wind and the parker

[scottymac.mac]

Thanks to all you guys who have talked about taking the boat out in rough wat[er. We went out thus past week in 4ft seas here on the chesapeake and used the tabs to buddy the bow into the waves. We ran out at 30 knots head on and never looked back. 9 fish later we were all talking about what a great boat parker made. Mine is a 2320sc and wont miss anymore days due to wind. I have some nice pics to post but can't get thm to post. Says images are to large.

 

[Megabyte]

Scotty... I you are using a Mac, download GraphicConverter.
It will allow you to resize your images easily.
http://www.lemkesoft.com/download.html

Also, if you have a Mobile Me Gallery page, you can link to images posted there.
Open the image... control-click... select "copy image address"... that paste the image address in your CP post in between a set of image tags.

 

[RLA69]

Thanks to all you guys who have talked about taking the boat out in rough wat[er. We went out thus past week in 4ft seas here on the chesapeake and used the tabs to buddy the bow into the waves. We ran out at 30 knots head on and never looked back. 9 fish later we were all talking about what a great boat parker made. Mine is a 2320sc and wont miss anymore days due to wind. I have some nice pics to post but can't get thm to post. Says images are to large.

30 knots in four foot sea's?I have a 2310 and don't think thats doable for me.

 

[ReelyNauti]

Congrats on the new ride and glad to sea!!! see that I'm not the only crazy one out there!!!
3 weeks ago i went out in 4' to 6' 20 gusting to 30 and trimmed it up and ran at 17 mph all the way to Fishers island from MTK thats a 17 mile ride. The ride was sweet!!! the passengers warm and happy to be going out

The ride back was better it laid down as it was supposed to to 10-15 following wing with tide nice at 23 mph 3600 rpm !!!!

Enjoy but be safe and pick your days...

 

[GoodChance]

Ran 17mph in a 4-6ft sea? In a Parker? In 20-30kts of wind? I'd like to see a video of that one. I think that the stringers, hull and cabin would again be 3 pieces after that ride.

I don't think you would see a 42ft Duffy run 17kts in a 4-6ft sea.

I have a Parker too and think a great deal of the boat but sometimes the tale becomes pretty tall leaving the causual observer and uninformed wondering "why can't I run 20kts in a 4ft sea in my brand new $50k Parker like the Internet reports".

 

[dave-j]

I have to say I with the skeptics on this one...

I have a 23 DVCC and there is no way I can run that fast in true four footers. Has made for some long rides back from tuna trips, but we got back safe with the boat in one piece.

Additionally, 30 knots is a TON of wind. I spent most of my life as a sailor (before discovering that Parkers go a lot better upwind), and the force of the wind increases with the square of the velocity (or something like that). Anyway, there is world of difference between 25 knots and 30 knots of wind speed. While I have been offshore racing sail boats in even bigger breeze, I don't think I'd want to be in my Parker for very long in those conditions! Particularly with that big sail called a pilot house.

 

[Bryan 2530]

I know I have run 15knts in 4-6 with 30 knots of wind.

It was back from this years NE rendezvous, ask Stonebuster.

It wasn't comfy but it was safe, My 2530 is a DV.

No lie. Read the posts here, doesn't really prove my claim but hey, we went 32 miles directly into that sh!t.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9229

 

[ReelyNauti]

You are welcome to come 4 a ride any time on my dime !!!!!!

If you have ever fished in MTK ( in the top ten of sport fishing destinations in the world for 30 + years )

You will/would know that we r forced to fish in the rougher waters due to the make up?bottom topography and currents !!!!

a normal day day is 2-4 NORMAL !!!

Bryan , you know the deal !!!

Any way im on a 2820 and loaded down she rides dam good especiall with my 9x24 trim tabs
!!!!

Its all in the wind and interval .....there have been days where i could not go past 13 mph and those days are rare!!!

SO come on out im STILL IN THE WATER 4 another week then back in in LATE FEB or early march!!!

 

[GoodChance]

I appreciate the offer Captain but I can't make it to MTK anytime soon. I'm sure taht you have a great boat and I'd love to ride aboard a 2820.

But my original point is germane; too many people look at these type of internet reports and read that a Parker can literally walk on water (ie, do 17kts in a 4-6ft sea and 30kts of headwind) then after they have spent $50 to 100k, their expectations aren't met when they head out in 15kts of wind. The same principle holds true for Dodge Cummins pickup trucks ..... many Internet reports claim 30-35 mpg with these trucks and the unknowing buyer becomes disappointed when his truck only gets 22mpg.

I lived, fished and made a living off charter fishing for many years off the MD, DE and NJ coastline fishing part of my career from a 35 Duffy .... arguably one of the best sea boats ever designed. A 35 Duffy is 2x the size of a 28 Parker and has at least 5x the sea keeping ability. I can assure you that if I found 4-6ft seas in the Atlantic Ocean in December, I was not running at 17kts. Even in a Duffy, you would have to slow down just to keep everyone comfortable. Remember, a Duffy is a hell-of-a-boat that can easily fish the Georges Banks in December. I don't think that a 28 Parker can do something magical that a Duffy can not (unless you are running with pixie-dust instead of gasoline )

17kts in a Parker in 4-6 ....... can't happen. If you insist, kindly shoot a video next time you are doing 17kts into the eys of a gale warning with a 6ft sea. The laws of physics say that it can't happen. If you were plowing through 6ft seas at 17kts then every single wave would be crashing over your pilothouse and ripping the radar, all antennae, lights and rod holders from the top.

 

[ReelyNauti]

Good chance read my original post AGAIN !!!! it states 17 MPH not 17 knots !!!!

 

[John_Madison CT]

14.773 mph = 17 Knots.

I can believe that.

 

[DaleH]

I was once in seas having such waves crash onto and over my hardtop and to keep the bow high, I was at ~3500 RPMs (motor trimmed out a tad too), but my speed (mod-v) hull had me down to ~13mph, (+) 1, (-) 1-3 or so.

IMHO, no one really knows how to acurately measure wave heights anyway, so I just use the Rules of B ... big ... really Big ... OMG Big ... and Back to the Barn Buddy to live another day BIG :shock: ... !

 

[GoodChance]

14.773 mph = 17 Knots.

I can believe that.

Wrong math John. You divided when you should have multiplied. 17kts = 19.55mph

 

[Megabyte]

I'm with Dale.

Trying to estimate wave size seems pointless when you are just trying to get through the mess and get home safe.
Shallow areas with a lot of fetch will really stack the waves up here in the Bay.
Add an opposing tide to the wind at the mouth of any tributary, and you can go from a 1' chop to 4 in a very short period of time.
I have had occasion for spray to come off the bow and land in the cockpit while trying to get home, so I can relate!

In one particular notable event at the mouth of the Choptank River and the Chesapeake Bay (near Sharps Island Light)... winds were out of the west at a reported 20 kts.
With the tabs deployed and motor trimmed for the best possible ride (no pounding), my chart plotter reported we were making between 9 and 10 kts.

That was a slow, wet ride home... but boy was I thankful for my pilothouse that day!

 

[dave-j]

I like the B rule. However, it is difficult to ever use the term "4 foot" and "chop" in the same sentence! Four footers are waves. Waves that your boat will simply drive through and fall off of at speed. The only alternative is to slow down to the point where you can maintain bouyancy forward.

During times like that I really do question my choice of CC vs PH!!!

 

[scottymac.mac]

well guys reading all these post, all I can say is what my gauges said about speed, 30 at the top end, and dropping to 26 when the bow really went down into it. gps was the same. As for wave heights it is very hard to determine how high they really are. I use the smart bouys in the bay, with cell phone apps they give you real time info and we were watchin them all day from 2-4 footers reporting.we ran head on when they were reporting 4fts, and were only about 1/2 mile from the bouy at the time. I have fished these waters for over 30 yrs and never had a boat handle as well as mine did in this fall season with all the winds. If you want to fish, you have to go when you can, wind or not....as long as you are being smart and know what you are doing. we only pushed the boat to speed after really feeling it out, we bounced a little, but could run really well at speed in those rough seas. Dont think I would want to run that way all the time, but if I had to, no problem, she can do it. The bay can change in matter of minutes around here, some would say it is rougher here then in the ocean somtimes. If you have never fished the Chesapeake in nov and dec, you dont know what your missing. As for somone buying a 50k boat and thinking it can handle anything based of of a few internet post, well they didnt do thier homework. I wouldnt buy mine until I ran it in rough seas, I knew what I was getting before I bought it, I would hope others would do the same. All the same here, I find the post on here very helpful and hope not to offend anyone on here. I read the post almost everynight and really enjoy everyones opinons on here, thanks for all the info.

 

[sparky]

Ran 17mph in a 4-6ft sea? In a Parker? In 20-30kts of wind? I'd like to see a video of that one. I think that the stringers, hull and cabin would again be 3 pieces after that ride.

I don't think you would see a 42ft Duffy run 17kts in a 4-6ft sea.

I have a Parker too and think a great deal of the boat but sometimes the tale becomes pretty tall leaving the causual observer and uninformed wondering "why can't I run 20kts in a 4ft sea in my brand new $50k Parker like the Internet reports".

We've run our 42' Wesmac at 9 knots in 6-8 and 30kts of wind, and that was really awful. Literally a free-fall off every 7th wave, green water over the bow, next to zero vis... There's no way a Parker could handle 15 knots in 4-6 for a sustained period. The Wesmac is a darn-good sea boat (Some say better than the old downeast designs, Duffy, H&H, etc), and 6x the boat of a 25' parker.

We've also run the Wesmac at 4 knots (having the throttle each wave) in 6-10 and 45+ knots of wind (the waves hadn't caught up yet, were getting their tops clipped off, foam and spume covering the windows)... Trust me, a Parker would have pitchpoled even trying to make headway. We got caught by a 12 footer, and the boat literally slid backwards, and buried the back 15' of deck in the ocean. If we hadn't put it in the corner, I'm pretty sure we'd have had big problems with that one. We were caught off of Lubec, Maine, trying to head back to Boston, and it was blowing a SW gale. It took 90 minutes to limp to Cutler, ME, where we spent the night watching the snow blow sideways and hearing the surf crashing on Fairy Head.

I'm a huge Parker fan, but there are simply limits to what any boat that size can handle. Parker builds a great boat, but its not gonna last in big seas at any sort of speed. Read about what happened to the pilot boat "Can Do" from Gloucester in Mike Tougias' book "Ten Hours Til Dawn"... Its an incredible read, and 100% true.

Also, remember that the weather reports of "wave height" are the significant wave heights. There can be height multiplication of 2x or even 3x depending on the conditions. So if they are calling for 4-6, you can expect that one in every 1000 waves might be 12'. Seen that plenty of times, especially if there are multiple sources of waves (offshore storm, local squall against the tide, and the remnants of another blow from a different direction). Scary stuff, I tell ya.

 

[dave-j]

Absolutely. In reading back through some of the posts, the original referred to the Chesapeake, where the chop may get significant, but there is nowhere near the power and mass behind the waves like we get on the open ocean. That may be leading to the confusion.

I fish and transit Tinker's Gut, where the "Can Do" was located after the storm. On warm sunny afternoons it is incomprehensible the power of the storm it must have taken to a) put Can Do down in a relatively protected area, and b) pick up a Coast Guard cutter and deposit OVER the breakwater at the mouth of Gloucester harbor!!!

While my Parker has safely brought me home through some nasty stuff, it is still a very small open boat and I have a healthy respect (fear) of the sea.

 

[gundog]

LOL

I was feeling like a wimp. If the prediction is 3' or more; I usually stay home. :lol:

 

[sparky]

Absolutely. In reading back through some of the posts, the original referred to the Chesapeake, where the chop may get significant, but there is nowhere near the power and mass behind the waves like we get on the open ocean. That may be leading to the confusion.

I fish and transit Tinker's Gut, where the "Can Do" was located after the storm. On warm sunny afternoons it is incomprehensible the power of the storm it must have taken to a) put Can Do down in a relatively protected area, and b) pick up a Coast Guard cutter and deposit OVER the breakwater at the mouth of Gloucester harbor!!!

While my Parker has safely brought me home through some nasty stuff, it is still a very small open boat and I have a healthy respect (fear) of the sea.

What we encoutered off Lubec was a short chop. It had been NE for a few days, then suddenly turned SW and blew a gale. Thats the problem, longer seas are much easier to deal with, its the steep, short stuff (I hesitate to call a 10' sea a "Chop") that can really screw you.

The Can Do may have ended up in Tinker's Gut, but its very likely that's not where they encountered most of their problems. We know that the windows were blown out much earlier than when they sank, and I'm betting that they basically got blown in there once they were without power or steerage.

I spend a lot of time with offshore fishermen, and its pretty incredible to hear what they've survived. I know 2 captains who were out in the "Perfect Storm" and the "No-name Storm"... seas in excess of 60', incredible wind, etc.