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Jumping wakes & getting cut off

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/01/2012 : 14:10:00

Last weekend as we headed in from our sail, I had gone up to pull down the main and Rita was driving the boat. One of the tugs that are moored right around the corner from us was headed out into the bay at a pretty good clip. He was kicking up a pretty good wake, but it wasn't until he'd passed us that I realized how big of a wake. I told Rita to turn into the wake so we'd cut it with our bow which she did. Watching it get closer I realized we were about to go for a ride, but I had no idea how big of a ride. The first wake hit us and lifted the boat on top, then immediately dropped the boat about four feet into the trough behind it. The impact was so hard that it jarred the OB off of it's step in it's mount, so it bounced all the way to the top and started cavitating. I couldn't figure out why it was cavitating because from the coach roof where I was hanging on for dear life, it looked normal. We took 2-3 more wakes in quick succession, but nothing like the first one. I'm pretty sure had you been in front of the boat, you'd have seen some of the keel, I mean, the boat only draws a bit less than four feet, and the wake was easily three to four feet high and the back side of it was very steep.

Rita kept her composure but was frightened by it. Hell, I was frightened by it, had I not had one arm wrapped around the mast and the other around the boom when it hit, we might have been doing MOB drills for real.

I thought about giving the tug a piece of my mind, but didn't see the point, he was likely unaware of the little drama he'd just created for us. No idea why he was going so fast, but it was an unpleasant experience to say the least, one I'd rather not repeat.

As we continued up the river, we got nearly to the bascule bridge which is just north of our marina. There was another of the same tugs headed down river and we were going to meet in the choke point of the bridge landing, this tug was still in a no wake zone, so not concerned about getting rocked about. Also, behind us was a power boat who was a little further toward the side of the river than us, as we'd just gone under the Spokane Street bridge at about mid span. He was up on his fly bridge with two very young little girls, maybe 6-7 years old. I saw the tug coming and whistled at the power boater to get his attention and pointed it out to him expecting him to just drop in behind us as he hadn't passed yet, and wouldn't pass until right about the bascule bridge. Instead, he continued to pass us on our starboard side as the tug came down our port side, all three of us passing each other between the bridge abutments with us squeezed in the middle, a very uncomfortable place to be. There was a third tug headed downstream (all of these tugs were from the same company, maybe there was a large freighter coming in or something), so the power boater got out a bit ahead of me and made a sharp turn to port right in front of my bow as well as the oncoming tug's bow! He then headed over toward our marina on the east side of the river, I thought to get out of the oncoming tug's way. By now I was hugging the west side of the river along some parked barges trying to give the tug some room, but he didn't appear to see me. I tucked in closer to the barges because at some point the tug had to straighten out to go through the bascule bridge. Finally he made his turn and gave me a little wave from the pilot house.

Once the last tug was past us, I started looking for the power boat again because I didn't trust him and wanted to make sure he wouldn't foul our approach to the marina which was directly to port of us. Turned out, he belongs to our marina and was by now backing into his boat house. At least he was out of our way, but I was hot about what he'd just done and wanted to give him a piece of my mind.

We made our approach to the slip with the wind & current both pushing us downstream. This gives me very little steerage, and I turned too late even though I'd planned for it and missed the slip by about two to three feet, so now we have to back & fill to get lined back up. Fortunately a helpful dockmate saw me struggling and took a bowline from Rita and we were finally in our slip.

I opted to just keep my mouth shut about the incident with the power boater on the way in, figured it wasn't going to do me any good to go confront the guy.

What an end to an otherwise good day out sailing!

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - on

willyd103
1st Mate

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USA
49 Posts

Response Posted - 09/01/2012 : 16:38:43

David,
Nicely done with the power boat guy. I guess we all know how our boat performs whether you are a stinkpotter or a true sailor. Keeping Your Mouth Shut ( KYMS) is always the best thing to do, especially when you think the other guy is a jerk, before you find out what he was thinkin'.
The tug wake issue is another matter. Perhaps you could put together a carefully scripted text you could use when you call or email them. Sometimes the "bigger boats" don't realize just how much damage that wake can create.
I was in Quincy Bay earlier this week when I encountered a tug, out bound, on Fore River. The tug boat skipper was aware of the boats in the bay and kept his speed down so his wake was less than three feet. I gave the tug boat skipper a wave and a hand salute of thanks for being considerate of the pleasure boaters.
Perhaps we should use the "bridge to bridge" channel on our radio to carefully/tactfully inform the tug boat skipper of what his wake is doing to the smaller boats? Maybe also thank the folks in charge who watch out for us little guys?
willy
S/V Stardust
SR/WK #215

Edited by - on

rrick
Captain

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USA
261 Posts

Response Posted - 09/01/2012 : 19:39:49

Thank you for the story. I reviewed the USCG sound signals and relived the event. In my replay, I counted to 10 before docking (like I'd really do that in real life :) More like flailing the tiller about, cavitating the OB with only full throttle inputs, loud F/N/R clunks every few seconds, just to show the powerbutt what it did).

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 09/01/2012 : 22:49:39

Light displacement vessels with outboards are tough to handle in terms of the tug situation. Situational awareness is key. I would have run and then throttled down when the wake hit. By running, provided you have room, you give the wake time to dissipate some. Commercial vessels are on the clock, they don't have to slow for you. You are really just a nuisance to them. Alternatively, hit them on 13 BEFORE they arrive and ask if they could throttle back a couple of bells. That term is important and they will know that you are not an idiot and they might give it to you.

And if you see something coming like that, get off the roof! Geez!

sten

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/02/2012 : 00:09:49

I thought about giving the tug a shout, but by the time I realized what was about to happen and had warned Rita to hang on, the wake was on us. Running from it would have been a good idea, but we didn't have tons of room to starboard (barges at anchor). Also slowing as we crossed the wake would have been a good idea as well, but there wasn't time to explain that to Rita & I decided to ride it out on the roof instead of trying to get back there to do it myself. There was no way to easily reach the microphone on the VHF and to do so I'd have been exposed on the roof with nothing except winches to hold on to. Next time I'll be paying more attention. We pass or get passed by tugs every time we go out, so I wasn't expecting any big deal. Also, I need to make sure to fully tighten down the engine mount locks, I normally just snug them up after I run the engine down into it's lowered position, but that's not enough when the boat's jumping around as we just learned.

As Sten pointed out, we're just a nuisance to the tugs, but in general, they're the least worry I have out there. I'm far more cautious of the ferries, tour boats (the worst), and the water taxis (next worse). Tugs, meh, they're professionals and usually pretty good to deal with as long as you give them plenty of room.

The irony is, we'd normally have been a couple hundred yards further west of them taking our sails down but since we were just running on a reefed main and no jib, we decided a straight shot to the river mouth was in order since there was very little to do.

Edited by - on

willy
Captain

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USA
422 Posts

Response Posted - 09/04/2012 : 17:23:01

Surf diagonally!

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Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9080 Posts

Response Posted - 09/04/2012 : 21:48:20

My most exciting tug experience was motoring in dead-calm seas when one crossed about a half mile ahead of us, running above his hull-speed, which means he was creating a big, vertical bow wave. (If you have enough power, you can do that--and he did.) I asked my crew to go below and close the forward hatch, which it turns out he didn't fully do--he didn't dog it down... We watched the wake approach, and sure enough--Passage went airborne off the first wave, loudly smashed into the backside and put her bow into the middle of the second wave, which came over the cabin-top and into the cockpit. Then it was over (and we were a little wet), and both vessels went on their ways.

You can use the VHF to minimize confusion and look for cooperation, but a commercial vessel is not likely to alter course or speed for a recreational vessel. And unfortunately, recreational vessels are not likely to be monitoring the VHF to discuss situations like that... You were caught in the confluence of those challenges. That's life on the water, and evidence of why we should keep our radios on and listen to them, even if nobody else apparently does.

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 09/04/2012 21:51:23

piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2012 : 16:02:34

David, been there. My dog fell off from my bow once as a result of a huge wake, inside the channel where the speed limit is 5MPH. But some guys don't care. I stay as far away as I can. When leaving or entering my channel, I do so with extreme caution and try to do so w/o others around. But when you are out in the big blue, you can't do much and they seem to always want to get close to you. Right?
Re hitting the top of the wake, I cross at a diagonal as well. Other wise its a pretty hard impact coming down.
Steve A

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/05/2012 : 16:49:00

Yeah, crossing at a diagonal and slowing down as the bow went over the top of the wake would have been the thing to do, except how to explain all that to Rita who was at the tiller? Actually, I'm glad I was up on the coach roof instead of her, she might not have been so well glued to the mast & boom like I was.

I used to lose one of my golden retrievers off the bows of my catamaran on a regular basis, but it had nothing to do with wakes, usually. He liked to walk up onto the sponsons for some reason, but didn't do so well backing up. Invariably he'd try to turn around and there simply wasn't enough room, and into the lake he'd go. For an otherwise smart dog, he never did learn not to go out on a sponson. I got pretty good at grabbing his collar as he went past the trampoline and dragging him right back out of the water, but I also got good at DOB drills and sailing back up to him. Fortunately the lake was never more than a couple hundred yards wide (it was three miles long), so he could just swim ashore, which he did a couple of times when I couldn't get back to him promptly enough for him. Since he was an older dog, I made him wear a PFD, so he was never in any danger of drowning.

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