Running in following seas

[sidetrack]

Was running in a fairly heavy "following sea. (Aprox 6' rollers very tightly spaced.... which is normal here). This vessel is new to me.... but I found that it broached very easily if I didnt have the seas exactly behind me. Could not let them "quarter" the vessel. What position of trim tabs is recommended?

 

[bbrh842]

Sidetrack.
Keep the trim tabs all the way up to allow the bow to rise and prevent plowing.
The problem you experienced is due to the rudder on the R-25 being a bit small to have much authority, except at higher rpms. You may have to raise the rpm to 2400 or better for the rudder to have much effect. Too bad this is not exactly what you want to do when you are surfing down a wave. However, the higher rpm does not result in much increase in your speed, versus say 1600 rpm. Only about 1.5 knots.
In the Forum Index, type in the word seaworthyness, to see previous posts regarding this subject.

 

[Levitation]

We chartered an American Tug out of Ft. Meyer 2 winters ago... The first day out we took a local captain because of lots of skinny water and this fresh water boy is not that familiar with markings where the intercoastal buoys and the sea buoys and the local river buoys all come together... Experience proved it was a good decision (he put us aground twice, snicker)...

Anyway, coming back into the marina after a long day on the water I gave the wheel to the captain so I could hit the head and have a a swig of ice tea... As he was turning to go across the bay my eyes noted that the dredged channel was very narrow and we were at low tide with shallows outside of the channel cut, the direction of the wind which had piped up to 20 knots (starboard beam), the direction of the waves (following 3-4 footers, quartering stern portside) and the current running diagonal to all that...
He says, "Ready to take her?"...
I said , "Nyaa I'm kinda tired, take us to port, oh my Captain!"... (my mama didn't raise any stupid children that lived)
"OK!", he says with a smile...

Well sir, by the time we turned into the marina, our hero captain was drenched with sweat from cranking the wheel from lock to lock to keep us in the narrow dredged channel whilst the boat was doing absolutely everything in it's power to broach and roll... It is not just Ranger Tugs...

 

[Garry and Victoria]

I've struggled with this when sailing even though sailboats typically have larger rudders than power boats.

As I understand it, the water is flowing forward down the face of the wave while pushing the boat forward. Thus, the rudder is seeing much less water velocity than the boat speed (possibly even negative velocity) resulting in poor handling. I've heard that the trick, particularly coming in an inlet, is to postiion the boat on the back of a wave and keep her there. This might take some jockeying with the throttle but provide better handling. Sailboats usually don't have the speed for this but power boats should have the capability for it.

Any comments or experience?

 

[captd]

We have had a thread or two on this topic. Question was whether to hit the power to avoid a broach or to back off. My theory as practiced last winter was to give a burst of power just to straighten the boat out then back off quickly and try to stay on the wave. On those threads , I was hoping for more input and opinions. There is no question there is a big difference between 12 ft swells mixed with breaking waves and 6ft., short, close together waves. Tampa Bay was a horse of a different color last winter. I was wishing I would have had the factory install a two inch ball on the pilot seat.

At one time with the 22 ft. C-Dory, a friend and I were fishing off Carrabelle, Florida. The waves got to be five to six feet and so close together the bow plowed into green water every time. Water was very shallow causing it to get rough in a short length of time.

I would like to hear from the more salty guys to see which is the best way to go. 😳

Captd

 

[rt11002003]

I've found that I handle it just as I do with a sailboat. Get on the wave, wiggle the rudder and steer like crazy. "wiggling" the rudder helps the boat accelerate and induces surfing (increases speed). However, my R21EC has a good sized rudder. Trying for additional power doesn't seem to work well. The engine accelerates too slowly to be very effective, one is off the wave before the power gets there. I guess it would work on large swells where the wave tops might be longer.

Gene

 

[knotflying]

Although I have no experience yet with a R-27, I have has plenty with my c-dory 22 footer. My experience has been keep the bow up ( no Trim tabs) and find a spped that lets the waves go under you. I cant see it being much different on the Ranger other than you dont have the advantage of raising your motor to get the bow up higher.

 

[knotflying]

And the next time I will use spell check.

 

[captain's cat]

And the next time I will use spell check.

Oh, you mean sppell check.... :mrgreen:

Have been in that situation with my CD22, not comfortable but would have been more uncomfortable with a 2" ball on my helm seat as CaptD wishes for! 😱

The TomCat has enough power to do whatever you need to do and the twin hulls seem to reduce the likelihood of a broach. Ches Bay waves seem to vary a lot more from one to another to have any set plan to deal with them. Very different than the open ocean.

Charlie