A good day for surfing!

[Tim R.]

I bet these guys needed to change their shorts after this! You can see how the second wave turned them sideways(look at the spreaders). They only went over about 45° but they got very wet.

Question: How could they have handled this better? A drogue? Angle of attack? Wait for calmer conditions? Find a better place to spend the night?

http://naturalsurfing.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=268&Itemi_

 

[Roger Long]

I'd say they handled it quite well after the first damn fool mistake which occurred well before the first picture.

It is very difficult, it not impossible, to judge the size of breakers from the backside unless you are intimately familiar with the inlet. Unless you have a reliable shore report, don't go there if there is any significant swell running.

Shallow water breakers like these are nothing like the open water breakers that drogues are intended to assist with. These guys did about as well as a sailboat could be expected to do in these circumstances and I would still say that if they had been rolled and dismasted. They were lucky.

This could be Newburyport or any of several inlets south of Portland. Something to think about.

 

[sailingdog]

I've seen those photos before, and I'm still amazed that they avoided pitchpoling or broaching.

 

[Mike B]

I too saw this on another forum. I asked for an received this interpretation of the events from a fellow sailor in Luxembourg.

"A big shock is what this boat was nearly 12 meters into the harbor on Saturday afternoon at the port of Zumaia. About seven in the evening and in the creeks of Orrua, many boats were returning from a day's sailing. The sea was calm, apparently by a lack of wind but the series of waves entering the bay were very large. Several of these vessels do not control the time of the series and were killed by the waves right in the mouth of the harbor. Ships with a good engine can draw all their power in cases like this but the big problem is for those with little motor yachts. This was the case with this boat called Urola. No well-calculated entry in the series and saw the middle of several waves. In the first as shown in the sequence of photographs to get a move but the lack of champa engine lets you at the mercy of the next to be engulfed by all the foam. When viewing the present situation and thought that the mast was about to dump, and was able to stand again into port after a big scare."

 

[Ed Schenck]

Can anyone translate the text? Just wondering if they had an emergency that required them to get in. Otherwise why would you try? Could it also be frustration with waiting for days for the opportunity. On a trip last year to Ireland there were many consecutive days on the western coast when you would not have wanted to be within two miles of shore. I'm talking serious breakers, like we see in Maine during a major storm.

 

[Dan]

Ed, it looks like Mike B's post has the actual translation (from translate.google.com)

 

[Tim R.]

How about dropping the dodger and donning some life jackets. Maybe even a harness(hard to tell if they were wearing any but doubtfull if they did not have any visible life preserver)? I wonder if the companionway boards were secured. That's a lot of seawater to enter the cabin. I think they were very recklass to attempt this unless they absolutely had to get in.

Roger, the length of white water remaining on the back of the wave after it breaks can give you a pretty good idea of how big the wave is. They were staring right down on the back of that previous wave. You can also get a good estimate by observing the relationship of the wave in front of you in relation to the shore.

I have seen conditions like this in the mouth of the Kennebec. Many boats try to go through. I always defer to steering further off shore to avoid.

 

[Ray T]

I see in the last picture they had turned around. Were they going to try it again?

 

[Franklin]

yeah, I got the impression it was a joy ride...like they've done it a lot.

 

[Mike B]

I think it's just one of those inlets that is subject to big breaking seas. If you're going to sail you just have to learn to handle it or stay outside until they settle down. While not as big as what are in those pictures there are a couple of inlets on the NJ coast that will give you your moneys worth on a regular basis. Barnegat and Great Egg Inlets to name two of them. Both build up some pretty big breaking seas depending on the wind and tide. A buddy and I surfed a 23' Benny I had into Great Egg. Coming off one rogue wave the motor got knocked out of kilter and shut down. We popped the genny and sailed in, albiet very slowly and at the mercy of more following seas. Not something we planned, just got stuck outside and didn't have a lot of options. Needless to say a tad bit thrilling and not something I care to repeat.

 

[Tim R.]

It is in northern Spain on the bay of Biscay which can have southern ocean like conditions very regularly. Has something to do with how the ocean floor meets the European shelf. And those were probably 25 ft. breakers.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1932810
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/535682

It appears from these photos that it may have been a little better to be further away from the breakwater.