Sea Conditions

[marine4003]

excellent advice above...

don't believe what others tell you...what i mean by that,don't believe everything you read,you're gonna read about guys fishing offshore in 10' seas in a 20' grady white,being comfortable and dry-you're gonna hear guys telling you they can run in 4-6' seas at 35kts in a 25 gw sailfish...don't believe what other's claim...anything more than 15kt winds and you're gonna get your ass kicked...short period seas means that boat's gonna throw some water-better have a real good enclosure...a deep v hulled boat is gonna ride better,but it's gonna throw some water.a modified v hull,like a parker,a judge,a grady,these are gonna beat you to death in a short period sea...remember all this...

Man, your not kidding, we went out this last summer in my GW, Great boat and i always feel secure,we were out 15 mi..storms forecast for PM..sky's got dark FAST..suggested we head in,conditions went from 8-14 knots with 3-5 swells..too 25-35 knots and 8-10 footers in the blink of an eye, it was all we could do to hang on, thanks for the enclosure..( of which we lost 1/2 of) we stayed somewhat dry, Yammies kept on chugging,bow disappeared coupla times,hairy!!!! so lesson learned,as annoying as it is,i now keep wx1 on all the time,perhaps we might of beaten it inshore...

[CCNautical]

Thank you for all of your insightful input - greatly appreciated.

[Big Fish Billy]

A couple more Gloucester men joined the table at Davey Jones Locker and Bar today. 25 to 35 knot winds, fishing 15 miles offshore in 5 foot seas in a 40 foot boat. Most nice summer days start out with 5 to 10 knot winds and around 2pm kick up to 10 to 15. Doesn't matter what size boat you have, pleasantville ends after 15 knots.......

[MikekCt]

You may already be aware of these but here are a few sites I use that might be helpful.
http://www.pdfamily.com/weather/buoy.php
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/east/ermzn.htm
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/Northeast.shtml
http://www.bearpawsweather.com/tropical/index.html

[True Grit]

I have found a good rule of thumb for boat length is a minimum of 5-10 ft of LWL per ft. of wave height. Translation - if you are in a 25 ft. boat you can generally handle 2-3 (5/10=2.5) comfortably and a max of 5ft (25/5=5). Hope that is helpful.
best,

TG