The Broads...
 

Were very interesting today!

My trip from Paugus Bay to Wolfeboro treated me to a building following sea on the way out. The bow spray was warm, tasty and plentiful.

On the way back we took a quartering head sea to seek refuge behind various islands.

I counted four bass boats pounding away. I wonder if they caught anything.

What kind of boat?

Bass boats. Low freeboard open boats aimed at bass fishing.

I meant what kind of boat was he operating...:coolsm:

I have to say I endured that pain yesterday as well. WAM for gas then over to the 'Boro, coming back headed to Alton there were 4 foot rollers out of East Alton / Roberts cove. Over the bow, we were all soaked. I can't remember waves that big in a long time!

Funny how much quieter the north is--we were in MB for a while and, though it was windy, it wasn't too choppy.

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My boat is a SeaRay 240 SunDeck.

The waves never came over the bow but the spray it was pushing away was blown back in.

Running Against the Wind
 

Even if I had Bob Seger on I wouldn't have heard it. Family and I decided to take a ride from Paugus Bay to Wolfeboro to go to Nolan's for a late lunch. I own a 28' Formula Bow Rider so the ride over was a bit bouncy with a few good size waves over the bow at 27mph. Docking at the town docks, everyone around me seemed to have forgotten it was windy and compensate for that while docking so a lot of near misses occurring. Got docked , great pizza at Nolan's. Now the "What was I thinking " return trip. We left at 3:15 , took the turn outside Wolfeboro bay and headed towards the Broads. Directly into a 12mph wind out of the North. Navigating 3' white caps on the way back , S pattern trying to keep them on the beam of the boat. Tried everything , trim up to get on top, trim down to just take them on, well not a very fun ride for all involved, and yes , three wet passengers and the captain (me) asking how did I get talked into this? While there are no such days as a bad day on the water, a sandbar behind an island with a picnic lunch would have been better , with less sore muscles and Tylenol on Monday. I should have worn my T-shirt, there is only one captain on this boat - and I am it

Yea I made the same mistake yesterday as well. Headed south from Smith Cove to Alton bay for dinner with a stop for a swim behind Rattlesnake. Weather Underground showed the wind dying down after dinner. Nope. Rough ride home, but managed to stay mostly dry. Only took one over the bow when I slowed down to re-seat the all around white light.

I was wondering if anyone has a wind forecast that's more specific to Winni.

Put the trim tabs down and drop your speed to 20 or so. The bow should slice the chop up nicely and soften the ride. If you don't have tabs, get some, they are awesome.

I have a 223LS, Trim tabs to level boat only, trim I/O so that I hit the waves in the middle of the boat and maintain minimum planing speed. Hit the waves slightly head on and I don't seem to have a problem. Perhaps the dead rise on the bow rider less than 24 degrees? Any way it was fun for me. :D

A few weeks ago, about 7;30am leaving Governors for Wolfeboro. 5mph winds and a little ripple till we hit the broads, It was brutal.

Rough
 

I gotta say, I love it when it's rough. Maybe a holdover from boating as a kid in choppy waves here in the Northshore of Boston. My wife, not so much, so we usually compromise. When its really rough/windy, we don't go out.:look: Anyway, sometimes it can't be helped as the wind can really freshen quickly. I have a Stingray XRIII foil for my 215 bowrider (Mercruiser 5.0). I really like the trim adjustments I can make over just the stock outdrive trimming. I can really get the bow up when it's rough or keep it trimmed when there's 3 people riding up front. I can also get on a full plane by 17 mph for slow cruising. It does take a couple off the top end but I'm seldom at WOT.

It was . . .
 

my first day every sailing on Sunday. Exhilarating! Though a lot of work. Guess I picked a great day to join my neighbors. Rollers were big, wind was blowin'. Very different experience than what I am accustomed to. Go USA!

I took some friends out for a boating day, one had never been on the lake but sails on Lake Massebesic, the other used to have a tiny sailboat on the lake when he was in his 20's.

We started at Smith cove, headed to MVYC for gas, then headed towards the inside of Governors for a scenic route around it, past Eagle, and then headed up to Wolfeboro. We anchored and grilled some lunch to the south of Wolfboro and then ended up riding down to Alton, and then back again, but this time came inside Sleepers and by the West Alton sandbar in Small's cove, and then headed back to Smith cove. I slowed down at the mirrored boat house to allow my friends to try to capture a photo of themselves, but their timing was off so they didn't quite get the photo. We then proceeded back into Smith Cove.

The ride was no problem at all.... sometimes some spray would come into the cockpit when the wind whipped it past the bow and then past the windshield. It felt good!

I guess days like this I am glad I have a 35 to 38 ft boat. It sure makes it comfortable. We did have a few waves that knocked us here or there, but we never felt threatened nor even close to asking 'why did we do this'.

In the end they had a great day, and I did also. :)

But I did notice that the Broads seems especially empty for a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.

Wind on Sunday
 

Took the 20' toon out about 11:00 through Saunders Bay headed towards the GI bridge, it was VERY windy and the gap between Varney Point and GI had some pretty big rollers. We were with another couple I had to have the couple sit in the back of the boat to help keep the nose up. I trimmed it up as much as I could, we still took some pretty good spray over the rail a couple times. That's as "big" of a day as I've been in yet. I have a new respect for the wind on the lake for sure. I've been in some heavy boat traffic before but never both at one time. I just stayed calm and took it all head-on, I used the throttle and the trim and tried to look ahead as much as I could so I didn't get side swiped by any waves and just motored through it. I'm not going to lie I was happy to see the wind lay down in the afternoon by the time we came back !!:laugh::laugh:

This makes me feel like a dumb power boater :confused:

Sail Trim
 

Don't feel dumb at second glance I reconsidered my advice and deleted the previous advice.

My luff always seems to be showing... then someone starts to telltales about it....


In other words, I know nothing about sailing, and just a little more about power boats, but I try to enjoy the Lake none the less.

:D

How to sail:

Buy an 11' styrofoam sail boat with girlfriend, paying $32.50 each for it.

Take it to a lake that is several miles long and sail the length of it.

When the wind dies at the far end of the lake, provide helpful instructions in the use of the one paddle aboard.

Employ one's vast seafaring experience to the task of manning the tiller while girlfriend paddles.

















Sleep on couch. :(

I had a styrofoam sailboat as a kid. I jumped into it one day and broke it in half. Dad was not pleased.

Mine was "KOOL".

Was that a Sea Snark? Fun little boat. Didn't sink when the dagger board hit a rock and ripped the entire section out. Fixed easily with liberal application of fiberglass.

It was a KOOL branded Sea Snark. It looked like the one in this picture I got off the web.

Thie guy in the picture must be a rookie. He needs to hand the paddle to his honey and attend to the tiller!

BTW...

To avoid future paddling on wifey's part, my next KOOL adventure was to mount a wooden transom on the stern. This was to accommodate a small antique-ish outboard motor that had been reserrected from the dump. The set up worked great and we blasted waaaaaaaay upstream. Then the carb started leaking gas all over the stern. Have you ever seen what gas does to styrofoam?

More paddling for wifey...


http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...pssplnhiu7.jpg

It must have been.It looked just like this one.....until I broke it in half.

Yeah but...I bet both halves floated!

Funny you say that cuz I ended up closing the stern end with plastic and duct tape and used the rudder for propulsion.Thats all I would get for a few years.:laugh: