Originally Posted by ThisIsLivin

I'm just east of the Mackinac Straits and have been caught in 10'-12's in a 16 foot ski boat. Had to go 2 miles to get to safe harbor. I had to ride the waves like a dirt bike with the bilge pump on manual, or I would have stuffed it. Fortunately I had plenty of power, until everything started to break. About 200 yards outside the harbor I lost throttle control, at that point I was close enough to the harbor that the waves were only 3-4'. I idled in and made it alive. I ended up breaking every motor mount in the outboard. I've had the Velocity 280 out in 8's for fun by myself. My wife said she could see the entire boat above the break wall which was 12' over the water. I have watched waves break over the bow of freighters going by so you have to be careful in the big lakes. The secret to boat selection is to know the distance between wave peaks that is typical for your water. My 28 is too short when the waves get over 3', and when you drop down between swells is when you are going to launch. On a rough day I am more pilot than captain. Just whatever you do, watch your trim. I wanted to test a prop before I put it away for the winter and it was rougher than it should be for speed testing. I went out anyway and was adding a little trim to see how it would run and I went to far. It launched off a wave and I caught the stern on the next wave and the bow caught the next wave and spun the boat sideways into the third wave. I went from 75 to 0 instantly. Fortunately I didn't break the boat, but I got beat up pretty bad. I was wearing an impact rated full life jacket and I have full wrap around bolsters, but I broke a couple ribs and had a contusion on my leg that still bothers me years later. But when it's calm I can get from Cheboygan to Mackinac Island in 17 minutes,
LOL.