Danger of bow stuffing

[Xk59D]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BazzOvmlB4C/

Looks low in water before it stuffed?

[Otis K.]

Quite the example.

The Boat really did look like it was on plane with a lot of weight on the Bow. Mine seems to ventilate a lot in a good following sea keeping the bow up pretty high. The waves will even pass me but i still never seem to loose any control and seems to keep chugging along at 15 knots... Pretty leary when you see nothing but water and looking at the sky when the waves pass you. Not sure if it is because i have such a large eared Propeller. Haven't had the privilege of 12' Breakers right on my ass... yet. Theoretically i should be fine until i run into breakers capable of throwing stern over bow.

[warder54]

Didn't notice any sign of life-jackets there! but then we all know it'll never happen

[two stroke mick]

What could the cox have done in this case to prevent the stuffing

Tsm

[office888]

Originally Posted by two stroke mick

What could the cox have done in this case to prevent the stuffing

Tsm

Lower approach speed and the bow trimmed up

[willk]

It's a chilling video.

It's difficult to be sure but clearly that entrance has to be taken at a smart pace - you're committed once you start.

He was trying to keep pace with the rollers, rightly IMO, as being overtaken by one would likely result in a broach. I think the waves were bunching up and the aft wave lifted his stern and forced the bow under the wave in front. Maybe could have been better trimmed - but there you go - gone!

[Otis K.]

Originally Posted by office888

Lower approach speed and the bow trimmed up

I definitely second this. I Used to hate how my inboard rib had such a tendency for Bow Rise if i am not at Full-Cruise (2800-3400rpm | 20-27Knots) Until i had to run with a good following sea for 14 miles all the way back to port like most trips, the Sea is always chasing me back home.

[John Kennett]

Originally Posted by office888

Lower approach speed and the bow trimmed up

Looks like he definitely came onto the bar too fast for comfort (2 seconds in), but the real problem seems to be that he throttled right back (at about 6 seconds his prop wash pretty much disappears) and doesn't get the power on again. A few seconds later the wave catches him up the bow is pushed into the back of the next wave.

He was unlucky that the wavelength pretty much matched his boat. A bit longer or shorter and he may have got away with it. A hull design with more recovery in the bow (and possibly tubes ) might have helped too.

It's easy to criticise from behind a keyboard though, and by any standards Jupiter Inlet looks like an unforgiving bit of water to come unstuck in. There are regular news stories of capsizes there, several with worse consequences than this one.

[Dan Gurney]

Wow! That went south in a hurry...

[jeffstevens763@g]

Agree with John a classic surf with the wave in control stuffing the bow

[eze]

All happens very quickly for sure.

[jwalker]

Well I reckon he needed a higher bow and a good set of tubes!!....

Those waves don't look like normal ocean waves to me, it looks like a powerful tide race with standing waves being pressured by the ocean waves. It appears to me as though there was a power loss and as soon as the bow started to dip the outgoing flow washed to bow under the stern which was still on the front of the standing wave.

How could he have stayed safe? I dunno but if it was me I'd be trying to stay on the back of the wave travelling at wave speed. A tricky one though cos standing waves have a current within them and often don't move.

It appears to be an unusual sea, look at the speed of the repeated breaking waves against the breakwater.

Next time I'm in the standing waves at Ballachulish, I'll bear it in mind.

A wee edit after watching the vid again... I think there was two stages, on the wave before the capsize the bow scooped up some water, after this the boat slowed - maybe throttled back or simply the weight of water - following that when the stern lifted the water slopped forward and weighted the bow. The out flowing water and the stern wave did the rest.

[C-NUMB]

Not 100 % sure but can not see an outboard or even sterndrive? If it is an inboard, then trimming up possibilities is rather limited. In any case it looked bow heavy, maybe used a water ballast tank when he went out but never emptied when coming in?

[Callum Stewart]

I have stuffed my 7 mtr wrapround right up to the windscreen we had a force 7/8 at the back of us heading to Sanda island/Redbay from the Clyde running at 30kn on the top of the wave I took the power off but ran right into the next wave, I was just lucky that my dad on the starboard side got most of the water over him! When we arrived in Cushendall the sea was wild & had to leave the RIB at Redbay peir. I have also done Hawaii 5 O in a RB 11 on the way back from the NW 200 to Cammpbelltown 630hp going up waves & 0hp on the way back down running at 30kn.

[spartacus]

Apparently this video is shot at Jupiter Inlet, Florida, a stretch of water that has seen a number of drownings over the years.

Looks particularly difficult to navigate whether exiting or entering the harbour inlet with short wave cycles, running tide, etc.

Look at this skiff coming in. Gets twitchy at 0.53 seconds.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=igrCbdg-jcY

[HDAV]

Same videographer, might be a dangerous stretch of water but not enough to make anyone in these videos wear a life jacket.............

[Starovich]

Originally Posted by HDAV

Same videographer, might be a dangerous stretch of water but not enough to make anyone in these videos wear a life jacket.............

Can't wear a jacket wouldnt look cool with the beer in hand, and would disrupt the tan lines!

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Xk59D

https://www.instagram.com/p/BazzOvmlB4C/

Looks low in water before it stuffed?

Does look a bit low in the water...Overloaded?
Looks Badly trimmed for a following Sea for sure.....AND tentative Helming!..
He throttled off RIGHT at the WRONG time (lowering the Bow even more!...when he should already have punching through the Gap!..with the right attack angle IMO
....Certainly Not a place to be wallowing around!

Of course it would have helped considerably to be in a craft with Better Sea keeping..more High riding Agility and Buoyancy

[The Black Pig]

Nasty stuff

Converging waves in an short sea caught the skipper out, wrong place wrong time

[GuyC]

It's not very nice to watch.

Its interesting that it didn't have sufficient reserves of buoyancy to remain afloat when swamped.

Looking elsewhere on line the design appears to be from the 1970's so it could be that there were no requirements to have reserves of buoyancy.