21EC in challenging seas

[Fisho]

For information of other 21EC owners. I have had my 21EC for several years (and absolutely love it) but never had it offshore in challenging seas (for this boat anyway). So a couple of days ago I took it with a mate for a 8 hour cruise off shore on the far south coast of NSW in Australia knowing some poor weather was coming. I did log on to our Marine Rescue who could track me. The weather in the morning was great but after lunch the weather deteriorated. We returned to port in 20-25+ knot winds coming from 45 degrees off our starboard bow. There was not a big swell but a very messy chop of about 3 feet with the odd chop about 4 feet. I had the boat on autopilot at 2600rpm doing about 6 knots. We ran on this course for about 2.5 hours and about 2-3 miles off shore. Overall the boat handled it very well. At no time did I feel unsafe and at no time did any waves enter the cockpit even though all cushions were soaked from spray and splashed water. There was lots of spray and splashed water in the cockpit. On the whole trip the automatic bilge pump only came on once. However it was a very ROUGH ride where we had to hang on all the time. I had to pack away everything that could move into a big box. The boat rocked incessantly from side to side and sometimes violently, and every minute or so came down heavily in a trough with a bang. But overall the boat handled the conditions much better than I expected. I only went out knowingly in this weather to test out the boat and won’t be doing it again but I am now much more confident on what the boat can handle. The only scary part was a very large Humpback whale, a mother with a baby, rose about 150 feet to starboard heading directly in our path. I had to kill the autopilot and turn sharply to port. It was thrashing its tail etc so a bit scary but all ok. I put the boat back on autopilot and continued on our journey. One of the really enjoyable parts of the experience was the little 30HP Yanmar just kept chugging along. Never missed a beat. It gave me a lot of confidence. Since there are often questions on how our little tugs handle different conditions I thought my experience may be of interest.

 

[Capt’nKarl]

Great information and thanks for sharing. We were in our 21 at anchor off Ship Island in the Mississippi Gulf a couple of years ago and were awakened by a severe thunderstorm. At 2AM we decided to pull up the anchor and head to calmer waters. In 5-6 foots seas, gusty winds and a heavy swell the tug never faltered. Something we don’t want to repeat but it sure gave us confidence in the boat.
Cheers