sea "pockets" fact or fiction??
 

I would like some feedback on this.....
A friend of mine and I were on our way across a sound...doesn't matter which one. Around 50 MPH, he was dunking the bow to within about 16-24 inches of nosediving.
I told him a story about a sailing education I got. My uncle told me to be carefull about the waves because coming off of them, I could find the the dip to be about 6 feet lower than the previous wave.
I learned this the hard way when I came over one of those waves and saw what looked to be a whirlpool "pocket" 6 feet below my last dunk...too late..(this was at about 7 knots) I hit it, dunked the bow of the boat and allmost got tossed over in the process. (My uncle was none too happy down below either.)

Don't get me wrong, I get a chubby from hearing the fatblock sing its tune and love the speed......But at the right time.

Is it not true that if you are going fast enough to get water to within 24 inches of dunking the bow at 50, you run the risk of losing it the next time you come off a wave?

I have tried to explain what a dunk at 50 would do with no belts, etc...but he seems to think I am a granny.
He has seen what the raceboats do when they nosedive, but does not realize what your body would do when losing 20-30mph in a 1/4 of a second.
I tell him we would eat glass, IF we stayed in the boat.
He thinks I am nuts and that once you figure out what the waves are doing, they will be consistent.

I would welcome any feedback or knowledge any of you could add.

Went through a 7 ft wave at about 70 mph with 1 ft of water coming up the bow - all I and my passenger had time for was to shut our eyes and mouth - boy did we get wet but it only slowed the boat down about 5 mph. No big impact. Weight of the boat and a sharp bow probably had a factor in it.

I too have witnessed the "hole" on the other side of a wave. It's as if the next wave just isn't there, or is way behind. In my Coast Gaurd class a few weeks ago I brought this up and they told me that in fact, there is a pattern to this. It starts at the 2st wave after the first hole you encounter. Then continues in an exponential way after that. Hard to put into words as I don't rememver exactly what he said. But he assured me that in a 5 or 6 mile trip, you can come across 5-7 of these non-waves.

I have only ever taken one "greeny" over my bow. And it was a boat wake to boot. Screwing around and only going about 25 mph so no damage, just a lot of water in my face!!

This is very true and will sneak up on you. There seems to be no pattern so there is little you can do but be safe and know better. I saw the windshild on a Baja (not Waterfouls) ripped off and the guy was cut up pretty bad. The rear hatch also blew off. The boat was near mine at a glass shop and I asked the owner what happened. He said he probably went under 2-3 feet and if he had not had safety shut offs he would have kept going under. Like a submarine. He also said he was lucky not to go over the bow when he stopped so fast and has a huge respect for the lake MI waves. This was a 35+ Baja.

happened to me on the soudn last year. I was only goign abotu 20 though. It was kind of choppy and i went up over a little 1-2' max and came down and tehre was a 4-5' wall of water. ALl three of us got drenched.

It was weird to see a wall of water rushing over the bow up the windshield and the next 1/4 second be soaked. It all happened in a matter of maybe 5 seconds.