Go fish said it for me. The new boat will handle bigger seas than the crew can. Runing in it is one thing. Trying to fish and balance is another. Period is key for running in big seas. You can run in 20'ers if the period is high and it's huge swells. 5'ers will beat you to tears if the period is short enough.

The other thing is most people are poor judges of wave height. I hear about 5-6's all the time. Thats a BIG wave in a smaller "trailer" boat. I've always figured if I'm standing on the deck and I have to look UP to see the tops I'm in 6's. (insert short joke here ) A recent post on another site had a guy running 30kts in 8-12's in Buzzards Bay in a boat similar to mine. I wasn't there, so I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I'm guessing the wave heights were overestimated a bit.

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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

I'd also offer this advice:

If you're not comfortable with your ability as captain or the ability of your boat to handle whatever the conditions are at the time and get that funny feeling in the pit of your stomach...........go back to port. Once you start doubting yourself you are apt to make mistakes that put you and your passengers in jeopardy.

My Grandfather said when talking about power tools..........Respect them, but don't be afraid of them or that's when accidents happen. That sort of thought I think applies here.........

I also agree with Z-Drive. I can hang with some high seas if they are sporadic rollers.. It's is 1-2 second seas that cause problems

Great advice, but quick question: how does one know the difference between a Jack Daniels funny feeling in the gut, and other types?

TIA for the help, Cap'n.

L

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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

H. L. Mencken

I agree that if you can't fish it, git. I also don't think a lot of people realize that 4-6 means mostly 4-6 but it's expected that one or several up to twice that height will occur over the period of an hour or a few.

I try to look at a lot of different criteria before hitting some place like Montauk in my 20. Wind, wave heights and period, whether it's predicted to build or subside, tide and then use what you know (or can get from others) about how these affect that particuler spot and in between. It's pretty common for a place to comletely change when the tide flips in some wind.

Then be prepared to ditch your plans when conditions are nothing like what you expected.

That's easy............what comes up from the gut doesn't quite burn the same...........