Could you and your boat handle sudden adverse conditions when offshore ?

[Angla]

Yep there are a lot of variables, but take them out of the equasion and just make it all round adverage. Then what would be the minimum size vessel ?

5.2 was the size of my Rumrunner and I did not feel confident out at say the Banks But my 575 is more than Capable of giving me confidence due to the Extra Beam.

So for me 5.5 is the answer to the question

Cheers
Chris

[Noelm]

OK ,lets just take a look at this possibility, you are 20 miles out in a 7 metre, high powered SKI Boat, long needle nose, flashy metalic paint, big Chev engine, deigned to go fast, but next to useless in anything other than a lake doing 50MPH, OR we have a 3.5 metre surf club "rubber duck" with a 25HP tiller steer, which one do you reckon will be best to be in when the waves start breaking from the "big blow" that we are all so worried about! SIZE is NOT the issue, design and skill is the issue. I think we need to get over this "what size" thing that pops up all the time, if you have to ask, then no boat is big enough, and you should stay home.

[ozscott]

I have been in some pretty ordinary conditions in Moreton Bay...I dont go offshore mainly because of lack of interest and lack of bar crossing experience...the bloke who owned my boat before me used it all the time off shore both here and up the coast on fishing comps and has come back in aweful conditions - he and he wife were telling me of 6m+ waves of Bundy where a mini cyclone brewed up from a storm when they were 40odd ks off the coast and they had luckily just installed the chartplotter because vis' was down to the prow...he though was a very experienced skipper.

The conditions in the Bay can be utterly treacherous. Funnily enought the lower paddock between Cleveland Point and Peel has some of the worst seas around (there is a trawler fisherman who reckons that he would prefer any waters other than those in a blow). You can get some hairy and strange pressure waves from all directions there. Funnily enough just exiting Raby can be interesting at times (in Northerly winds there is a hell of a lot of water to gather fetch) and I recall one day hooning out in pretty ordinary conditions and meeting a 1.8 odd m curling wave just off the point! Where the hell did it come from...who knows but I powered through it and was glad it wasnt night time (I dont travel at night in the Bay, only the Pin).

The only thing about offshore is that you a long way from help if you are by yourself.

Cheers

[Jeremy]

Just to follow on from ozscott here, I have also experienced waves/seas around 1.5-2m on the Northern side of Peel in a Northerly and run out tide. Horrendous.

I am also reliably told of a 6m half cab - Haines Signature I think - copping a wave over the cabin in Bribie Passage North of the Bridge!

Jeremy

[TJ Bear]

OK ,lets just take a look at this possibility, you are 20 miles out in a 7 metre, high powered SKI Boat, long needle nose, flashy metalic paint, big Chev engine, deigned to go fast, but next to useless in anything other than a lake doing 50MPH, OR we have a 3.5 metre surf club "rubber duck" with a 25HP tiller steer, which one do you reckon will be best to be in when the waves start breaking from the "big blow" that we are all so worried about! SIZE is NOT the issue, design and skill is the issue. I think we need to get over this "what size" thing that pops up all the time, if you have to ask, then no boat is big enough, and you should stay home.

Well said Noelm I totaly agree.