"Holes" in the water lead to rude awakenings offshore racing, http://speedonthewater.com/in-the-ne...bout-that-hole.

Thank you, as always, Jay Nichols.

I think it may also have been called the "eleventh wave" back in the day, the one that throws you off you rhythm and brings you crashing back to reality. you wont notice them at twenty or thirty mph in a fishing boat but at a hundred plus . . . . they will sneak up on ya. the one leaving the harbor in Key West is nearly always there although that is more of a shelf or a ledge . . . either way . . . bang!

A number of years ago when I had a 20’ Checkmate, I took my sister with me to the Buffalo, NY Poker Run. Part of the run is on open water in Lake Erie which can occasionally get pretty snotty. When we got to the part of the run out on the lake, snotty didn’t come close to describing it. Three to five foot rollers with an occasional abyss was a far better description.

I adjusted my speed, trim and tabs for the conditions and things were going about as well as I could expect. My sister, not used to rough water, asked what she should do. I suggested that waves would not be the problem, but holes would. She asked what a hole was - just as we sailed off the edge of a particularly massive one. I throttled back and told her to brace just before we pancaked a landing at what felt like the bottom of the lake. In fact the landing was so hard that the 8’ VHF antenna next to me broke right off. Nobody running near us saw the impact because we were deep enough to be out of sight between the waves.

Although the landing knocked the wind out of both of us, nobody was hurt and after lashing the antenna to the bow rail, we were off and running again. “That was a hole” I told her. “Really, I would never have guessed that” was her smart ass reply. She was pretty quiet for the rest of the run.

What a great story. Ouch.

Though I haven't boated on the Great Lakes as much as I'd like, my experiences (mostly on Lake Michigan) have lead me to the following conclusion on their standard water conditions: All holes.punctuated by the rare set of two to three swells moving in roughly in the same direction. "Hardest" water I've ever encountered.

The Jersey Shore is famous for holes as is the tip of Long Island.
The first time I raced off of Montauk, people were talking about holes in the water and I had no idea what they meant. Well soon enough we found out. The course was tough enough with all the crab pots and rocks you had to avoid on the inside half. On the outside, there were solid 3-5 footers that were fairly consistent until whooop.... boat launches (not particularly high but), the throttleman pulls back, count 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000 (look down and see what looks like 20 feet between us and the water level which just dropped out from under us), 4-1000, and bam transom hits. The boat trips, bow sticks the top of the next wave, and I become personally acquainted with the dashboard just as we get soaked with water. So what do we do.... collect ourselves, throttle back up and keep going!
Cracked ribs, bruised kidneys, good times! LOL

if ever there was a place for this clip . . . well this is it. Welcome to the great lakes . . . dont forget your kidney belt

I remember when that was first posted. As great today as back then. Nice find!

Key West 2004. Entering the harbor there is an old, unused drainpipe from the city water system. Really plays hell coming into the harbor at speed.

Yes they do

Geez Johnny, you almost got the guys in the helicopter wet!