Does size matter?

[MT Taipan]

Hey all, this is a mindless pondering. I sail on my inland lake and last Sunday we had 2-3 foot waves, which were large for me. While fun, I was left wondering what would it be like on the ocean? What is the normal size for "comfortable sailing" and what size would "normal" (Okay, normal for sailors) people start to get nervous. Someday I would like to grow up to sail the seven seas (I'm only 53), so need to know!

Appreciate the chit-chat.

Sail away

Lee

 

[windjunkee]

Size is relative! The nastiest conditions are big waves with a short period. I've been in 30 foot seas that weren't overly intimidating because they were spaced far apart. The interesting thing about that was that the wind was different on the peaks than it was in the troughs, so it took some getting used to if we didn't want to gybe when we hit the bottom. Conversely, I've been in 3 to 5 foot seas that were on top of one another and the deck was almost constantly awash.
Voice of Reason (and I suspect ALL E-32's) doesn't do well in the short chop because we tend to hobbyhorse and come to a virtual stop when we go over swells during an upwind beat. We do better if we steer off as the swell passes under us and slide down the backside at an angle. Waves are most fun on a broad reach. Some of the most fun sailing I've had was downwind as we neared the Molokai channel during Transpac. The swells were 10-12 feet, the wind was 25 knots and I was able to anticipate the arrival of the swell, steer the boat into it and surf for 20-30 seconds at a time, well exceeding hull speed. It was a blast!

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason, E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Loren Beach]

"Scotty, we need more Power!"

Many years ago experienced sailors advised me to avoid being/going out when the wave height and period were approaching "square."
i.e. when the period (time between crests) was the same number of seconds as the height in feet, any small craft would start to really slam into them hard. That's also when they start to break regularly.

So a sea state of, say, 5 foot waves is nothing when they are over 10 or 12 seconds apart, but when the time drops to 5 to 7 seconds, it gets really rough.

Annecdotal story: one memorable trip north from Astoria to the Straits was aborted at the end of a very long day, only 48 miles up the coast, when we finally reached off and went into Grays Harbor at sunset.
42 foot boat (!) and we were making very slow progress north in seas of approx 7' X 7 seconds, all fricken day. Green water down the side decks and over the cabin top regularly.
We had up a small part of the furling main and were motor sailing about 30 degrees off the true wind. No danger, sunny day, and steady summer winds to around 25. Also, in those conditions there was also a contrary surface current of about a knot.

The flexing of the big ol' Cat___a 42 hull caused a steady trickle of water around almost every hatch and port light. (sigh...)

Nice boat for protected waters, but it was somewhat outside its "design envelope" - no safety issue per se, just a day of bracing and hanging on. Diesel was reliable and we were both suited up and dry.
Hard to hang on when going below in a cabin that is 14 feet wide -- long way to fall once you lose your footing.

Skipper stayed in that port for several days and the sea state subsided and he continued on north for a nice summer's cruise in Puget Sound.

Of course if we had been running in those conditions it would have been a wonderful ride!

Something with a more sea-friendly beam/length ration like the classic Bruce King Ericsons is more comfortable and safer in those conditions. "Comfort" being a relative sort of thing!


By safe, I am not talking about the boat sinking or anything, but the better the "comfort factor" the safer the boat is because the crew is better able to respond to any event onboard before it does become more serious.

Speaking of stories, I recall that a good friend of mine made several trips up that same coast in the 80's with his E-27. He had replaced a deceased A-4 gas engine with a new 9 hp single cylinder Yanmar. He later said that he probably should have gone with the two cylinder, because he spent several hours one rough trip at almost a standstill -- big square seas that kept halting progress, and it took the small diesel a bit to get the boat back up to speed before the bow banged into the next wave.

Cheers,
Loren

 

[MT Taipan]

Wow, this is great information. I never thought of the distance between and come to think of it, maybe that's what I noticed during that sail. The size I thought looked familiar but the timing was closer now that you bring it up. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

 

[markvone]

Big Ocean Swells = Fun

Lee,

I've sailed in large ocean swells (15') twice that I can remember. Once going to Block Island, RI from Eastern Connecticut in my Ericson 23. Most of the RI coast is east of the tip of Long Island and exposed to open ocean. Large SW swells must have been left over from some previous weather. We had light SW winds and our heading was SE so we were beam reaching to the swells which were very wide and very far apart. The was no drama and the elevator ride up and down each swell was really fun. Another small sailboat near us on parallel course to Block would completely disappear (rig included) when we were in the troughs.

A second time I was windsurfing in similar conditions but much more wind inside the breakwaters at Pt. Judith, RI - (just NE of Block on the mainland). The large swells would roll through the breakwater entrance and curve more north so that we could hit them going out SE on our boards in the 25 mph+ SW breeze. The swells were so large you could not see another board with a 15' mast on the other side coming at you the other way. Sadly, (for us!) the swells were so large and widely spaced that they were not steep enough to get any air jumping them and the tops were just 25' of flat water with small wind driven chop on top. They would have been no danger sailing in.

Mark