Just wondering
So you're out on your boat in 5 foot seas. Why would you want to shut off your engine?
Forum Discussion
wanderingbob wrote:
More important than the height is the distance between the tops . In open sea five feet ain't much if a mile apart , or even fifteen or twenty if far apart .
That's the issue right there. 5 feet is the max I can handle in my quasi-river-salt boat with a jet (fortunately got 360 ponies upstream).....but when even small seas (3' - 4') are stacked, it's a pretty rough outing.
I shut my engine off twice in circa 4' - 5' seas: Sucked up a bunch of jelly's one time and cut off the cooling water flow. Other time, I was just wearing out the throttle linkage off-on-off-on as I would crest (go to idle to avoid cavitation) and then sink into waves (go to 70% + power to climb up the swell). Took a gamble that the weather forecast was correct...and it was...so held position with the kicker for a couple hours until the seas subsided a bit then beat feet into harbor.
