wave hits yacht

'Rogue wave' strikes Antarctic cruise ship, leaves 1 dead and 4 injured

The Viking Polaris ship was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, at the time.

An American passenger on an Antarctic cruise died and four other guests were injured after their Viking ship was struck by a "rogue wave," officials said.

The incident happened on Tuesday around 10:40 p.m. local time while the Viking Polaris ship was sailing toward Ushuaia, Argentina, Viking said.

MORE: Carnival cruise passenger who went overboard was 'dead set' on surviving

A guest died following the incident, Viking said, though did not share further details on the cause of death. The victim's family has been notified, the company said.

The passenger killed was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Friday.

"We are offering all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment," the spokesperson said.

The victim was confirmed as Sheri Zhu, 62, by Secretary of the Ushuaia Federal Court Melina Rodriguez.

Four other guests sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the incident and were treated by the ship's doctor and medical staff, Viking said.

"We are investigating the facts surrounding this incident and will offer our support to the relevant authorities," Viking said in a statement Thursday. "Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel."

The ship sustained "limited damage" from the rogue wave and arrived in Ushuaia on Wednesday "without further incident," Viking said. Images taken of the docked ship showed several damaged windows.

Passengers on board the ship described choppy conditions leading up to the incident.

Californian Beverly Spiker told ABC News that a "huge smash" against the window of her and her husband's cabin caused her window frame to break.

"Clearly something big had happened," she said. "A lot of water came shooting in."

"Luckily, our windows did hold," she added, though said other rooms on their side of the ship were "washed out."

Spiker's cousin, Suzie Gooding, of North Carolina, told ABC News that at the time, the ship was going through the Drake Passage, "which is well-known for having turbulent seas."

Gooding said despite the conditions outside looking "horrible," the inside was "like a normal cruise ship" leading up to the incident. She said she felt a "sudden shudder" that caused cabinets to open.

"It was just unbelievable," she said. "At the time that it happened, we personally wondered if, you know, we knew that we weren't by any icebergs, but it's like, did we hit an iceberg? It just was so sudden."

Spiker said she and other passengers were "shook up" afterward.

"No matter what side of the boat you're on, it was felt throughout the ship that clearly something bad had happened," she said. "So everybody was pretty shook up."

MORE: Passengers hurt aboard Norwegian cruise ship after unexpected wind strikes: I felt 'like we're going to die'

The ship is docked as passengers await further travel plans from Viking, according to Gooding, who said that two other ships in their bay in Ushuaia were also damaged, possibly by rogue waves.

The Viking Polaris ship's next departure for the Antarctic, scheduled for Dec. 5, has been canceled "after careful consideration," the cruise line said.

Rogue, or extreme storm, waves are "greater than twice the size of surrounding waves" and are "very unpredictable," according to the National Ocean Service .

Ushuaia, at the southernmost tip of South America, is a common starting point for cruises to Antarctica.

ABC News' Matthew Seyler contributed to this report.

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Norwegian cruise ship loses ability to navigate after rogue wave hits

A Norwegian cruise ship lost the ability to navigate after a rogue wave crashed into it Thursday, the cruise company HX said.

The MS Maud lost power after the wave hit as the ship was sailing toward Tilbury, England, from Florø, Norway, HX, a unit of Norway’s Hurtigruten Group, said in a statement.

None of the 266 passengers or 131 crew members were seriously injured, HX said.

"The situation is stable, the ship has propulsion and they are able to navigate the ship manually via emergency systems," the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said in a statement Friday local time.

The rogue wave shattered windows on the ship's bridge, which caused water to enter the vessel and resulted in a power outage, Reuters reported.

The ship was in the North Sea at the time, in an area hit by a storm late Thursday with hurricane-force gusts forecast to continue Friday, the Danish Meteorological Institute said according to Reuters.

One passenger posted a video on Facebook showing the view from her room's window Thursday with the cruise ship bobbing up and down and creaking in the throes of high waves. 

Because of a lack of navigational abilities, the ship had to be steered manually from the engine room, per the news agency.

Two civilian support vessels are aiding the ship in its journey to port, Danish rescue authorities said.

The ship, traveling under its own power, is currently sailing to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation, HX said in an updated statement Friday.

“Following ongoing safety checks and technical assessments, given the weather conditions, we decided to amend the planned sailing route. Across the fleet, there are thorough operational protocols in place and we always prioritize the safety of those onboard,” HX said.

"Our team are working to arrange onward travel back home for guests onboard," the statement added.

Irene Byon is a booking producer for NBC News.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

Watch CBS News

Rogue wave kills navigation system on cruise ship with nearly 400 on board as deadly storm hammers northern Europe

December 22, 2023 / 9:05 AM EST / CBS/AP

A cruise ship in the North Sea was hit by a massive rogue wave, causing a power outage and disabling the vessel's navigation system late on Thursday, Danish authorities said, as a deadly storm brought heavy rain and strong winds across northern Europe overnight and into Friday.

The Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud temporarily lost power on Thursday after encountering the rogue wave. Its operator, Hurtigruten Expedition, said in a statement that the 266 guests and 131 crew were uninjured and that the vessel, initially headed for the English port of Tilbury, would be diverted to Bremerhaven, Germany, for disembarkation.

Danish Search and Rescue said the vessel could "maneuver via emergency systems, and it has two civilian support vessels close by."

Reuters reported that the ship was being towed to Bremerhafen in Germany after the power outage. A spokesperson for the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre told the news agency that a ship from civil rescue firm Esvagt had managed to connect a tow line to the MS Maud.

"An Esvagt ship is towing it slowly towards Bremerhafen in Germany at around 8-9 knots," the spokesperson told Reuters.

On Thursday, high winds also grounded flights in parts of the U.K., suspended train services and stopped Scottish ferries.

Women killed by falling trees

The storm also brought down trees and prompting warnings of flooding on the North Sea coast. A woman in Belgium was fatally injured by a falling Christmas tree, while another tree killed a person in the Netherlands.

The 65-foot Christmas tree collapsed onto three people at a busy market in Oudenaarde in western Belgium late Thursday, killing a 63-year-old woman and injuring two other people. The Christmas market was immediately canceled.

A woman who was struck by a falling tree on Thursday in the eastern Dutch town of Wilp later died of her injuries, her employer said.

Pre-Christmas rail travelers in parts of Germany faced disruption. National railway operator Deutsche Bahn said Friday there were cancellations on routes from Hamburg and Hannover to Frankfurt and Munich, while long-distance services from Hamburg northward to Kiel and Flensburg weren't running, among other disruptions.

The company said that falling trees damaged overhead electric wires or blocked tracks largely in northern Germany, but also in the central state of Hesse.

In Hamburg, the Elbe River flooded streets around the city's fish market, with water waist-high in places. German authorities warned of a storm surge of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet) or more above mean high tide on parts of the North Sea coast on Friday.

Streets around harbors flooded overnight in some Dutch North Sea towns including Scheveningen, the seaside suburb of The Hague.

The huge Maeslantkering storm barrier that protects Rotterdam from high sea levels automatically closed for the first time because of high water levels - meaning that all six major storm barriers that protect the low-lying Netherlands were closed at the same time. The nation's water and infrastructure authority said that was also a first. By Friday morning, all six barriers were open again as winds eased.

• Cruise Ship

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Deadly 'rogue wave' smashes into cruise ship near Antarctica — but where did it come from?

A suspected rogue wave recently crashed into a cruise ship near Antarctica killing one and injuring four others. Where did it come from?

A suspected "rogue wave" recently smashed into a cruise ship sailing from Antarctica to Argentina. The freak event killed one person and injured four others. But where do these freakishly tall waves come from? And is climate change expected to make them more common or extreme? 

On the night of Nov. 29, an unusually massive wave hit the cruise ship Viking Polaris as it was sailing through the Drake Passage in Antarctica's Southern Ocean toward Ushuaia, a port in Argentina where many Antarctic cruises start and end, French news agency AFP reported. 

The force of the massive wall of water sent passengers flying and smashed several exterior windows, which flooded some rooms and caused further structural damage inside. A 62-year-old American woman, Sheri Zhu, was killed by injuries sustained from the broken glass and four other people received non-life-threatening injuries, according to Australian news site ABC News . 

"This wave hit and came over and literally broke through windows and just washed into these rooms," Tom Trusdale, a passenger aboard the Viking Polaris when the incident happened, told ABC News. "Not only did it wash into the rooms, but it [also] broke walls down."

Related: What's the tallest wave ever recorded on Earth?

Viking, the travel company that owns the Viking Polaris, announced on Dec. 1 that the tragic event was a suspected "rogue wave incident." Upcoming cruises have been canceled until the ship can be fully repaired and a proper investigation into what happened has been carried out. 

What are rogue waves?

Rogue waves are freak waves that are at least twice as high as the surrounding sea state — the average height of the waves for a given area at a given time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The massive walls of water come from seemingly out of nowhere and without warning.

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The exact mechanisms behind the rogue waves are still unknown, but researchers think the freakish crests are formed when smaller waves merge into larger ones, either due to high surface winds or changes in ocean currents caused by storms, according to NOAA. 

It is currently unclear if the wave that hit the Viking Polaris qualifies as an official rogue wave because there is no accurate data on the wave height or the surrounding sea state. A storm was raging when the wave hit, CNN reported, which could have provided the necessary conditions for a rogue wave to form. But the Drake Passage is also a notoriously treacherous part of the Southern Ocean, with deep waters that are fed by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which makes it capable of producing very large non-rogue waves as well, according to Britannica . 

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On Dec. 2, a passenger onboard another cruise ship in the Drake Passage shared a video of another massive, but less destructive, wave on Twitter .

The largest rogue wave ever recorded was the Draupner wave, an 84-foot-tall (25.6 meters) wave that was observed near Norway in 1995. However, the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded was the Ucluelet wave, a 58-foot-tall (17.7 m) wave that was detected by an ocean buoy off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia in November 2020. The Ucluelet wave is regarded as the most extreme rogue wave because it was around three times higher than surrounding waves, while the Draupner wave was only around twice as tall compared with the surrounding sea state.

In 2019, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports predicted that rogue waves could become less frequent but more extreme in the future due to the effects of human-caused climate change. 

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. 

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A rogue wave caused a cruise ship tragedy. They occur more often than you think.

• The Viking Polaris was hit by a rogue wave in the Drake Passage, treacherous waters between Argentina and Antarctica.
• A rogue wave occurs when it's more than two times higher than waves around it. Hundreds of them have occurred over the years.
• But there's a lot to learn about these waves because they've only been confirmed by instruments within the last 30 years.

A possible rogue wave sent headlines around the world last week after it broke windows on a cruise ship off the coast of Argentina, killing a woman and injuring four others. 

Such freak accidents may seem rare, but hundreds have occurred without warning around the world — on cruise ships, cargo vessels, oil platforms and beaches.

Observers often describe them as a “wall of water,” but the size of that wall is relative depending on whether you’re in a fishing boat or a cargo ship. 

The six deck Viking Polaris was sailing back toward Argentina after a trip to Antarctica on Nov. 29 when a massive freak wave struck the ship. Viking Cruises called it a “rogue wave” but researchers said only further investigation will verify if it truly met the definition — more than twice as high as the average of the highest surrounding waves. 

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Monstrous and deadly waves that arrived without warning have been recounted in fishing and sailing lore for more than a century. More modern records show how often they truly occur: Some 432 similar incidents were documented internationally between 2005 and 2021 in a catalog kept on the Russian Academy of Science’ s Institute of Applied Physics website.

Here's what to know about rogue waves.

What is a rogue wave?

Rogue waves are driven by wind. They form when waves coming from multiple directions meet at one point by chance, said Francesco Fedele, an associate professor at Georgia Tech. “It’s the constructive interference of waves coming from multiple directions. They all pile up and form this extreme event.” 

They sometimes occur when waves move into strong opposing currents, such as in the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and off the coast of South Africa, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. It can be a single wave, or a series of three or four.

It's often impossible to know if monster waves are an actual rogue wave.

A rogue wave is defined as 2.2 times higher than the waves around it, said Johannes Gemmrich, a physical oceanographer at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. The waves are measured relative to "significant wave height," determined by averaging the highest one-third of waves.

If the significant wave height is 6 feet, a rogue wave would have to be 13.2 feet. Some freakishly high waves that cause maritime disasters may be enormous, but may only be 1.9 times as high as the surrounding seas, Gemmrich said. “Unless you have measurements for an individual wave, you can’t tell if it was some rogue wave.”

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• Kansas residents experience two freak accidents on one cruise
• Giant 'rogue wave' hits cruise ship, leaving one dead and four injured
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What happened on the Viking Polaris? 

The Polaris was in the Drake Passage , treacherous waters known for rough seas and big waves. Called the "Drake Shake" or the "Drake Lake" depending on the height of the seas, it's where the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans come together between the southern tip of Argentina and Antarctica. 

California sailing enthusiast Ken Spencer was a passenger on deck two, an estimated 25 feet above the water line. He told USA TODAY that waves of 20 to 25 feet were consistent in frequency and direction during the day and then turned less so into the evening, coming from mixed directions. 

As he was preparing for bed, Spencer said, "this wave came directly broadside at the port side,” not from an angle like the previous waves.

“The wave had tremendous volume, and it seems to have risen as high at deck four, which is about 45 feet above the waterline," he said. "The thickness of the wave is what was amazing. The water stayed against my window for what seemed like seconds, but was likely around a second."

At the same time, the Polaris was jolted with a very powerful bump, he said.

Photos of the vessel show windows were broken in several staterooms and several rooms were breached by water. His window was intact but a few gallons of water had seeped in around the perimeter, said Spencer, who praised Viking and the vessel's crew.

How often do rogue waves occur? 

Much more often than many realize.

Gemmrich estimates waves up to twice as high as the surrounding wave heights occur about every 3,000 waves and that a rogue wave may occur every 15,000 waves. 

“The higher the relative wave heights increase, the more unreal the rogue waves become," Gemmrich said. “A wave three times higher than the background, that’s extremely rare.”

It’s those monster waves that occur when the background waves are 30 to 40 feet high that concern the shipping industry. 

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What's the difference between a rogue wave and a tsunami? 

• A tsunami is a very long wave of seismic origin, generated by earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. In the open ocean tsunamis have small wave heights, but in shallow water closer to the coast wave height can increase to 30-60 feet. 
• Rogue waves are generated by wind and are shorter waves. Although they often occur in the open ocean, and during stormy conditions, they also occur in coastal waters.
• Meteotsunamis are typically waves smaller than tsunamis caused by air pressure disturbances in fast moving storms. 

Is climate change to blame? 

Some research has suggested warming temperatures are contributing to higher waves and more extreme wave heights in some regions. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded with "high confidence" last year that significant wave heights are projected to increase across the Southern Ocean and tropical eastern Pacific and decrease over much of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.

However, in the North Atlantic, the panel found low confidence in projected changes in extreme wave conditions "due to limited evidence" and medium confidence that wave heights already have increased above 45 degrees latitude. Wave heights are projected to increase in the Arctic Ocean because of a reduction in sea ice. 

Gemmrich said it's more likely that locations could change where rogue waves occur more often, because of shifts in storm tracks. 

A lot is still unknown about rogue waves

There's still a lot to learn about rogue waves, in part because they've only been confirmed by instruments within the last 30 years. The first technical confirmation of a rogue wave took place in 1995 during a New Year’s Day storm.

An extremely large wave hit the Draupner Oil rig platform off Norway in the North Sea. The crew didn’t realize they had been hit by a rogue wave until they discovered scaffolding erected under the deck for repairs had been washed away. A laser sensor recorded the 85-foot wave, about the height of a 10-story building. 

Today, satellites, radars and ocean floor sensors all help collect crucial data, but because the waves are unpredictable they're difficult to study. 

Gemmrich recently concluded that the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded took place off Vancouver Island, British Columbia in November 2020.   Gemmrich and a student at the University of Victoria, Leah Cicon, analyzed buoy data and found   the crest measured 57.7 feet high, compared to the surrounding waves averaging 19.6 feet, nearly three times as high. 

Researchers are particularly interested in solving the mysteries surrounding rogue waves, hoping to be able to provide early warnings so that shipping companies could avoid areas where dangerous conditions increase the risk. 

The European Space Agency concluded in 2004 that rogue waves had sunk more than 200 vessels over the previous 20 years.

Infamous incidents likely caused by freak or rogue waves 

Among the rogue wave stories recounted by mariners are two maritime disasters  memorialized in film and song: 

►The George Clooney thriller, “A Perfect Storm,” was based on the disappearance of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail during a nor'easter that absorbed a hurricane off Nova Scotia in 1991. Six men were lost. Canadian officials reported buoys in the area recorded peak waves in excess of 60 feet.

►The 1975 Gordon Lightfoot ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was written after the freighter sank without a distress signal in Lake Superior during a gale on Nov. 10, 1975, killing 29 crew members. 

►In 1942, the Queen Mary was hit by a 75-foot wall of water as it was taking 15,000 U.S. troops to England during World War II. It was one of at least five similar incidents along the route between 1924 and 1966. 

►In August 1905, 20 of 22 crew members perished when the steamer Peconic went down off the Georgia coast.

►One hundred years later, the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship, with 3,700 passengers and crew, was headed for New York when it was hit by a series of three waves, with at least one estimated at 69 feet, during a storm off the Georgia/South Carolina coast. The force of the water sheared off aluminum rail supports and sent teak balcony railings and water through the windows of two cabins on decks nine and 10. The ship diverted course to South Carolina and the captain told people he’d never seen anything like it. 

►On July 3, 1992, a wave then estimated at a height of 18 feet, struck Daytona Beach around 10:30 p.m., injuring 20 and tossing cars around. One vacationer described it as a "huge wall of white water." 

Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Sailing in waves: top tips to keep you safe at speed

• Toby Heppell
• August 9, 2021

Sailing in waves can be difficult, we find out about the best rough weather tactics to keep you sailing for speed, comfort, safety and enjoyment

Sailing in waves can make for a jarring, juddering experience and long, uncomfortable passages and at worst, a dangerous, boat-rolling hazard. However, it can also mean a thrilling surfing ride to your destination.

Understanding how to set up your boat for sailing in waves, to take advantage of them or ameliorate their worst traits is a skill that it is well worth understanding and practising in order to make your sailing more enjoyable, and to give you the confidence to sail in a wider range of conditions.

Sailing in waves downwind

‘Fairly obviously, the bigger the boat you sail the less of a problem waves generally are,’ say Merfyn Owen of Owen Clark Yacht Design, himself a double Cape Horner and former BT Global Challenge skipper with over 250,000 miles under his belt.

‘To take that to an extreme, if you think about an oil tanker in the middle of an ocean, a wave that would barely wet the deck for her would be something big enough to roll a cruising yacht.

‘It’s really all about the wave energy transfer and the object that the energy is being transferred through, in this case, the boat. So although size is key, when sailing with waves, speed is very much your friend, too, as the energy transfer will be reduced when you are travelling at pace.’

The ‘speed is your friend’ attitude can be difficult to get your head around. Typically it feels counterintuitive when sailing in big waves to want to speed up. Usually in these sort of extreme conditions, slower tends to feel safer but it is something we should all be trying to do in a following sea, to reduce the chance of broaching or being rolled.

‘If you take a fairly modern boat, they all tend to be easier to sail downwind in big waves for a couple of reasons, but one of the key reasons is that they are able to achieve higher sustained speeds downwind,’ says Neil Mackley of North Sails.

‘These days double digits downwind are not uncommon and even high teens are fairly regularly seen. You don’t have to go back too many years before 8 knots was the maximum many boats would be likely to see.’

The faster you sail downwind in waves, though, the more technique is required to reach your destination safely.

There are several factors at play here. Firstly, sailing at higher speeds when surfing down a wave gives your rudder movement greater impact in terms of direction change. Thus when surfing down a big wave, the boat accelerates and it is easy to oversteer and end up with big changes in direction, which also cause big changes in wind angle – a light touch is what is needed with small steering inputs.

The second factor is around choosing your angle down a wave to ensure you are heading in the right direction when you reach the troughs.

It’s not called surfing a wave for nothing, and it helps to think about how actual surfers make their way down a wave, never straight down the face, always at a perpendicular angle to the wave direction.

Photo: OnEdition

Just as the stern begins to lift, accelerate the boat by luffing to a reach. The bigger and faster the wave, the earlier and more extreme an angle change is required to get your boat speed close to that of the wave.

Once surfing, don’t steer straight down the wave: you’ll hit the one in front. If you stop, the wave will roll past and, significantly, your apparent wind angle will suddenly change.

Instead, turn so the boat slides along the face of the wave, upwind or downwind of the wave perpendicular; this extends the time surfing but also keeps the boat at a constant speed.

‘When the wave hits, something has to happen to that energy, which is a function of the wave’s weight and speed. The energy is transferred into the vessel and if the vessel is going relatively slowly and is relatively small then there is sufficient energy in the wave to roll the boat over,’ says Owen.

‘If a 36-footer that weighs 6-7 tonnes and is travelling downwind at 6-7 knots is hit by a wave that is travelling at 30 knots, it is going to be far more impacted than a 6-7 tonne trimaran going at 25 knots.

Understanding the motion of water in waves is key to understanding how best to sail through or with them

‘When the 30-knot wave hits, its relative velocity is 5 knots compared to 24 knots for the boat going at 6 knots. So all that energy and mass hits the boat and the result is that a certain percentage of that energy is transferred into the boat, which subsequently creates the roll. So the faster you can be going at the moment the wave hits, the better.’

Most of us do not sail in a multihull capable of making 20 knots downwind, but the point remains that the faster you can travel the better in terms of energy transfer.

Similarly, if the waves are not big enough to induce surfing or your boat is quite heavy and does not surf regularly down the face of the wave, the technique remains broadly the same.

The main difference when not surfing down waves are that the waves will be overtaking you so you are less likely to come to a stop sailing into the back of the next wave.

Nevertheless, the wave will still accelerate your boat and it is wise to head up just before the wave picks you up to increase speed and reduce the difference between the relative speeds of both wave and boat.

Rolling when sailing in waves

Steering down waves as above assumes the wave and wind direction are matched, allowing you to luff onto a broad reach on either gybe to ensure you are not sailing straight down the wave face.

There are, of course many situations in which you will encounter waves that are not in the same direction as the wind, so on one gybe it will be okay and on another it will be harder.

‘To some extent it is wise to think about taking the favoured gybe until the tide turns and the seastate reduces,’ says Owen. ‘There might be other factors, too; you may be able to get closer to the shore on the favoured gybe. Essentially, you should try to limit the time on the unfavoured gybe where possible and maximise time on the easier – and faster – gybe.’

Of course there are times when sailing in waves that they are going to roll the boat around and this is unavoidable, and it’s all but impossible to pick the perfect angle.

‘I think the biggest issue that a lot of people fear is the old death roll,’ comments Mackley. ‘That is a particular issue on older boats with a relatively wide beam but a narrow transom – they really tend to rock and roll all over the place.’

Rolling in waves is a big fear for many. Tightening the leech on your mainsail with your kicker will help, so will tightening the leech on your spinnaker with a tweaker line

The rolling Mackley mentions is born of a number of factors. In the simplest terms, a wider aft section provides more power downwind and enables the boat to sail faster. However, the effect can also be the result of the underwater shape of the boat reducing form stability.

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Ultimately it varies from hull shape to hull shape but as a rule, the wider-sterned modern cruisers tend to roll less.

‘There are things you can do to limit that roll, though, and at least provide a slightly less stressful experience. Broadly speaking you will want to sail with less twist in your sails, which helps reduce the rolling motion.

‘Essentially what is happening is if you have a quite open leech, the air escapes off the very top portion of the mainsail. So if you have a lot of twist in the mainsail then the sail at the top ends up being something like 90 ̊ off the centerline. Whereas the bottom of the main with the boom out will be much less than 90 ̊ to the centreline and so be holding power down low. It is the difference in the angle between those that induces rolling in the boat.

‘The top of the sail will spill wind, which allows the masthead to roll to windward and then the keel takes over and rolls you back upright and the whole thing just gets worse and worse. So applying leech tension via the kicking strap will give a more even leech profile and allow the wind to stay attached through the whole length of the leech.

‘With a spinnaker up, the same thing is true, but with the added difficulty that you have a soft leech and luff. The aim is to try and stop the spinnaker rotating round the front of the boat.’

Mackley says that this can be done in a number of ways. Firstly having a ‘tweaker’ line on the sheet is useful. Typically this is a block or ring that allows the sheet to run freely through it, which then runs down to another block on the toerail and to a cleat.

This acts to pull down on the spinnaker sheet but lets the sheet run through it and controls the amount of twist that develops in the leech of the spinnaker.

The result of pulling this on is to stop the leeward side of the spinnaker from rotating round the forestay. ‘There is also a tendency for some people to allow the spinnaker pole to be too far forward, which also allows the top of the spinnaker to float to windward, which also induces the roll,’ Mackley adds.

Sailing in waves downwind in light weather

Although not as intimidating as windier weather, sailing downwind with a following swell can be just as hard.

As a general rule, the difficulty in very light weather is that the swell in effect kills wind. As you accelerate down a big swell, quite often you will see the apparent wind switch from being behind you to in front of you as you overtake the wind.

Speed differences in this situation are fairly small. If there is a 5-knot true wind speed and you are sailing at 3 knots, a significant swell will easily accelerate the boat to 5 knots, at which point you are essentially sailing in 0 knots of wind.

Even though it is not necessary to sail down the face of the wave at an angle to prevent sailing into the next wave in lighter winds, as the waves will typically be moving faster than you are, it is still worth considering sailing more of a reaching angle to increase boat speed and so reduce the difference between apparent wind when sailing down the face of the wave and the true wind speed when not.

In lighter weather you are likely to experience the problem of the mainsail unloading as the boat accelerates down a wave. Using a preventer on the boom can easily solve this, but it is not uncommon to see a boat accelerating down the face of a wave, overtaking the wind at which point the mainsail backs and acts as a large air brake.

This is not going to do any great damage but it is going to slow you down quite a lot and it is better to either let the mainsail flop around a bit or find a faster angle, even if it is a longer route to your destination as you will likely get there quicker.

Sailing in waves upwind

Sailing into a heavy seaway, or even a moderate chop can significantly reduce your speed, pointing ability and comfort. As such, simply sailing into a seaway can make your journey less comfortable and much longer – a double whammy of discomfort.

But if your course to steer is upwind and into a seaway, what can we do without resorting to the engine?

To some extent the answer is condition-dependent, but the basics of wave sailing remain the same. The water in a wave moves in a circular motion: downwind at the top, upwind at the bottom. The essence of sailing over waves is all about ensuring you use the energy locked into the wave to your advantage.

It is for this reason the advice has always been to luff as you climb the face and bear off slightly over the back of the wave. The aim here is to ensure you spend as little time as possible in the peak by luffing, and then bearing away to keep reasonable way on and keep you sailing in a broadly straight line.

Additionally, as you slow down up the wave, the apparent wind moves aft, allowing you to luff further, while as you accelerate down the back of the wave the apparent wind moves forward.

The problem here, though, is the additional steering makes sail trim difficult to master. In flatter water, we can set sails up for the conditions and steer a straight course, safe in the knowledge that barring some significant change in the wind strength or direction the boat will be set up correctly.

‘When it is very windy and you are sailing in big waves it can be very difficult,’ says Mackley. ‘With the sails sheeted on there is not much space to luff and bear away.

‘If you have too much sail area then you get locked into sailing the boat in a very high mode and slowing each time a wave hits, as every time you try to bear away at the top of the wave you are overpowered.’

The trick in these conditions is to give yourself a sail set-up which offers the best power over a wide range of angles. Not only does steering over a wave change your angle to the wind, but the apparent wind will also be moving around a lot too. When you are in the trough and going quite slowly, then the apparent windspeed will be much lower. As you bear off over the peak of the wave, the apparent will be noticeably higher.

‘You should think about reefing earlier than you would normally when sailing in big waves upwind,’ says Owen. ‘When the waves are really big, as well as a difference in apparent wind speed, you will also get a lull in the trough and a gust at the peak, so setting the boat up for the maximum wind strength you are going to experience is important.’ Mackley agrees, explaining that if you normally would reef in 19-20 knots upwind, then in a big seaway you will probably want to put a reef in at 16-17 knots to allow you to drive the boat properly.

‘Sailing with more twisted sails is also key in the windier wavy conditions,’ says Mackley. ‘You might not need to reef, but you will certainly want to sail with a lot more twist in the mainsail and headsail.

‘Essentially what you are trying to do is give yourself a wider groove to sail in, so with a lot more twist in your sails you are able to keep the sail trim right for a higher percentage of the time.’

On a race boat, the trimmers will be focused on the bow and trimming on as it lifts and the boat starts to luff up the face of the wave and then easing the sheets slightly as the helm bears off over the back of the wave.

Plenty of twist in your sails will help with the apparent wind direction changes that occur in big waves, particularly upwind

By putting twist into the sails when cruising we allow for the sails to still be delivering some power through the course of steering without becoming overpowered at the peak and underpowered in the troughs.

‘It is worth remembering that this applies to all your sails. Particularly for boats with a large headsail it is well worth putting twist into the headsail by moving the headsail cars back. It’s often not something people do but it will make a huge difference to keeping the boat evenly powered through the waves and so keeping the boat moving and preventing the situation where she is heeling then sitting upright and then heeling again over and over.’

Sailing in waves upwind in the light

Depending on the speed of the waves, your boat, and its manoeuvrability, there is always a lower limit where it is simply not possible to steer around the waves in the way described above.  The waves just shake the boat and rig around; the rig stalls; and the boat bounces up and down, going nowhere.

When the waves are not regular there are always high and low spots. Your focus needs to be on the water half a boat length or so in front of the bow. Steer for the obvious low spots as they appear and avoid the biggest highs: the larger the differences between highs and lows, the further it will be worth deviating from the mean course to minimise the effect of this obstacle course.

If there are no obvious high spots and low spots, sail freer and faster through the worst bits: your speed will at least ensure that the rig and foils are working, whereas trying to sail high and slowly will stall both and contribute to a slide to leeward.

To allow the boat to make good progress through the waves in light winds, we need to generate as much power as possible from the rig.

‘Trying to generate power in light winds and waves, means you are typically sailing with the sheet more eased and a lower mean angle,’ say Mackley. ‘You are not looking for the ultimate in terms of pointing but you are just trying to get the boat powered up and punching through the waves.

‘So you usually ease the sheet a few inches and sail with slightly less tension in the backstay to induce a little more power through headstay sag, which makes a fuller, more powerful sail.

‘You are generally trying to keep your sheeting angle a bit wider and more forgiving. As with windy sailing in waves, you are aiming for a forgiving sail set-up. We are not looking for absolute maximum upwind speed, you are more looking for the maximum forward speed all the time.’

Sailing in waves in extreme conditions

‘Upwind, even in severe waves, it is often okay as long as you can keep enough way on to continue to travel forwards. You will need to foot off quite a bit with very reduced sail but downwind, when a wave gets to a certain size it can be difficult,’ says Owen.

‘I’ve said that speed is your friend and that is certainly the case, but there is a point that you reach where you are going too fast and a broach, or worst a Chinese gybe becomes a very real possibility.

‘I would argue that slowing down is still not the right answer. Given what we know about how likely a wave travelling at speed is to roll a boat travelling at low speed then really you are just choosing the lesser of two evils by sailing quickly, and still reducing your likelihood of being rolled, even if that likelihood is quite high.

The key to sailing upwind in big waves is to make sure you keep enough way on to make progress

‘If you look at fast racing boats these days, they very rarely carry a drogue or similar. It’s not that it wouldn’t work, it’s just that you never have to use it because you have sufficient speed to be okay.

‘So on a boat like that, there is no condition that would ever warrant the need to use one. You are far better off just sailing through it and keeping the boat moving.’

There is always a moment when we need to consider backing out. For those on passage, hopefully you will have identified some ports you can retreat to in your standard passage planning.

If you find that you are struggling to make decent headway upwind in rough conditions, it could well be worth firing up the motor to help drive the boat up a wave face, preventing the keel and rudder from stalling, so you maintain control and avoid punitive leeway. Or perhaps you need to drop the sails altogether.

Usually, if you’re struggling to make decent headway, you can make rapid progress downwind, so identify your nearest safe port (hopefully one that is easy to get into and has sufficient depth) that is downwind of your location and head there.

When to use the motor in waves

When sailing in waves upwind, motorsailing will often help you get to your destination quicker. However, sailing in waves downwind, motorsailing is not usually a useful option as you will, often, be sailing faster than your engine would drive you, so you simply end up wasting fuel in order to have a prop spinning ineffectually under your hull.

With the right skills and attitude sailing in waves can be a great deal of fun, but much of your decision making does need to depend on your crew. If people are prone to seasickness, is there much point in continuing on?

Even if you are really struggling downwind, there is much to be said for taking control of the situation.

‘There have been certain situations I have faced, going downwind in waves, where the boat is rolling around and you are surfing down waves and at a certain point you know it is going to go wrong.

‘For me, I think the best option then is to take control of the situation, give the helm a shove and accept the broach. Sure, you may be knocked down but at least you are prepared for it, and you are being knocked down the right way and it is not a sudden Chinese gybe,’ says Mackley.

Sailing in waves with an autopilot

Autopilots and waves do not always make for the happiest of bedfellows. Things have improved, however, with newer systems able to identify pitch and yaw and adjust steering accordingly.

Even if you don’t have the absolute latest tech, many of us have a system that can steer to wind instead of relying purely on compass heading. This option can be extremely useful in wavy conditions but it is important to ensure you are setting up your autopilot correctly.

‘When sailing downwind, because of potential surging down waves and increased acceleration I almost always set my autopilot to steer to true wind direction,’ says Raymarine’s Greg Wells.

‘Upwind, my autopilot steers a better course than I can. I usually have that set to apparent wind as fluctuations in boatspeed are less dramatic.’

Beyond merely using the autopilot as a labour-saving device, a key use in waves can be to free up hands for sail trim. A key feature in waves is the need to either set your sails up to be forgiving, or trim more as the boat accelerates and decelerates. ‘Last summer, one of our customers was telling us that during the Fastnet they sailed almost the whole time on autopilot sailing two up. This is useful sailing downwind in waves, when it’s easy to become over or under trimmed, which could see you rolling around.’

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Dangerous waves and your boat

At what size  do waves get big enough to cause real trouble for your boat?

by Steve Tredup

It’s dark. It’s storming. The waves, when you can see them, look large. And you are sailing a long way from land. One of the greatest concerns a sailor may have is that he or she will be caught in a situation where his boat may be knocked down or rolled by a wave.

Despite being frightened by stories about exceptionally dangerous storms, such as those that wreaked havoc on the 1979 Fastnet or 1998 Sydney to Hobart races, not all storms create dangerous breaking waves. But some storms do and a prudent sailor has to ask: Do I know what wave heights are dangerous to my boat? Do I know when breaking waves can occur? Do I know when these conditions might occur where I am sailing?

This is not about heavy weather sailing techniques, but knowing which waves caused by heavy weather may be dangerous.

Roll, roll, roll, your boat When is your boat in danger of being knocked down or rolled by a wave? A study conducted by the University of Southampton’s Department of Ship Science and a similar study by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) along with the United States Yacht Racing Union (now US Sailing) have shown that three conditions usually have to exist:

1. Wave height must exceed a certain percentage of the boat’s length. At this point the wave becomes dangerous and contains enough energy to overcome a boat’s righting moment.

2. The boat is broadside or oblique to the wave. The more a boat moves from being perpendicular to a wave, the greater the chance of a knock down. If the boat is bow or stern onto the wave, the chances of being rolled are greatly reduced. Yes, a boat can be pitch-poled (tossed end-over-end), but the size of the wave needed to do this greatly exceeds the size of the smaller wave needed to knock a boat down when broadside to a wave.

3. The boat is struck by a breaking wave. Unless the wave is breaking, the boat should ride up and over the wave regardless of the wave height in comparison to the boat length and the boat’s orientation to the wave. That is not to say that it will be comfortable or possibly cause the boat to go out of control. But without the wave breaking on the boat, the boat itself should not be knocked down.

An ocean wave is energy. Along with the speed of the wave, the larger the wave is, the more energy it will contain. Therefore, the wave has to be of a certain height in order to have enough energy to roll a boat of a certain length and displacement.

Most sailors would be surprised at the minimal wave height needed to roll a boat. Andrew Claughton (who co-authored the University of Southampton, Department of Ship Science’s report) writes in Adlard Coles’ Heavy Weather Sailing by Peter Bruce, “During the model tests that were carried out to investigate the problem, when the breaking wave was 30 percent of the hull length high, from trough to crest, it could capsize some yachts, while waves to a height of 60 percent of the hull length comfortably overwhelm all of the boats we tested.” So, the starting point for a wave to be dangerous to rolling a boat is one that is only 30 percent high as the boat is long.

In order to be rolled, a boat’s righting moment has to be overcome. Obviously, different boats will be more susceptible to rolling than others based on length, beam, displacement, roll inertia, and center of gravity. A monohull’s resistance to heeling is created by its centers of gravity and buoyancy. This resistance to heeling is called a boat’s righting moment, which is created by the horizontal distance from the boat’s center of gravity and the center of buoyancy as the boat tilts. The farther apart horizontally these points are, the more righting moment the boat has.

As a boat tilts farther over, it will eventually reach its maximum righting moment when the maximum horizontal distance between the centers of gravity and buoyancy is reached. If the boat tilts over more, the boat still has a positive righting moment but it will be decreasing. It will continue to decrease until the center of gravity and the center of buoyancy line up again, but the wrong way, which is known as the angle of vanishing stability (often beyond 90 degrees). The boat could then fall either way, but once the point of vanishing stability is passed, the boat will continue over until a new equilibrium is found, which could be a complete roll or an inverted position.

The wave will have to be breaking along its crest as it encounters the boat to roll the boat. At this point, the boat will be at the top of the wave face and will be tilted over by the steepness of the wave. When the breaking front of the wave hits the boat, it acts like a power force to throw the boat over, down the wave into the trough. How far the boat is knocked down depends on the energy of the wave and the righting moment of the boat.

Your boat may be more or less susceptible to rolling than other boats based on its design, but the aspects to remember are that although your boat may be severly tilted over by the wave front, the wave will have to be over 30 percent of the boat’s length, be breaking on the boat, and the boat will have to be orientated obliquely (beam on is the worse) to the wave to knock the boat down or completely roll the boat over. Unless the wave is so large that it pitch-poles the boat, a boat that is bow or stern onto the wave should not be rolled.

Wave background Local wind causes waves and as these waves get separated out of a localized wind, it is called swell. Swell from outside an area and local wind waves often interact. When a crest meets another crest, the result is the combined height of both. For example, the crest of a five-foot swell and the crest of four-foot wave would stack, resulting in a nine-foot wave (for a wave to double like this, it requires that both waves have very long and regular swells). However, if the crest meets a trough, then they cancel. In our example, this would result in a one-foot wave. All ranges in between will also be encountered.

Because of these interactions, waves will appear different from one another and may seem confused. Waves will appear across a large spectrum of sizes, although to a local observer, there will appear to be a general height. This is why wave forecasts, such as from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, give a range, such as six to eight feet, covering a broad area (called a wave field).

This range, though, is often misunderstood. First, the wave height given is the significant wave height, which is the average of the highest one-third of the waves that may be encountered. It is not the average of all waves, nor will all waves be in this range. Some waves will be smaller and some waves will be higher. In fact, you can expect to see a wave almost twice as high (!) as the significant wave height. This type of wave is rare, however, only showing up once every 3,000 waves.

Wave lesson Predicting dangerous breaking waves is complex. The best information that most sailors will have to rely on is the weather report. Therefore, when you are sailing, the wave forecast portion of the weather report is just as important as the rest of the report. The wave height (from bottom of the trough to the top of the crest) and the wave length (the distance from one crest to the next crest or one trough to the next trough) are the two pieces of critical information. Once you know the wave height and length, you can determine whether the waves will have the potential to be breaking or not in deep water.

A wave will collapse, or break, in deep water depending on the wave’s steepness.  The base of the wave (trough to trough, i.e., the wave’s length) can only support a wave of a certain height. If it exceeds that height, the wave becomes too steep and it collapses and breaks forward.

There are some varying estimates of the scientific, precise moment when the wave will collapse, but generally, when the wave height exceeds the wave length at a 1:7 ratio, it may begin to collapse. This is called the wave’s breaking point, but I call it the “Rule of 7 or Less,” if the wave length is 7 times or less than the wave height, then the wave may break. This is true for any measurement type, feet or meters. For example, if the wave height is 15 feet, multiplying that by 7 will give a minimum wave length of 105 feet. If the wave length is 105 feet or less, then the wave has the potential to be breaking.

Is there danger? To know if you have entered a wave-height danger zone, you must first know what wave height is dangerous to your boat. Remember, a wave will have enough potential energy to knock your boat down starting at 30 percent of its length and certainly will be large enough if it is 60 percent of the boat’s length.

Using the weather forecast or manual prediction, you need to know the wave heights and lengths you will be expecting to encounter over the next day or so. Will the wave heights exceed your danger zone? Could another condition, such as more wind or a contrary current, suddenly make normally safe waves dangerous?

If yes, then you need to know if the waves will be breaking. If the wave length is 7 times or less than the wave’s height, then you should take precautions.

For example, using the minimum 30 percent wave height to boat length, if your boat is 40 feet long, then the wave-height danger zone starts at waves 12 feet high (40 x 30). A wave 12 feet high could knock down a boat 40 feet long if the boat is caught somewhere near beam onto the wave as it breaks. Following the Rule of 7 or Less, you know that a 12-foot wave could break only if the wave length is less than 84 feet (12 x 7).

In contrast, these conditions should not present a danger to a 40-foot boat even though some may find the below conditions worrisome.

If the wave is higher than 12 feet, but is not breaking (a non-breaking wave cannot throw the boat down into the trough); If the 12-foot-high wave’s length exceeds 84 feet (the wave will not be breaking); or If the wave is breaking, but the wave height is less than 12 feet (too small to overcome the boat’s righting moment).

To determine dangerous wave heights and lengths for your boat, you can use these formulas:

Danger Wave Height W Height = B Length x 30%

Danger Wave Length W Length < = W Height x 7

However, to make it easier, the accompanying chart (pg. 47) is designed for boats 30 to 60 feet based on a dangerous wave height of 30 percent of the boat’s length.

Knowing the wave conditions that may be a danger to rolling your boat will allow you to take action to avoid or prevent it.

Steve Tredup is a sailor who works in the insurance industry. Tredup lives near Chicago and sails on Lake Michigan.

By Ocean Navigator

Watch: 'Bomb cyclone' sends massive waves inside Washington ferry amid turbulent seas

ANACORTES, Wash. – A Washington State Ferry crew had quite a bumpy ride during a journey across the Strait of Juan de Fuca Tuesday as winds raged as seas churned from a bomb cyclone that had earlier moved into nearby Vancouver Island.

The M/V Issaquah was being repositioned to its port in Anacortes to cover the popular San Juan Islands ferry route, transporting no passengers, just crew and their vehicles, according to Washington State Ferries.

WHEN STORMS 'BOMB OUT': EXPLAINING HOW A BOMB CYCLONE FORMS

Washington State Ferries said the captain of the boat reported that the weather forecast looked good for the vessel. But after the crew exited the shelter of the inland Puget Sound waters, the seas ended up being rougher than expected as winds blasted to 50-65 mph. A gust at nearby Whidbey Island Naval Station reached as high as 70 mph Tuesday. 

Footage shot on the Issaquah begins with a shot of those vehicles as water rushes underneath and around them. In the background, the white waves of the Strait can be seen churning violently.

"We sometimes have waves crashing over the bow, but for this to happen, it is very, very rare," Washington State Ferries said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. They noted that the vessel was moving outside its usual route.

The video then cuts to the other side of the ferry, where the water that initially flooded the central vehicle compartment flowed. The water can be seen moving side-to-side as the boat is tossed by the waves outside.

WATCH: MASSIVE ROGUE WAVE BATTERS SHIP IN NORTH SEA

A view from a higher deck showed how aggressive the waves were.

Images below captured the moments as waves batter the Issaquah over and over again.

The photos below taken by Sarah Geist show a view of the Issaquah as it traversed the rough seas, buffeted by large waves.

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Washington has seen a parade of storms over the past week. Officially tagged a "bomb cyclone," the storm causing these dangerous conditions has created strong winds and even blizzard warnings in the nearby mountains.

Washington State Ferries said the vessel sustained minimal damage.

Original article source: Watch: 'Bomb cyclone' sends massive waves inside Washington ferry amid turbulent seas

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Ocean Wave Basics

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A closer look at how waves form and what affects them will help you make smarter boating decisions.

It's helpful to understand the science behind wave formation, but it's even more important to know how your boat handles in waves coming from different directions. (Photo: Getty Images/SGoodwin4813)

Waves develop as a result of wind blowing for a certain amount of time (duration) over a certain distance (fetch). The stronger the wind and the longer the fetch, the higher the waves become over time. Ocean waves that move beyond the place from which they were generated become deep-water swells, underlying the local, wind-generated surface waves.

Ocean swells can travel great distances and inevitably encounter other swells of different lengths and heights, which were generated in other areas and are traveling in different directions. A typical sea state is made up of a mixture of deep-water swells and waves, which all combine to form the apparent chaotic ocean surface known as the wave spectrum.

Periodically, wave peaks will coincide, producing especially large waves; at other times they will virtually cancel each other out and form relatively small waves. So there is no single "wave height" that will describe all waves at a given place and time.

What Wave Height Means

Because there is never only one wave height, oceanographers use a statistical analysis to forecast "significant wave height" (SWH). This is defined as the average of the largest one-third of all waves, and it is the wave height that an experienced observer will typically report. The actual wave height at a given time and place can be much higher, as much as twice the forecast SWH. With a forecast SWH of 10 feet, the mean wave height would be 6.4 feet; the highest 10 percent of waves would be 12.7 feet; the highest 1 percent of waves would be 16.7 feet; and the maximum wave height to be expected would be 20 feet.

What Influences Wave Shape, Height, And Direction?

Wind waves are independent of the swell and add to the wave height. The result is called "combined seas (CS)." The National Weather Service considers CS equal to SWH. Waves are defined by four components: height (trough to crest), length (distance between crests), period (time elapsed from the passage of one crest to the next), and steepness. Steepness is the ratio between height and length. When wave steepness exceeds 1:7, the wave will begin to break — resulting in whitecaps. This generally happens in 12 to 15 knots of wind.

Near-Shore Influences On Deep-Water Waves

There are a number of things that will change the shape, height, and direction of deep-water swell.

Reflection happens when waves bounce back from an obstruction and combine with still-approaching waves. Reflected waves have been seen as far as 15 miles off the California coast where the shore falls steeply into the ocean.

Refraction is a change in direction as a wave encounters shallower water near the shore. The shallower water slows the wave, causing a bending (or refraction) that favors parallel wave fronts to approach the shoreline. Near a headland, refraction focuses wave energy at the tip of the point. Near islands, waves often wrap all the way around the island. And when waves rejoin in the lee of the island, they can augment each other to form larger, sometimes breaking waves.

When current opposes the wind, waves can build quickly to steep and dangerous proportions. Common examples include the Gulf Stream, the Agulhas current, and places where prevailing winds oppose tidal currents (San Francisco Bay, or the Bay of Fundy during a strong ebb).

Unusual or "rogue" waves are the combination of smaller wave peaks into larger-than-normal waves. They often appear from a different direction than the main wave pattern as sudden breaking seas. They can cause unexpected damage in an otherwise manageable sea state. Seamounts such as the Cortes Bank, which is 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, can create 14-foot (and occasionally much larger) breakers in the middle of an otherwise calm sea.

Shoaling And Lee Shores

When a deep-water wave reaches shallower water, its characteristics will change. The apparent "movement" of a deep-water wave is actually a moving pulse of pressure; individual water particles rotate within the wave crest as the pulse passes. Once a wave "feels the bottom," it slows down. The period remains unchanged, however, so the wave becomes slower, shorter, and taller. As water depth decreases, wave height increases, until the wave becomes unstable and breaks. The water particles in a breaking wave no longer rotate within the wave crest; instead they rush down its face.

If the breaker forms gradually (a slower-moving wave hits a gently sloping beach), the waves will form "spilling" breakers with the water tumbling down the sloping face of the wave. If the breaker forms quickly (a faster-moving wave hits a more steeply sloping shoreline), then a "plunging" breaker forms; the face becomes vertical, curls, and then collapses into the trough. This is the classic surfing wave. The plunging breaker generally contains more energy and is therefore more dangerous.

Breaking waves of any height are much more dangerous than even significantly larger ocean swells. The surface force of a breaking wave has the tendency to turn a boat broadside – the "log effect." A breaking wave equal in height to the beam of the boat is likely to capsize a boat.

Depths At Which Breakers Will Form

The critical question for boaters is at what depth breakers will form, particularly when approaching a lee shore. A series of calculations well beyond the scope of this article will answer that question exactly by calculating three important factors: the wave's size and steepness, the depth of the water, and the shape of the bottom contour.

Fortunately, for the boater approaching a lee shore, there are several rules of thumb to help you calculate safe water depth for a given weather forecast. One of the most reliable is professional offshore navigator Stan Honey's rule (see "Practical Takeaways" below). So for a forecasted 15-foot swell and 7-foot wind-wave, the minimum safe water depth would be 55 feet (add 15 and 7 to get 22, then multiply by 2.5).

Practical Takeaways

• To figure Stan Honey's rule for safe water depth, especially when rounding headlands or traveling near shore, take the maximum forecast swell PLUS the wind-wave height, and MULTIPLY that number by 2.5.
• When you see a report that the "standard wave height" on a given day is 10 feet, this means most of the waves you'll encounter will be below that height, but some will be 12, 16, and 20 feet.
• Whitecaps begin to occur when the wind is between 12 to 15 knots.
• What you see now may not be what you get later. For example, going out an inlet in the morning may be flat calm. But a series of waves emanating from a faraway storm and reaching the shore in the afternoon may be humping up near the coast and creating dangerous mayhem. Add to that an outgoing tide against the waves and things could be even worse.
• Here's an example of "wave wrap," as described in the article: There's a great breeze and you pick a nice spot to anchor for the afternoon on the lee side of a little island. Perfect. But instead of your bow pointing into that cool breeze, it starts rolling, as with a beam sea. This is wave wrap, when waves meet an obstruction (in this case, your island), part around it, and meet to create turbulence on the lee side. So now your bow points one way while the waves are coming from the other. Compensate for this by rigging a bridle to hold your boat into the apparent wind, or find a calmer anchorage.
• Don't pick a fight head on. When meeting waves, it's usually best to slow down, giving ample power to steer but not much speed. Fall off, putting the waves to the starboard or port of the bow rather than dead on. Don't put them on the beam.
• When running with waves, there's greater risk than running into them. Waves from astern may raise your stern giving less steering power. Worse, they may be faster than you're running, giving less bite for the rudder. The risk, especially for small, light boats, is they'll put your bow under, causing a flip, broach, or bow flooding.
• If you're offshore and getting a storm with a lot of wind, it's seldom best to head for shallow water. Waves meeting shallow water can quickly get much steeper and even start breaking. If it's safe and practical, stay in deeper water till the storm or squall passes.
• You can't accurately predict the height of every wave. So before the going gets tough, secure the boat so water can't get in the cabin and things don't go flying. Have crew prepare by donning life jackets and other appropriate safety gear.

— The Editors

There are many factors affecting wave formation and a wide variety of possible wave heights and characteristics for any given sea state. Know how your boat will handle waves from the bow, the quarter, and abeam, and be prepared to orient your vessel to best advantage for any given sea-state.

Whenever possible, avoid shallow water and lee shores, and remember:

• You will not be able to see breaking waves as you approach from the deep-water side.
• The point of breaking can change significantly and rapidly as the wave form changes.
• You can suddenly be inside the "breaker zone" when you thought you were well outside of it.

Excerpted from US Sailing's Safety at Sea: A Guide to Safety Under Sail and Personal Survival . ussailing.org

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Rogue waves – real-life stories of the destructive power of the sea

• Helen Fretter
• April 12, 2017

The bulk of what is known about rogue waves comes from the accounts of survivors, some of whom lost crew members and friends in the experience.

But for those who have experienced a ‘rogue’ wave, towering over their yacht before wreaking havoc, there is little question over their potency.

There have been several incidences where ocean racing yachts have encountered unusually severe waves. Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill were rolled and dismasted in Hugo Boss , by what they reported to be a rogue wave some 82 miles off the coast of Spain in the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre.

In 2010 Sebastien Josse and Jean-François Cuzon were airlifted from BT after it was struck by a huge wave some 210 miles north-west of the Azores. The pair were sailing in 30-50 knots of wind when “a hydrodynamic event of significance” hit the yacht, stoving in the coachroof and flooding the yacht.

BT was recovered and surveyed. What convinced the designers, Farr Yacht Design, that the destruction was the result of a so-called rogue wave, was that besides the coachroof breakages, damage was also seen in other areas that had undergone repeated significant loading during other races.

What is a rogue wave and is it possible to predict where and when one will strike a yacht?

The first oceanographer to define a wave as ‘freak’ was Laurence Draper, a man who preferred to do his science…

Video: 6 of the best heavy weather sailing videos

This first video of heavy weather sailing is our from our Storm Sailing Series with Skip Novak. It was probably…

After analysing the yacht, they reported: “One can say in all seriousness that if the coachroof had been twice as strong we would likely still have seen damage, which gives some idea of how far outside the normal bounds this event was.”

Rolled single-handed

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston recalls being hit by a wave twice the size of the swell in the Southern Ocean in 1968: “The wind had been building for a while but was showing signs of easing so I went on deck to see whether it was yet safe to put up more sail.

“The swell was huge, 40-50ft, but that on its own is not a problem. However, as I looked astern I could see a monster [wave] coming towards me, a combination of the swell and sea, at least 80ft high, breaking at the top and stretching from horizon to horizon.

“It surged towards us and I knew I had no time to get below but I could not stay on deck or I would be washed away. I climbed the rigging and hung tight as the wave arrived and completely covered the boat.

“For what seemed an eternity there was me and two masts sticking up above the ocean, and then Suhaili bounced back to the surface. The 600ft of warps streamed astern had prevented her from surging forward and broaching.”

Solo adventurer Roger Taylor translated a new book on rogue waves, Anatomy of a Monster , from the original French. “I learned a lot, and will never look at a sea state in quite the same way again,” Taylor comments.

Roger taylor’s vessel Roc

“I now understand immeasurably more about what is actually going on as the waves fold and unfold, and will, I think, be a better seaman for it.”

Taylor has himself twice been rolled by rogue waves: “My most extreme roll was during the 1974 Singlehanded Trans-Tasman Race, not far north of 40˚ South. It was a humdinger of a Tasman storm, and my 19ft sloop Roc had already been put on her beam ends once.

I was sitting below, and fortunately clinging on to the companionway ladder, when a second rogue took over proceedings. The world went black, a Niagara-type roar wound itself up, and there we were, spinning our way through 90 degrees, and then 180 degrees, and then… I really don’t know.

“I don’t know whether we went through the whole 360 degrees, or whether we came back up the same way. Upside down in a pitch-black washing machine, with sound effects to match, I lost all sense of orientation.

“What I do know for sure is that we reached 180 degrees. I had tomatoes preserved in glass jars under one of the bunks. The bunk tops came off, the jars fell and smashed on the robustly constructed coachroof.

“When Roc righted herself, more or less instantly, tomato goo and broken glass were dripping down on to me.

“Roc, despite her size, was a strongly designed yacht and she came through unscathed. She had a sliding hatch, though, and despite the double baffles and towels I had used to try to increase its water-tightness, the pressure inside the wave was enough to force a fair amount of water through the baffles. Since then I have only ever gone to sea with proper sealing hatches.

“I was certainly glad to have a sealing hatch when my junk-rigged Corribee, Mingming, met a bad wave in the Davis Strait, a hundred miles or so off the west coast of Greenland.

“We had been running north-west before a south-south-easterly gale for nearly two days, under bare poles. My Windpilot self-steering gear had kept us on track the whole time, with the wind a couple of points off the port quarter.

“Although a big sea was running, Mingming felt comfortable and I had no thoughts about launching my drogue.

“A characteristic of rogue waves is that they often appear at an angle to the prevailing wave train. This is often what makes them so dangerous.

“I was half-dozing in my one narrow starboard bunk when I took to the air. I can only surmise that a big wave had come in from the wrong quarter, pushing the stern round through the wind and bringing us beam on to the sea.

“In the process my leeward bunk was converted to a windward berth, and as we were put on our beam ends I went for a flight across Mingming ’s tiny cabin. The trajectory was not far, but enough to break my rib against the corner of the chart table.

“Since then I have fixed webbing straps to my bunks so that I can lash myself in.”

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Rogue waves and the Agulhas current

• Build A Boat
• Find A Dealer

• The Science Behind Waves and How It Affects Boating

Waves play a significant role in how you will operate your boat. Improperly operating your vessel during certain waves can lead to capsizing. When you know about wave formation and the types of waves you could encounter on the water, you will be better prepared to navigate safely out of dangerous situations.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Understanding Waves While Boating

How waves work and their effect on boating, how do ocean waves form, types of ocean waves and tides, what causes waves to break.

• How to Boat In Waves

Knowing the types of sea waves you will face and how to deal with them is critical for handling a boat on any body of water. Waves can be dangerous obstacles that can swamp an open boat with water or roll a vessel to its side. Even if you have a large boat, steering improperly through large waves can lead to disaster.

Knowing about waves is only one part of navigating your boat through them. While nothing matches experience, there will always be a first time to encounter dangerous waves for all boaters. Understanding the factors that make waves dangerous, where they come from and how to handle them can help you to emerge safely from heavy conditions.

When boating, you need to consider the size and direction of the waves and whether they break. These factors significantly affect how the waves impact your vessel and how you will need to compensate your steering:

The size of the waves you encounter will determine whether your boat can handle them. If you have a larger, more powerful boat, you can handle bigger waves compared to someone with a small craft.

WAVE DIRECTION

The direction the wave comes from and strikes your boat makes a difference in whether your boat rolls or not. For example, a wave that hits a boat at the bow or stern is far less likely to knock it over completely.

WAVE BREAKING

Breaking waves happen when waves reach such heights that they cannot stay upright, and they collapse. The collapsing wave brings with it the force of the water it carried. While such waves can happen when larger waves enter shallower water, winds blowing across a current can also cause them. In some cases, they can occur in deep water without apparent cause. You should avoid these dangerous waves if possible.

Waves are caused by energy traveling through the water. Unobstructed, waves can traverse an entire ocean. They most often  originate from wind moving over the surface , but the gravitational force of the moon also creates waves.

Various types of waves can appear while you are on the water, and recognizing how each type forms can make it easier to avoid the most dangerous types of conditions.

Energy passes through the ocean in a circular motion. When the wind blows over the surface, it disturbs the water, creating surface waves. Factors that influence surface wave creation are the wind speed, duration and the surface distance it covers, also known as fetch.

Surface waves are only one type of wave. Others, like tsunamis, occur from underwater earthquakes or landslides into the ocean. The agitation creates energy that moves through the water. With a variety of waves, including boat wake and tidal waves, individual formations vary widely.

Though a wave will move your boat up and down,  the water actually moves in a circular pattern  with just enough movement to keep the energy going forward. The energy of surface waves also affects the water beneath, but the circular motion of the energy flattens as the water deepens until the waves’ energy dissipates.

When talking about waves, you may hear some of the following terms:

• – Period:  The period of a wave refers to how quickly it travels from one point to another.
• – Frequency:  Wave frequency is how quickly the waves move past a single point.
• – Trough:  The trough refers to the lowest portion of a wave.
• – Crest:  The crest is the highest part of the wave.
• – Wave Height:  Wave height measures the distance between the trough and the crest.
• – Wavelength:  Wavelength indicates how far it is between crests.

Waves are not all the same. Some have smaller heights and present less danger to boaters than others. Before you go out on the water, you need to know the types of waves you may face and how they form.

Understanding these formations and what causes them can help you to predict when you may need to change course. Some common types of waves include:

1. ROGUE WAVES

The most dangerous type of wave is also the most mysterious. Known as rogue, killer or freak waves, their many names indicate their unknown origins.  Scientists know them as “extreme storm waves .” What makes them so dangerous is their size relative to the surrounding water. Rogue waves can appear twice as tall as the seas they spring from.

While scientists still debate the precise cause of these formations, certain factors play a role in rogue waves, like:

• Combining swells:  When swells interact with each other, they can combine their forces. If the swells move in the same direction, the combination results in large rogue waves that last for several minutes.
• Currents against the waves:  Storm waves that form in a different direction from the natural wave pattern shrinks the frequency between waves until the waves join together. These types of waves tend to last longer than those from combined swells.

2. STORM SURGE

Storm surges  precede hurricanes and other serious storms . This occurs when storms push excessive water onto the shore, causing localized flooding. Water rises high above the typical sea level, and it can reach even higher when the storm surge coincides with high tides.

Storms will also cause long, deep water waves that increase in size as they near the shore. Even a storm hundreds of miles away can cause intense waves along the coast from the energy that traverses through the water from the hurricane. You must be aware of both local and regional weather to predict the presence of storm surge waves.

3. TIDAL WAVES

While some people equate tidal waves and tsunamis, the two are completely different phenomena. Tidal waves occur from the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on the Earth’s oceans. They are also known as tides.

Technically,  tides are the largest waves that occur  because they cause visible differences in the sea levels along the coastlines. Luckily, unlike other waves, tides are predictable. You can find times for high and low tides in your local weather reports.

While high and low tides occur daily, spring and neap tides happen only occasionally. Spring tides happen when the sun and moon are aligned, pulling more on the water, creating higher tides. Neap tides happen when the two celestial bodies are on opposite sides of the planet, resulting in lower tides.

Tsunamis are rare waves that occur when a landslide or earthquake moves a large amount of water. The disturbance often causes multiple waves that travel long distances at speeds up to 400 miles per hour. Though unpredictable, scientists can send out warnings if conditions create the likelihood of a tsunami reaching land. Like a storm surge, a tsunami raises the sea levels quickly at the coast and extends far inland.

In some instances, when the coastal waters become shallow, the energy from the  tsunami creates taller waves in the shallower waters . In some cases, wave heights can reach up to 66 feet. Whether a tsunami will create tall breaking waves, a fast sea level increase or both depends on the conditions surrounding the land and the amount of energy the tsunami has.

5. RIVER BAR

River bars occur where rivers flow into open water. The forward motion of the river outlet colliding with the water in the larger body can create subsurface turbulence that builds up sandbars. When water approaches these sandbars, it can build up into waves.

To avoid problems when crossing a river bar, don’t do it without research. Only cross a bar when the tides are incoming or standing. These conditions will help to regulate the periods of the waves around the bars, making them more predictable. You want to reduce the number of unexpected encounters you have with waves as much as possible to keep your boat upright and safe.

6. TIDAL JET

Waves can build near narrow inlet openings during times of tide movements. The biggest waves can happen when large incoming waves meet an ebbing tide. Be wary of these types of waves and use the tidal conditions to determine the best times to go out on your boat. Know where obstacles underwater lie to be aware of where the waves most likely will develop.

7. BOAT WAKE

Boat wake waves can affect your vessel, especially if you regularly frequent heavily trafficked waters. If possible, don’t allow the wake to hit your boat on the side. Approach it from the bow to prevent taking on too much water or rolling your boat. Plan an escape route if you have multiple sources of boat wake coming at you from different directions.

Waves will break when they get too steep to maintain their height. Since waves generally build in height in shallower waters, you can determine the depth where breakers will most likely form. The equation for this depth is the  sum of the wind-wave height and the forecasted swell . Multiply this value by 2.5 to find the minimum depth for water that should not have breakers.

How to Boat in Waves

Dealing with waves depends on the type of boat you have and the waves you will encounter. For instance, you deal with large waves differently than smaller ones. Here are some tips for navigating waves in a variety of situations:

How to Hit Waves in a Boat

When boating in big waves, you must stay at the top of the wave rather than approach them head-on. This prevents the boat from being pushed by the waves, which keeps it stable. The best way to stay at the top of a wave is by reducing your speed. Then, focus on maintaining your boat at a 45-degree angle facing the waves. At this angle, you will hit the waves head-on.

Do not make any sudden maneuvers in rough water conditions. Doing so will greatly increase the risk of capsizing. To change your direction, you must move slowly and steadily. You must also keep your boat’s bow as high as you can. This can be done by trimming your outboard motor.

How to Navigate Large Waves in a Boat

When it comes to waves and boating, the more you know, the better. These are some helpful tips to know when boating in rough conditions:

• Check the forecast:  Before setting out, be sure to check the marine weather and wind forcast for your area. If possible, avoid going out on the water when rough or stormy conditions are expected and follow all local guidance.
• Slow down:  The first thing to do in choppy waters is reduce speed. If you are unsure what speed to go, then adjust your speed to match the size and frequency of the waves.
• Compare boat size vs. wave height:  You can determine dangerous wave heights based on the size of your boat. If the wave height matches the beam of your boat, it may be at risk of pitchpoling, knock-down or rolling.
• Secure objects:  Tie down your belongings when boating in choppy waters and big waves. Chairs, fishing gear, coolers and everything that isn’t nailed down must be secured or put in closed compartments.
• Remain calm:  Staying calm in these situations is essential. You must keep your wits about you and stay focused on getting through the rough waters. 

How to Steer a Boat in Big Waves

While navigating and steering through big waves, there are two things you need to identify. The first is the type of waves and the second is their direction. Your main goal is to position the hull properly in relation to the direction of the waves. The angle you are cruising at should make your journey as comfortable as possible.

When rough waves are heading in the same direction you are, that doesn’t necessarily mean smooth sailing. There are still risks to be aware of. When going against the waves, your hull crashes into them and the bow tends to rise up. When following the current and waves, the stern rises. This forces the bow down, making it ram into the next wave and resulting in an uncomfortable journey.

To avoid this issue, you must keep the bow as high as you can, maintain high angles of trim, and balance the bow. This stops it from colliding with the next wave. When the waves are short, it’s easy to maintain a steady course.

About Formula Boats

Since 1976, Formula Boats has been a family-owned and managed staple of Decatur, Indiana. From the start, the company leaned on the knowledge and boat construction expertise of Vic Porter. He had  previously served as president of Duo, Incorporated  and Signa Corporation, both well-known boat makers of the time.

Despite our local roots, our boats are renowned all over the world for their innovation and customization options. Our 60 years of experience has allowed us to develop the latest in technology, such as our FAS3Tech® hull. We also give you the power to choose features and configurations for your boat. If you want to conquer the waves, navigate through them using one of our performance boats, cruisers or yachts.

Find out More About Our Selection and Contact Us Today

If you want a fully customizable boat that has the power, luxury or both that you crave, trust us at Formula Boats. You can get the power you need for handling a variety of water conditions or waves. We also have luxury options that can take on smaller waves better due to their larger size. Check out our selection online,  build your own boat  or let us know how we can help you to get the vessel of your dreams.

For more information, or to get answers about our products,  contact us online .

Join the Formula Fishing Team’s 387 CCF on the tournament trail this season! Our next tournament is August 8 th   – 11 th !

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Ready to take the wheel and cruise Boston Harbor? Here’s your chance to play captain.

Would-be sailors can get on the water and cool off with friends, family, and a stunning view in an electric boat..

S ure, there was some traffic, but as far as Boston driving goes, this was one of the easiest rush hour commutes I’d ever experienced.

From behind the wheel of an electric boat on Boston Harbor, I could effortlessly glide from the Seaport to the North End, and then from Charlestown to East Boston without any of the usual stress or obscene hand gestures generally involved in Boston driving. Aside from sailboats, water taxis, a State Police boat, and some dolts on jet skis, the inner harbor was calm. But this particular evening wasn’t about rapid transit. The focus was soaking up views and savoring the cool breeze coming off the water.

I had been itching to try one of these vessels since I first learned about Boston Electric Boats two years ago. I decided it was time to make it happen after hearing the words “heat dome” at least a dozen times as scorching temperatures approached Boston. The meteorological term was sounding too much like a film from the “Mad Max” franchise for my liking. I went to the company’s website and paid $439 to book a boat for two blissful hours on Boston Harbor. For an extra $200 you can hire a captain, but where’s the adventure in that? I wanted to try it myself.

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I enlisted five friends to join, and we met at Boston Electric Boats on Lewis Wharf 10 minutes before our 6 p.m. departure. Owner Patrick Rourke gave me a quick lesson on how to drive the boat, showed us the safety features, and we were off. A GPS on board showed the route to follow through the harbor, and, after about 30 minutes of getting acclimated, I felt like I had the hang of it. The only qualification you need to be a captain is a driver’s license.

Boston Electric Boats rents two sizes. I opted for a boat that seats up to six passengers. You can also rent a boat that seats up to 12. The cost for the larger boat is $499 for two hours. If you divide the cost among passengers, it’s not too extravagant, at least that’s what I reasoned, particularly in light of Boston’s scorching “Mad Max Beyond Heat Dome” situation. A heat wave is barely noticeable on the water.

You can purchase food as part of your rental (Boston Electric Boats works with Kured in Beacon Hill ), but we brought our own food and beverages. Yes, you can bring alcohol, just no hard alcohol — and no glasses. Passengers may imbibe, captains must abstain.

My friends are a difficult bunch to impress — some would call them exhausting and headache-inducing — yet they only had good things to say about our boating experience. Even so, they had little trust in my ability as captain. I had to endure a litany of “Gilligan’s Island,” “ Titanic ,” and “Poseidon Adventure” jokes, with a few “These gays are trying to kill me” lines from “White Lotus” tossed in for good measure.

It was only when I parked near the USS Constitution at sunset that they stopped hounding me about my driving. For the record, there was nothing wrong with my driving. Watching the sunset from the harbor on a small boat, even with friends who give you grief, was magical. I’ve been out on party boats and ferries, but this was something altogether different.

The boats go no faster than 6 miles per hour — it’s sort of like a large golf cart on the water — but we saw plenty of the inner harbor in our two hours. It went by too quickly. I steered the boat back to Lewis Wharf as the sun descended. Suddenly I was no longer a captain, just an ordinary motor vehicle driver.

The following day I reached out to Rourke, the owner of Boston Electric Boats, and fessed up that I’m a travel writer and had taken the boat out for a spin for research. I wanted to hear the backstory of Boston Electric Boats.

“I grew up loving boats,” Rourke said. “I lived on the Charles River in Waltham. We had a canoe when I was really young with a little electric motor, and if I was handling that motor at 8 years old, then I was as happy as I could be. I was just always drawn to the boats.”

Rourke, 42, who now lives in Watertown, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and worked in landscape, construction, and eventually as a product manager at New Balance. But boating always remained near and dear to his heart. When he first saw electric boats, and began researching companies that rent them in other cities, a business plan clicked.

He now has six electric boats that can run for up to 10 to 12 hours on a charge. Originally, he thought the bulk of his customers would be between the ages of 25 and 35, but has since found that there’s a much broader range. The boats are popular with multigenerational family groups, he said.

“When we think about our mission and what we’re really doing here, it’s about access,” he said. “We want to provide more access to private boating in Boston to everyone. Ownership is expensive. This is something that’s easy and offers an opportunity for many more people to experience Boston in a special way.”

Christopher Muther can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.

2 teens killed when WaveRunner crashes into boat near Antioch

Two girls, 16 and 13, were riding on a waverunner when it hit a boat about 5:15 p.m. tuesday on lake marie..

Two teenage girls died after crashing a WaveRunner into a boat Tuesday on Lake Marie near Antioch.

Two teenage girls died after crashing a Yahama WaveRunner into a boat Tuesday on Lake Marie near Antioch.

A 16-year-old girl was piloting the personal watercraft with a 13-year-old girl about 5:15 p.m. northbound near a channel to Grass Lake when they crashed into a boat, the Lake County sheriff’s office said.

The 55-year-old man driving the Sea Ray Cabin Cruiser was unable to avoid the collision with the WaveRunner, which was traveling at a high rate of speed, the sheriff’s office said.

Both girls, who were wearing life vests, were thrown into the water and knocked unconscious, officials said.

Occupants of the boat pulled them out of the water and rendered aid before taking the girls to shore with another passing boat, officials said.

The girls were taken to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where they were pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said.

No other injuries were reported.

Autopsies were scheduled for Thursday. The girls’ names haven’t been released.

The crash remains under investigation.

• Boy, 14, shot at Columbus Park in Austin

Jersey Shore ocean temps have been shockingly cold despite heat wave. Here’s why.

• Updated: Jun. 26, 2024, 12:58 p.m. |
• Published: Jun. 26, 2024, 12:45 p.m.

Water temperatures along the Jersey Shore have been very cold through most of the heat wave in June 2024. Pictured is a Spring Lake lifeguard sprinting into the surf during a daily workout on June 18 at the North End Pavilion in Spring Lake, N.J. Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

• Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

If you wanna escape the blistering heat by heading to the Jersey Shore and taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, be prepared. The ocean water is cold — shockingly cold.

That’s the word from lifeguards and beach-goers in many beach towns who have been surprised to step into water that’s been reported to be as frigid as 54 degrees in recent days. And stiff winds from the south are blowing the cold water surface air over people enjoying the beach.

“You wouldn’t believe it, on the beach you have people with sweatshirts on,” said Joe Bongiovanni, beach safety supervisor in Asbury Park. “Two blocks in, and it’s steaming hot.”

Bongiovanni said the ocean temperatures in Asbury Park have been consistently cold during most of the long heat wave that has smothered interior sections of New Jersey during the past week.

“It’s been hovering between the high 50s and the low 60s,” he told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. Normally, by late June, water temperatures are in the upper 60s, before climbing into the 70s in July and August.

At a lifeguard training academy in Sea Girt on Wednesday morning, the trainees in their teens and early 20s were definitely feeling the chill of the ocean, Bongiovanni said.

“We have kids coming out of the water shivering,” he said.

Like other beach officials, he attributes the cold ocean temperatures to a process known as upwelling.

Brisk winds blowing from the south and southwest have been pushing warm water on the ocean surface to the bottom and causing cold water from the ocean floor to be churned to the surface.

The end result is the water temperature turning from refreshing to frigid — and colder air from the sea surface blowing onto the beach.

One good thing about all this: The upwelling process has resulted in very clean, greenish water at many beaches along the Jersey Shore .

Water temperatures along the Jersey Shore have been very cold through most of the heat wave in June 2024. Pictured is a Spring Lake lifeguard running into the surf during a daily workout on June 18 at the North End Pavilion in Spring Lake, N.J. Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Lifeguards in Sea Girt reported ocean temperatures of 55 degrees on Sunday and 54 degrees on Monday, with one describing it as “uncomfortably cold.”

Just a few blocks away, people are sweating in the high heat and high humidity. It’s even hotter farther inland.

Throughout the heat wave, which started June 17, air temperatures across the state have been hovering between 90 degrees and the mid-90s, with several places hitting 100 degrees on June 21 , June 22 and June 23. That was the actual air temperature, without the humidity being factored in.)

Even on the hottest days, however, the cool ocean breeze kept the air temperature as low as the upper 70s in places like Long Beach Island and in the low 80s in other beach towns along the Jersey Shore.

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Stories by Len Melisurgo

• N.J. weather: Drought conditions worsen from long heat wave
• Live N.J. power outage tracker: More than 35K without power after fierce overnight storms
• N.J. weather: Strong storms spark severe thunderstorm warnings in parts of state

Thank you for relying on us to provide the local weather news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Len Melisurgo may be reached at [email protected] or on X at @LensReality .

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A major power outage hits Balkan region as countries swelter in an early summer heat wave

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

A police officer gestures towards cars as she tries to control traffic during a power outage in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, June 21, 2024.(AP Photo/Armin Durgut)

BELGRADE – A major hourslong power outage hit much of the Balkans on Friday as the southern European region sweltered in an early heat wave that sent temperatures soaring to more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Montenegrin authorities said that an outage that lasted for several hours in the country's power distribution system left almost the entire nation without electricity, while similar problems were reported in the coastal part of Croatia, and in Bosnia and Albania.

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Nada Pavicevic, a spokeswoman for Montenegro's state power distribution company, described the outage as a “disturbance of regional proportion,” and said authorities were still working to determine what happened.

The exact cause of the outage was not immediately clear as the regional power grid has been overloaded for days because of overconsumption and the use of air-conditioning in high temperatures.

Bosnia’s state power company said the outage there was caused by problems in a regional distribution line, while Albania’s state power company said the “extreme heat” caused the problem.

Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Albania share the Adriatic Sea coastline and the power grids in the region remain interconnected, decades after the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

“The whole electric grid system of continental Europe is connected together, and that sometimes has its benefits but also has its flaws," said Danko Blazevic, the head of Croatia's electric grid networks.

“The advantage is that you can import and export and sell power, but then the flaw is that when there is a failure, its basically passed from one system to another,” he added.

In the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, the outage also caused traffic jams, with trams stopping and traffic lights not operating. Similar gridlock was reported in the Croatian port city of Split.

In Croatia's resort of Dubrovnik, thousands of tourists were left stranded in the midafternoon, with restaurants, pubs, supermarkets, ice cream parlors and others shutting their doors during the outage. Soccer fans milled around some of the pubs with darkened television screens, unable to watch the games played at the European Championship soccer tournament in Germany.

The collapse, which started just after noon on Friday, came as authorities throughout the region warned citizens to be cautious, drink water and avoid sunshine because of extremely high temperatures.

“Don’t stay in the sun between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.,” warned Serbia’s Public Health Institute in its instructions to citizens. “If you must go out, please take a bottle of water along.”

Meteorologists say the heat in the region this week came from Africa, carrying sand particles that created a cloud-like layer, dimming the skyline.

The sweltering heat was the worst in big cities, where concrete sizzled even in the evening, and where nights offered no real respite as temperatures remained above 20 C (68 F).

While hot summers are normal in the Balkans, temperatures typically do not reach such heights in mid-June, prompting weather alerts and warnings.

Earlier this week, authorities in North Macedonia imposed emergency measures through Sunday, after which the heat is expected to relent. On Friday, authorities in Romania imposed weight limits for vehicles traveling on national roads in some counties to prevent degradation to road surfaces.

Belgrade resident Milos Jeftovic said he is following the instructions and taking every opportunity to stay near the Serbian capital's two rivers, the Danube and the Sava. Authorities, he said, should have reduced working hours and parked water tankers in the city streets.

“Personally, I don't have a problem ... but this is not OK, temperatures are above acceptable (levels),” Jeftovic said.

Weather warnings were also issued in neighboring Croatia, a tourism hot spot, where the heat wave is set to peak on Friday before an expected change of weather over the weekend that could trigger storms.

Montenegrin state television RTCG said that though the residents in the country's capital of Podgorica are used to very high temperatures, some complained the heat started too early in the year. One man told the broadcaster: “I really don't know what we are going to do.”

Experts say that extreme weather conditions are also triggered by climate change.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Couple’s close encounter with half a dozen sharks takes their breath away

WESTPORT, Mass. (WJAR) - A Massachusetts couple is sharing the incredible story of their encounter with half a dozen basking sharks that surrounded their boat.

Perry and Carmel Long were setting lobster pots from their 18-foot boat in the waters off Westport. That’s when they encountered about half a dozen sharks, with one nearly double the size of their boat.

“I always assumed it was a pretty big boat. But seeing the size of these sharks, they were enormous. They had to be 20, 25-feet long,” Perry Long said.

At first, the couple said they hoped the animals were whales or maybe seals. They later confirmed they were basking sharks – large, powerful and daunting but not deadly.

“They looked exactly like a great white shark, with the exception that they were a lot more friendly and docile. They just appeared to be hanging out,” Perry Long said.

The curious sharks took 10 spins around the couple’s boat before swimming off. At times, they came within just a few inches of the vessel.

“They’re very calm. Their mouth is wide open. From what I understand, they’re eating shrimp or plankton,” Perry Long said.

After living his whole life on the water, Perry Long thought he had seen it all, but he says he had never seen something quite like this.

“I hope we’re able to see more of them. It was a wonderful encounter,” he said. “It was something that took your breath away.”

In the end, the Longs may have come out empty-handed on the lobster front, but they ended up with an incredible story to share.

Copyright 2024 WJAR via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.

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James Chance, No Wave and Punk-Funk Pioneer, Dies at 71

With the Contortions and James White and the Blacks, the songwriter and saxophonist set out to challenge musicians and stir up audiences.

By Jon Pareles

James Chance, the singer, saxophonist and composer who melded punk, funk and free jazz into bristling dance music as the leader of the Contortions, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 71.

His brother, David Siegfried, said Mr. Chance had been in declining health for years and succumbed to complications of gastrointestinal disease at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in East Harlem.

During the late 1970s explosion of punk culture in New York City, the Contortions were at the forefront of a style called no wave — music that set out to be as confrontational and radical in sound and performance as punk’s fashion and attitude were visually.

Contortions songs like “I Can’t Stand Myself” and “Throw Me Away” filled the rhythmic structures of James Brown’s funk with angular, dissonant riffs, to be topped by Mr. Chance’s yelping, blurting, screaming vocals and his trilling, squawking alto saxophone. He was a live wire onstage, with his own twitchy versions of moves adapted from Brown, Mick Jagger and his punk contemporaries.

Although the Contortions often performed in suits and ties, their music and stage presence were proudly abrasive. In the band’s early days, Mr. Chance was so determined to get a reaction from arty, detached spectators that he would jump into the audience and slap or kiss someone. Audience members often fought back.

“I got a big kick out of provoking people, I don’t deny that,” Mr. Chance said in a 2003 interview with Pitchfork .

Adele Bertei, who played keyboards in the Contortions, said: “It was a kind of musical Brutalism. We really wanted to destroy ideas of art as elitist — and of punk as musically revolutionary, when it really was just about a three-chord progression.”

Mr. Chance, she added, “was so singular in his musical vision, in his presence, in his will to smash all conformity into pieces, that he will never be forgotten by anyone who experienced his music live.”

“It was kind of insane,” Ms. Bertei added, “but kind of brilliant, the physicality of it.”

Mr. Chance was born James Siegfried on April 20, 1953, in Milwaukee. His father, Donald Siegfried, was the business manager for a Wisconsin school district. His mother, Jean, taught elementary school. She survives him, along with his brother, David, and his sisters Jill Siegfried and Mary Koehler.

James Siegfried studied classical piano with nuns in his elementary school when he was 7 years old; it bored him. But when he was 11, a jazz teacher taught him to play standards and stride piano. During the late 1960s, he soaked up the era’s rock. He briefly attended Michigan State University, then returned to Milwaukee and studied jazz at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, where he picked up the alto saxophone and started playing free jazz.

Late in 1975, he moved to New York City, drawn by reporting in The Village Voice about the punk-rock incubator CBGB and the loft jazz scene. He frequented both.

“I went to jazz sessions at places like the Tin Palace, which was a half a block from CBGB’s,” he told the New York writer and editor Glenn O’Brien in 2011. “But there was no overlap. Nobody who went to the Tin Palace would ever go to CBGB’s, or vice versa.”

Mr. Chance took lessons from a loft jazz master, the tenor saxophonist David Murray, and started a jazz group, Flaming Youth. But he disliked the studious jazz audience.

“He wanted people to be dancing,” said Sylvia Reed, a lifelong friend who was briefly Mr. Chance’s manager. “He wanted to pull people off the floor.”

He soon realized that “I wasn’t going to make it in the jazz scene,” Mr. Chance said in 2011. “Too many guys could play sax better than me.”

He met Lydia Lunch, a pioneering no wave performer, at CBGB; shared his Lower East Side apartment with her; and played with her band, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, for much of 1977. He started the Contortions after Ms. Lunch decided that her band didn’t need a saxophone.

By then, he was performing as James Chance. “He wanted a stage name that sounded like it could be a real name, not a silly punk name like Rotten,” David Siegfried said. “He was also really into film noir, and it fit with that.”

Mr. Siegfried added, “Behind that combative stage persona, James was reclusive, shy and softhearted.”

A loose movement of boundary-defying musicians and visual artists coalesced as no wave with a series of five concerts at the Soho gallery Artists Space in May 1978. The series was attended by Brian Eno, a producer who chose the Contortions and three other bands — Mars, DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks — to share a compilation album that would endure as a document of a pivotal artistic moment: “No New York.”

Mr. Chance found a catalyst in Anya Phillips , a fashion designer and photojournalist who became his girlfriend and manager and who promoted the band and helped him hone his theatricality as a frontman. The Contortions regularly filled New York City clubs — mostly Max’s Kansas City, which had an ongoing rivalry with CBGB.

“He was a chameleon,” Deborah Harry of Blondie, an occasional guest singer with Mr. Chance, said. “He could lure you in with being so cute and so jerky, with the whole downtown thing. But then he would do things that were really very advanced musically.”

The band got a recording contract with Ze Records and in 1979 released the album “Buy,” which captured crisp studio versions of Mr. Chance’s songs. More raucous live recordings would be released after the early Contortions broke up.

Noisy as it seemed, the music was tautly constructed, as Mr. Chance explained to Pitchfork: “Instead of chord changes, I wrote a part for each instrument, starting from the bass and building it up from there. Interlocking rhythmic melodies. It’s very structured. Songs are actually all written out in charts.”

Michael Zilkha, the owner of Ze Records, prompted Mr. Chance to make a “disco record,” leaving it to Mr. Chance to decide what that meant. Mr. Chance was well aware of racial tensions between the largely white New York punk scene and Black-rooted jazz and disco; the Contortions made a point of playing cover versions of R&B songs in their sets.

Mr. Chance exposed and challenged the racial divide, naming his disco project James White and the Blacks and titling the album “Off White,” also released in 1979. Its songs included “White Savages,” “Almost Black,” “White Devil” and “Bleached Black.”

Recorded by the Contortions and guests, including Ms. Lunch, most of the songs moved only slightly closer to mainstream pop and dance music. But the group did rework a jagged Contortions song, “Contort Yourself,” with a disco beat and approved an extended remix.

The Contortions broke up in 1979 because of conflicts over money and personalities. Mr. Chance had also developed a heroin addiction that would affect him for the rest of his life. Former Contortions members went on to start bands, including Bush Tetras, the Raybeats and 8 Eyed Spy.

Mr. Chance formed a new lineup of James White and the Blacks, featuring Black sidemen from the trombonist Joseph Bowie’s band Defunkt. It released the album “Sax Maniac” in 1982; a different lineup released the album “Melt Yourself Down” in 1986.

By the end of the 1980s, Mr. Chance had grown disillusioned with the music business, and his addiction had also deepened. But in 2001, he reconciled with surviving 1970s Contortions band members and returned to performing with them and other musicians. A French band that had been hurriedly convened for a festival performance stayed together to perform and tour with him; they were billed as James Chance and Les Contortions, and they released the full album “Incorrigible!” in 2012.

Ms. Reed said that Mr. Chance had also recorded a trove of solo piano music that may eventually be released.

Mr. Chance gave his last live performances in 2019. In 2018, younger admirers of his punk funk brought him to a nationwide audience when the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand added him as a surprise guest on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

Mr. Chance played a jabbing, dissonant, squealing alto sax solo, delivering it with a signature James Brown move: a drop to his knees.

In liner notes to a 2010 compilation, “Twist Your Soul,” he wrote: “Our music was much more than a mere art statement or a vehicle to realize mass-produced fantasies of celebrity — we lived it. Fame, fortune and the future were irrelevant. We may have been self-absorbed, but we were bent on pushing our music and our lives to the furthest limit we could conceive of.”

Jon Pareles has been The Times’s chief pop music critic since 1988. He studied music, played in rock, jazz and classical groups and was a college-radio disc jockey. He was previously an editor at Rolling Stone and the Village Voice. More about Jon Pareles

2 girls on WaveRunner killed in crash with boat on Lake Marie in Antioch

ANTIOCH, Ill. (WLS) -- Our coverage of this story has moved here.

Two teen girls were killed after a boat and WaveRunner crash on a lake in Antioch Tuesday evening, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said.

The crash occurred on Lake Marie, which is part of the Chain O'Lakes.

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The Lake County Sheriff's Marine Unit and Patrol Division responded to the crash at about 5:15 p.m.

Investigators said a 16-year-old girl from Lake Forest, California was driving a Yamaha WaveRunner and a 13-year-old girl from Long Grove, Illinois was her passenger. The Lake County coroner has not yet released their names.

The WaveRunner was traveling near the channel to Grass Lake when a boat operated by a 55-year-old Antioch man approached the same area, the sheriff's office said.

Witnesses told police the WaveRunner was traveling at high speed directly at the boat, leading to a collision.

The girls on the WaveRunner, who were wearing life vests, were knocked unconscious and thrown into the water, the sheriff's office said.

SEE ALSO: Woman hospitalized after good Samaritans rescue 2 swimmers, perform CPR at Montrose Harbor

The occupants of the boat immediately pulled the girls from the water, rendered aid and called 911.

Both girls were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where they were both pronounced dead after arrival.

SEE ALSO: Lake Michigan death: Woman who died after boat capsized near Winnetka ID'd

The ongoing investigation has not yet determined whether the 16-year-old girl who was driving the WaveRunner had her boating safety certificate, which is required in Illinois for anyone born after June 1998. It involves an eight-hour course and is certified by the Department of Natural resources.

Investigators said there was no sign that either the driver of the boat or the WaveRunner were impaired.

"The operator, there was nothing they could do to stop the boat in time around the wave runner as it approached," said Lake County Deputy Chief Chris Covelli.

No other injuries were reported from the crash.

The crash remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit and Illinois Conservation Police.

Investigators have not yet said whether anyone was at fault for the deadly collision, but said in general a large watercraft has the right of way over a smaller craft like a WaveRunner.

Related Topics

• BOATING SAFETY
• TEEN KILLED
• BOAT ACCIDENT

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