Roller Coaster ride
Sounds like San Francisco Bay. Be realistic, the boat is light and not designed for such rough conditions. The only experience I have in such waters is San Francisco Bay. If the wind waves are over...say 4 feet?...the only thing I could do to maintain good control was to take them as head-on as possible. The bow will become airborne and then slam down into the trough between the waves, and then occasionally almost become a temporary submarine as the bow almost wants to submerge into that next wave. As the bow quickly pops-up (because the boat is so light) from that next wave, the water on top of the deck gets thrown over your head, but sometimes into your face. Quickly turning down-wind, the boat surfs the waves and picks-up speed you wish that it could do with sails alone. The keel cable screams at high pitch. You don't dare turn the boat sideways to the waves. Ducking behind the Berkeley Marina breakwater, I would then proceed out the other end of the breakwater and back into the Bay for yet another thrill ride. This was only an occasional condition in the Bay Area. The waves there are usually about 2 feet. There is another guy that I occasionally read on this site that sails in San Francisco Bay in his Mac 25. He can confirm my above discription of rough water sailing in "The Slot." The Slot is that area of Bay that is directly down-wind from the Golden Gate Bridge and the open ocean . I should add that the full keel boats are not much more stable in those conditions either. They just don't bob around in the water as much. Please don't take a first-time passenger out in such conditions. You'll scare the hell out of 'em and that would be the last time they ever set foot on another sailboat. Keep your front deck hatch screwed down tight.
