You've got the power!
Hi Bruce, Last summer, my son and I were on a fingerlake, in the interior of BC, on a h26. While out on an extremely pleasurable broad reach, I took a peek over my shoulder to check the weather. Good thing I did because a big fist of wind was roaring down the lake and stiring up the spray. No time to ponder, I instructed my 1st mate to furl the sails and bare poll it. Moments later the world turned ugly and we were under power of a 9.9 2cyl Tohatsu. The waves grew to about 4 to 6 ft, in a matter of minutes. The frequency of the waves was really my concern. This produced an extremely steep face, on the wave that my son coined as "mega choppy!". This was a delicate bit of helmanship because we had to head diagonally across the onslaught of the weather to create a longer line for the boats travel, between waves, so we could handle the pitch without slamming into and going awash. Required power that the 9.9 was very capable of delivering. One consideration, though, is to have a long power leg so that the propeller dosen't cavatate when the bow goes over and the stern rises away from the surface. I take it that the inlet that you'll be navagating will have a surf running through so this could be the issue that you'd want to address. All the best! Larry Barnes, vessel "CNTRL SEA"
