Originally Posted by MILD THUNDER

Maybe I suck at judging wave heights. All I can do is go off NOAA reports when it comes to boating (even though they can be misleading). On lake Michigan, I have found when getting ready to take the boat out, I can expect these scenerios

Wave Forecast Nearshore Within 5 nautical miles of shore.

1ft or less. Good day for a nice cruise. Even the guys with 25ft boats can come out and enjoy the day.

1-2FT. The guys in the 25ft boats can still come out, but It might be a bit bumpy, and chances are not doing any top speed runs. A little chop to get the larger boats running faster but still able to drink a beer underway.

1-3FT. Things are getting more fun. The 25ft boats are catching good air for photo op's. The 35-40' boats are running fast, with the occasional throttling.

2-4FT. 25FT boats are getting beat up. All they can do is maintain a steady speed, and hope to reach the destination in a timely fashion, before anyone gets sick or falls down. 35-40's are starting to catch good air, definitely some throttling going on if your running hard. Youll catch a couple random hits that tell you to take it down a notch.

3-5's. 25FT boats stay in the harbor, or are in for a wet ride. 35-40's are having a hard time running fast. The waters are confused and beginning to be unpredictable and hard to read. Its a very lively ride in a large offshore boat.

4-6's. The Cig and apache guys come out and tell everyone else it was a smooth ride and they hit a new top speed record, not realizing their nose has grown 3 inches before the story is over.

6-8s. Your borderline busting a stringer, the fun factor has dropped to 0. Your just trying to make it to protected waters asap. Your pleasure boats microwave explodes, your norcold fridge just busted a Freon line, and you chipped a gear off your lower gear set. You come to the understanding of why the old Apache raceboats had no cabin, just bulkeads and stringers.

Originally Posted by MILD THUNDER

Maybe I suck at judging wave heights. All I can do is go off NOAA reports when it comes to boating (even though they can be misleading). On lake Michigan, I have found when getting ready to take the boat out, I can expect these scenerios

Wave Forecast Nearshore Within 5 nautical miles of shore.

1ft or less. Good day for a nice cruise. Even the guys with 25ft boats can come out and enjoy the day.

1-2FT. The guys in the 25ft boats can still come out, but It might be a bit bumpy, and chances are not doing any top speed runs. A little chop to get the larger boats running faster but still able to drink a beer underway.

1-3FT. Things are getting more fun. The 25ft boats are catching good air for photo op's. The 35-40' boats are running fast, with the occasional throttling.

2-4FT. 25FT boats are getting beat up. All they can do is maintain a steady speed, and hope to reach the destination in a timely fashion, before anyone gets sick or falls down. 35-40's are starting to catch good air, definitely some throttling going on if your running hard. Youll catch a couple random hits that tell you to take it down a notch.

3-5's. 25FT boats stay in the harbor, or are in for a wet ride. 35-40's are having a hard time running fast. The waters are confused and beginning to be unpredictable and hard to read. Its a very lively ride in a large offshore boat.

4-6's. The Cig and apache guys come out and tell everyone else it was a smooth ride and they hit a new top speed record, not realizing their nose has grown 3 inches before the story is over.

6-8s. Your borderline busting a stringer, the fun factor has dropped to 0. Your just trying to make it to protected waters asap. Your pleasure boats microwave explodes, your norcold fridge just busted a Freon line, and you chipped a gear off your lower gear set. You come to the understanding of why the old Apache raceboats had no cabin, just bulkeads and stringers.

Originally Posted by MILD THUNDER

Maybe I suck at judging wave heights. All I can do is go off NOAA reports when it comes to boating (even though they can be misleading). On lake Michigan, I have found when getting ready to take the boat out, I can expect these scenerios

Wave Forecast Nearshore Within 5 nautical miles of shore.

1ft or less. Good day for a nice cruise. Even the guys with 25ft boats can come out and enjoy the day.

1-2FT. The guys in the 25ft boats can still come out, but It might be a bit bumpy, and chances are not doing any top speed runs. A little chop to get the larger boats running faster but still able to drink a beer underway.

1-3FT. Things are getting more fun. The 25ft boats are catching good air for photo op's. The 35-40' boats are running fast, with the occasional throttling.

2-4FT. 25FT boats are getting beat up. All they can do is maintain a steady speed, and hope to reach the destination in a timely fashion, before anyone gets sick or falls down. 35-40's are starting to catch good air, definitely some throttling going on if your running hard. Youll catch a couple random hits that tell you to take it down a notch.

3-5's. 25FT boats stay in the harbor, or are in for a wet ride. 35-40's are having a hard time running fast. The waters are confused and beginning to be unpredictable and hard to read. Its a very lively ride in a large offshore boat.

4-6's. The Cig and apache guys come out and tell everyone else it was a smooth ride and they hit a new top speed record, not realizing their nose has grown 3 inches before the story is over.

6-8s. Your borderline busting a stringer, the fun factor has dropped to 0. Your just trying to make it to protected waters asap. Your pleasure boats microwave explodes, your norcold fridge just busted a Freon line, and you chipped a gear off your lower gear set. You come to the understanding of why the old Apache raceboats had no cabin, just bulkeads and stringers.

Originally Posted by drpete3

So I just caught this thread today. I have to say I appreciate all the wisdom and years of experience that I could gather from reading. I don't understand why everyone has a different opinion on the matter. I am a tsunami survivor and have no clue how to judge this stuff. I even learned I was measuring my penis wrong. My wife is going to be so happy to learn you start between your shoulder blades and go down your back under your taint all the way to the tip. You guys are the best! Please send me an email or something when a thread like this starts up. Artie and Mike, can you do that for me?

Originally Posted by Bigyellowcat

All the people that talk about big waves on here saying there running in 6-8's and 10-12's and 300' to quater mile high waves, ect. When they show a video of it on here proves they were not in 8' waves just by the fact that they still have the camera. Any time we were in anything bigger then 5' the gopro cameras would decided to become scuba divers. What they dont realize is that your eye position in the seat of a 46 skater is about 5' above the water when your running and if you are in 6-8' you are looking up at waves that are right next to you. When there is another boat out there with you they will disappear for minuites at a time till you both end up on top of a wave at the same time. When we ran to the Bahamas in the make a wish poker run there were only 3 boats that made it more then 1 mile before turning around. Jim in the 46 skater, kenny in his 40 skater, and a 50 nortech v. Once we made it out 10 miles we were in big enough water that the other skater would be 1/4 mile sideways to us and we would loose site of him for 5 min then all the sudden we would be on top of a wave and he would be on top of a wave and see them for a few seconds then they would disappear again. In the end Jim in the 46 skater made it to the Bahamas first but the other two boats did make it. We all ended up going through 10-14' seas right outside bahamas. In those waves as you start going up the wave you are having to give it more gas then more gas then more gas just to make it up then you slow down over the top as you crash through the top and a 1-2' tall wall of water comes down the deck and soaks you. You know its getting rough when your camera bag floats by you in the cockpit. I will find the noaa report for the water between miami and bahamas that day and post it on here.