Victory at sea

[bob lico]

Making approach to inlet wave as bad as you could imagine with wind screaming out of east .waves are 5 seconds apart and i took one over the top of the bridge.i get set to go in fire island inlet and i notice right along side is a 40 something viking with a white faced captain .i call on Vhf to find out his status and he is in a panic state! Follow me in i told him stay on my tail! Well we did my normal ride the waves and break then go to next set and he follow . The greatest tribute i have ever seen in my life after we got in the bay we were port to starboard and he stood up and saluted the 31 Bertram Phoenix .

[Carl]

I'll give some credit to the boat...but more goes to the Captain.

[bob lico]

Fire island inlet has changed dramatically since hurricane Sandy. The dredges cut a swatch very close to the land at democrat point in a straight line about 100 yards wide. A 31 Bertram with the "captains rudders" could transverse back and forth to try to keep seas off transom or preferred following sea. ( inlet runs north south) in straight line before sandy you had much more room to ride the waves sometimes you may come in from ocean in 6' waves just keeping with the speed of the waves with bow proud attitude however when you get into 13' depth of inlet you will have 12' waves real dangerous ,you have to be able to turn on a dime with massive torque on the ready or you will broach her.most important in a following 12' wave situation you MUST keep the bow just behind the crest if you slip up and let that wave pick you up and the boat rides over the. Crest it will stuff the bow then broach your dead meat for next wave. The 45' viking following has more room for error because it can span two waves and more weight gives another advantage. I imagine this viking owner never experience a inlet like this.

[Carl]

I wasn't overly thrilled with it before Sandy...


Some of my friends thought I was chicken when I decided not to go on a less then ideal day with the family. I am not going to start a vacation to Fire Island with a white knuckle ride in. Last time I said no they went anyway...who took waves over the bow, who almost rolled the boat, who said "screw it" and did a 180 home late in the afternoon. In my neck of the woods we don't get the "inlet experience"...when we see our inlet the hard part of the ride is over.

[bob lico]

carl the coast guard mark that inlet like a runway with buoys on both sides all the way in from fire island inlet head buoy. 13' at low tide. the bay and fire island is drop dead gorgeous .the sandy made breach at smith`s point is washing the bay clean ,on a sunny day you can see the sand bars and down to bottom in 6' of water .water is that turquoise color like Caribbean i have never seen the bay like this in 44 years!.

[Carl]

Figures...not a shot in hell of me making that trip this year.

[TailhookTom]

Bob:

You are a gentleman and skilled helmsman. I'd be changing my underwear after a run in like that.

Tom

[bob lico]

Tom fear is like differant strokes for differant folks i really don't think about fear from waves and bad ocean conditions but i am scare s- it of snakes like visiting my cousin in brooksville florida and having a corral snake slitering next to my foot ! I hate snakes and alligators.

[Tony Meola]

Bob

I dropped off an 8 footer one time going in Barnegat Inlet. I could not imagine a 12. Thought I had it timed perfectly. I was in the perfect spot right on her back. I burried the bow up to the windshield.

Amazng, she popped up and just took off like nothing happened. Meantime, I had a wall of water come right over the bridge. Happened so fast I never had a chance to be scared. Last thing I remember is looking down and there was nothing under the bow, did not even get a chance to say *(&^%$. So no matter how good we are or might think we are, some times things happen.

Be carefull out there.

[bob lico]

Tony what really is happening at this inlet is waves coming in from the ocean 100' deep to 13' deep causes a 4' waves situation to build rapidly .so most boat owners will sit outside and wait for a calmer set of waves before going in but sometimes there is a big one in between once you screw up and feel that wave cresting midships you have to react and get into the trough at 45 degrees to give the bow just enough lift so you can count to five and then give full rudder to and hard on one engine throttle to get the boat parallel with the wave(like a surfer) go over that wave diagonal then hard (tranverse) to go diangonal to next wave this wave will normally be smaller and smaller as you get into the inlet needless to say you would have to have a real good reason to go OUT the inlet in these conditions.incidenly the worst possible boat to go into a bad inlet like this is a 32' plus center consoles with triples ,every aspect of the design of this boat is wrong for this situation and if you stuff it the boat it fills up with enough water enough for the cresting following wave to put you under. I could not get on plane with 1200 hp from a dead stop while conditions worsens while shark fishing with 38 jupiter. Back to subject tony practice in the ocean if you have the rudders using both individual throttles and rudders to make 90 degree turn at 13 knots to keep her bow proud.

[Tony Meola]

Bob

I have no trouble running a bad inlet. That happened over 20 years ago. Just saying, stuff happens, be carefull out there. No matter how many times we do it, no matter how comfortable we are, it only takes one time to screw up. I buried the bow, but cheated what the end result should have been.

Don't know why. Maybe because the boat actually leaped off the crest before she started to drop. I can still feel it to this day. It was the weirdest feeling. She felt like she was trying to jump to the top of the wave in front. The breaker never even came close to the transom.

Just luck that day, and a boat that just sat up and took off like nothing happened. Those old big block Mercs never skipped a beat.

You are right, if she was center console, it would have been all over.