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River wakes (from an old thread)

As some of you may well rememeber me asking questions about a 28 ft. pontoon boat.

Well, instead of owning and all the hassle that goes with towing , launching and messing around with it, for probably no more than it will actually be used.

My wife and I were looking at trenting one (actually a tri-toon semi-houseboat) for a river cruise on a long weekend on the Ohio river. 90 horse Nissan, and actually a pretty nice rig.

I've tooled around on small craft on small rivers but nothing like the ILLINOIS, OHIO, or the MISSISSIPPI. But it seems like a fun thing to do.

Anyhow, afte reading some old threads like this:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.boats/browse_frm/thread/30a2ebeb35aca19e?hl=en

It made me think to ask questions on how to handle large wakes from "wake Cruisers" to large Barge-pushing Tugs..

I have no fear of keeping out of their way, it's out of their wake or at least how to handle aproaching their wake, that concernes me.

I know of people who have capsized, or swamped because they got int he *trough* or heading into the wake and *torpedoing* their boat .

Anybody have any advice?

Thanks!

 tschnautz
Apr 30
2006
I never could understand that. do they think it's impressive to have the hull doing a ''wheelie'? or is it an action to make up for impotence? tschnautz
May 2
I call this the "courtesy slowdown" They come down off plane to a tortuous plow to show they are "going slow" for you. These are usually the same "mariners" who still have their fenders over the side and they are probably trailing a painter. gfretwell
May 3
I am on the inter coastal waterway and see some very big wakes from large cruisers that aren't planing and are at full displacement. I never understand why they do it as they are at the most inefficient point they can be running at and it makes a mess of anything they are passing. I have no idea how your boat would handle that kind of wake. In fact I'm not sure you could. I have a 25' Pursuit that has a very long bow and high gunwales and some of those waves have been all I want to handle. But if you want to try it head into the approaching wave at a 45 degree angle. Keep enough speed to prevent you from being knocked off course into the trough. If you, somehow, get caught overtaking a big wake use enough throttle to climb the wave and then bury the throttle going down the wave so you don't get wash over the stern. You have to outrun the wake. Again, it's not going to be fun in a converted mobile home!

--This space available for a really clever sig

 Hans
Apr 30
The good news is a pontoon boat is self bailing and pretty hard to capsize but you can get real wet. Hook that bow in a wave and it goes right over you when you the bow pop up. A tri toon is a bit better but they still don't have much dead rise. gfretwell
May 1
Hi,

I boat on the Ohio (around Parkersburg, WV & Marietta, OH). I wouldn't worry about barges. They really don't put out that much wake and it mostly is a rolling wake directly behind the towboat. The big cruisers going at plow speed do put out a fairly large standard V-wake, but if you don't try to hit them dead on at high speed your boat should roll over them. The worst that I run up against are from stern wheelers that don't use wake deflectors. These create fairly large rolling wakes behind them (much larger and closer together than barges). These can make the ride a little rough, but they tend to level out not too far behind the stern wheeler and your boat would then roll with the wakes.

The above is my experience over 40 years on the Ohio, the early years riding with my parents and the last 15 with my jetskis and the last couple with my own boat. Dad had a smallish pontoon for 5 or 6 of those years. Since mom & dad's house is on the river, he was out daily from May to October.

Dave Hall

On 30 Apr 2006 19:19:53 -0700, tschnautz@gmail.com wrote:

 Dave
May 1
   
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