe might not appreciate your ripples.

Dropping in behind someone to avoid a wake suggests you will experience 1/2 the wake until you fall behind and then, you will experience the wake when it comes together.

I have always taken the wake on my bow. Now I read, taking the wake on the stern my be a better idea?

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If only learning now that taking a wake on the stern is often OK....

psneeld said:

If only learning now that taking a wake on the stern is often OK....

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LOL, dont look at me. That was a question.

markpierce said:

So, who has not been violently waked?

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Major point you've made. It happens. Shouldn't but does and we all better be prepared for it.

BandB said:

Major point you've made. It happens. Shouldn't but does and we all better be prepared for it.

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Stay Woke

markpierce said:

So, who has not been violently waked?

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Until about a year ago, I was never seriously waked. Mainly due to not boating in busy or narrow water.

My first and only big wake came from this boat. I considered making a complaint, but thought better of it.