The Rogue wave and the sailor

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by slugsgomoo

There's a good story about a nasty one off Cape Horn that actually hit the same boat (Tzu Hang, Miles & Beryl Smeeton) on two separate occasions, both times it was pitchpoled and dismasted. It's in John Guzwell's book "Trekka Round the World", which is well worth the read, even without the rogue wave discussion

Excerpted from a book review, by Dan MacNaughton

At the time the 20’ Trekka sailed around the world she was the smallest boat to have done so, and I believe that record stood for some time. She made her voyage at an interesting time in the history of yachting. New glues and methods of building which had been developed during World War II permitted the construction of strong and practical light displacement boats, and with them came dinghy-shaped hulls in larger boats. In preceding decades it had become apparent that the seaworthiness of a yacht was a function of its design and construction rather than its size, and some were interested in developing extremely small and inexpensive yachts.

The Atlantic had recently been crossed by Sopranino, a Laurent Giles-designed 19-footer which in its design and construction was very much like an enlarged inshore racing dinghy with a deep fin keel and a deck. The voyage had attracted a lot of attention and must have partly inspired John Guzzwell to choose Giles for the design of Trekka.

On the racing end of things the yachting world had recently been rocked by the success of Myth of Malham, a light displacement yacht that had proven herself in tough offshore conditions and brought into the world a different look: short, nearly vertical overhangs, a relatively dinghy-shaped hull, and somewhat abbreviated underbody.

Trekka’s design was a great leap forward from Sopranino, and seemingly created a whole new design niche in one stroke. Her light displacement, dinghy-shaped hull had a reverse sheer, allowing much greater freeboard than older views of aesthetics would have allowed, in a new aesthetic that clearly had something all its own. Her short overhangs and blunt stem looked like Myth of Malham. With a tiny footwell and deckhouse and minimum sized ports and hatches, she was a buoyant, corked bottle, and ballast carried on a relatively deep fin keel gave her good power to carry sail, for the light displacement type. Her all-glued strip planked construction was a big improvement over Sopranino’s lapstrake construction, achieving greater rigidity and watertightness while still maintaining very light weight.

In one respect Trekka was a transitional design because she was in many ways so modern, but she was created in the era just before the widespread use of wind vane self-steering. This is the reason for her divided rig, which at that time was seldom used on such small boats—it was useful for balancing the boat and getting her to steer herself, at sea. Vane gears have reduced the number of mizzens in small yachts over succeeding years, and have revolutionized the convenience of offshore voyaging.

I highly recommend this book as an account of a well-executed voyage in a baseline vessel, a good look at the influential Trekka, and a great, positive read of John Guzzwell’s well-told story.
Dan MacNaughton
Aboard Spar Hawk
Rockport Harbor, Maine

John Guzzwell recounts his historic journey around the world in the 'Trekka', the smallest vessel to circumnavigate the globe.
Video [9:20 min] ➥ https://youtu.be/2dy_Lg301bI

John Guzzwell And Trekka ➥ https://queensclifflonsdaleyachtclub...n_guzzwell.pdf

[newhaul]

This video was just posted .
https://youtu.be/phUW3PK_ZRk?si=al8mzJTcawvDQi2C

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by newhaul

This video was just posted .
https://youtu.be/phUW3PK_ZRk?si=al8mzJTcawvDQi2C

Get idiots like this every year all around the world...
Rogue wave has become just another media cliche..

[Mickeyrouse]

There are interesting accounts in the sailing literature about rogue waves. Two good ones I’ve found are Charles Van Dorn’s “ Oceanography and Seamanship” and “ The American Practical Navigator ( often referred to as “ Bowditch”).
Bowditch notes a 1937 wave observed in the North Pacific from the US Navy oiler “ Rampoa” in which a wave was estimated by way of triangulation referencing the ship’s mast to be 180 feet tall. Obviously it wasn’t breaking at the time, otherwise “ Rampoa” would have been one more mysterious disappearance.
More currently, wave buoys off Newfoundland frequently record waves in the ninety foot range, usually in winter, when only the most foolish yachtsmen would be found in the area.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Get idiots like this every year all around the world...
Rogue wave has become just another media cliche..

Yeah, it was a big wave, but "monster" or rogue? Nah. We had predictions of 20 foot swells at 18 sec periods in the channel so I am not surprised we got some big ones in the mix.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by boatman61

...Rogue wave has become just another media cliche.

Rogue [extreme storm] waves are those waves which are, at least, twice the size of surrounding waves.
They don't have to be 50 Ft [or 100'] monsters - just twice as high as their neighbours.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Get idiots like this every year all around the world...
Rogue wave has become just another media cliche..

Just look at the retaining walls they hold back most winter storm waves and that wave went over it like it was a common speed bump in home depot.
a wave just needs to be double its companions to be considered rogue .

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Yeah, it was a big wave, but "monster" or rogue? Nah. We had predictions of 20 foot swells at 18 sec periods in the channel so I am not surprised we got some big ones in the mix.

Don see above post by me

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Just look at the retaining walls they hold back most winter storm waves and that wave went over it like it was a common speed bump in home depot.
a wave just needs to be double its companions to be considered rogue .

That was not a 'wave'.. that was a surge that swept up the beach and climbed over the retaining wall.

[Tillikum]

I remember reading as a child about the RMS Queen Mary being struck by a huge wave during WWII which brought her within a few degrees of capsize. I see on looking this up just now that she was carrying almost 12,000 men at the time and sailing without escort, so the results had she gone past no return can be guessed at. As she was sailing in hurricane conditions it is most likely that she was bow into the seas and the scenario therefore clearly implies that the wave which struck her broadside, or near to it, was travelling somewhat across the prevailing wave direction.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Tillikum

I remember reading as a child about the RMS Queen Mary being struck by a huge wave during WWII which brought her within a few degrees of capsize. I see on looking this up just now that she was carrying almost 12,000 men at the time and sailing without escort, so the results had she gone past no return can be guessed at. As she was sailing in hurricane conditions it is most likely that she was bow into the seas and the scenario therefore clearly implies that the wave which struck her broadside, or near to it, was travelling somewhat across the prevailing wave direction.

That is correct I have first hand knowledge of that incident my father was on it that trip as was one of my uncles.

From the official reports .
From 8–14 December 1942, Queen Mary carried 10,389 soldiers and 950 crew (total 11,339). During this trip, while 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that might have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft).

[Bowdrie]

I can't find it now, but just last week was reading an article about rogue waves and their effect on large ships.
They referenced a trip in the Queen Mary that took place after the war.
Part of the article was the known tendency of the Mary to be, shall we say, a bit of a roller.
She was bringing back ~6,000 soldiers from Europe to New York.
Was hit by a big one that rolled her to 54 degrees.
I can't imagine an 85,000 ton ship that's a thousand feet long going over that far.
I wonder how many people needed to change their shorts after that.

[Mickeyrouse]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

I can't find it now, but just last week was reading an article about rogue waves and their effect on large ships.
They referenced a trip in the Queen Mary that took place after the war.
Part of the article was the known tendency of the Mary to be, shall we say, a bit of a roller.
She was bringing back ~6,000 soldiers from Europe to New York.
Was hit by a big one that rolled her to 54 degrees.
I can't imagine an 85,000 ton ship that's a thousand feet long going over that far.
I wonder how many people needed to change their shorts after that.

That story can be found in the volume “ The Great Liners” from the TimeLife Books series “ The Seafarers” published in the mid-seventies.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by boatman61

That was not a 'wave'.. that was a surge that swept up the beach and climbed over the retaining wall.

Yeah, this time of year a good deal of the beach sand has been pulled off by the waves and makes the area offshore shallower and the waves are able to break or roll ashore closer to houses and other things built along the beach. With rogue waves I think we are only talking about waves in the open ocean, right? And often travelling at a different angle to the prevailing waves?
A 15 or 20' swell at a 18 sec period is going to be a large volume of water to rush up a shallow beach. Was it born of a wave twice the height of the others? Perhaps, but how could you be sure? Waves breaking on a shore get slowed down, piled up and come in in sets, so I am not sure how you could ascertain you are looking at a "rogue."

[Don C L]

Ok looking at another new video of the "monster" wave at a place I know well, I think Boatie is right, it was a surge coming up the shallow beach, and when it hit the wall it just poured over it . Those long period waves have a lot of water in them that just keeps on coming in. We should get some more tomorrow.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/weath...day/index.html