I have been surfing for almost 30 years and I understand water, sandbars, winds, tides etc. It is not really much different here on Utah Lake except there's no high and low tides. LOL
Now if one has faced the problem of being on a boat during high winds, one would know it is a very dangerous situation especially on a shallow dishpan that we affectionately call Utah Lake.
A boat is like a giant surfboard, and you can use it like a surfboard on the wind-waves. However, there are tips one must use to avoid being turned over by the waves. This applies to 16 foot and larger boats with motors.
First of all, one must check the weather reports at all times on Utah Lake! If it is going to be a strong wind, with gusts up to 20-35, I would stay very close to a harbor, or stay inside the harbor. Winds stronger than that, get the heck out and stay on dry land!
Second of all, most important of all, you must have a good motor of at least 40 horse or better to jet out of shallow areas where the waves can swallow you up. If you do not, then you do not have any business being on the lake jepardizing your life.
Thirdly, You must have a dependable sonar for bottom readings.
A. If you are out nowhere near the harbor, let's say you're out at the bird island when the high winds hits, you MUST keep a eye on your sonar because the sonar is your best friend, and seek out deep waters, stay away from shallow areas of three-four feet, and get into at least 7 to 8 feet deep waters because the waves are less apt to be strong, because once it reaches shallow areas the waves will break and you know you are in shallow when that happens. If you are in shallow, then what happens is that as the wave suck water up to become a wave, there will be a trough which can be just nothing but bottom, imagine the scenario, the back of your boat, like the motor will get into the trough and eat it. Remember that, and get out of all water 2-6 deep deep and stay into deeper waters until the winds dies down.
B. While you are navigating the wind waves, you must never allow a wave to slap the side of the boat, but rather, you must carve straight through the wave, but not too fast or you will be flying nosefirst into the water. (That will ruin your day!) You must keep a eye on all waves around you and run through it, not around it, not to the side of it, but go straight at it and control your speed. You will find that it is a lot of fun surfing with your boat but be very careful not to take it for granted.
C. (Miscellaneous) It would be a very good idea to keep your gas tank full at all times because it may take a while to ride out the winds. It would be good if you had a marine radio or some form of communication to let people know where you are, hopefully you are safe anyways.
Wear your PFD during situations, even though I am a very strong swimmer and a excellent surfer, but the boat is very heavy and can knock me unconcious into the water. Practicing commonsense carries you long ways in this life.
It helps to have food and warm clothing on your boat to help you with the situation if you find it dangerous to approach the harbor.
One last tip, wear your rain gear, and your ski goggles while driving the boat, you will be dry and you won't have to worry about water in your eyes as the wind whipped waves sloshes around as you speed along. Have fun surfing your boat around!
Let us all have a safe and happy walleye trolling season 2004!
Oh yeah and one more thing, I have eaten sandbars while surfing in the ocean, and it's no fun... so apply that to boats.. uh ugh, no fun either!
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Sorry Paul I have to disagree with you on this one,If you are on utah lake and the winds come up get off the lake,This lake has almost taken my life and my dads,this lake can be dead calm and have four to five foot swells in five minutes,alot of people have died because they didn't get off the lake soon enough,Its probably the most dangerous lake we have in utah and I have all kinds of respect for that lake.and so should anyone on it,I have seen it take a twenty-six foot boat and swamp it,most of the time when there is wind forcasted I will go to deer creek.
If you cant make it back to the harbor,go to the nearest shorline if it gets to bad.and best thing you can do is stay off that lake if winds are forcasted.
JMOA
Later,FNF[cool]
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I do not disagree with you about the Utah lake being the most dangerous... go back and read it again, it is just for just in case if the winds catches you far from harbor.
I have been caught out there during some real high winds, with waves up to four feet near Lincoln Beach and I just have to keep my cool under pressure, and head for deeper waters of at least 7-10 feet deep, the waves are less fierce there.
You just have to watch where you are (Depth of water). Near bird island, there's water up to 10-12 feet deep, I would definitely go there to outride the winds. However if you are not near bird island, and out on some shallow flats, I would pray very hard.
And of course when the winds are forcasted, stay the heck away from the lake and stay on dry land. Don't take any chances.
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The biggest problem with Utah Lake and wind is the fact the lake is so shallow. The fact it is an extrememly large wide open and shallow pond the wind can generate waves in height well over the lake's actual depth in the right/wrong situation.
I was one of those guys you used to see out jumping and riding the big waves at Utah lake. I'd have a blast doing it until one time making it back to Provo harbor from the island with my brother as white as a sheet after we'd bottomed out several times (mid lake). The park ranger at Provo had already fired up the twin's on the harbor boat to go in search of us because he knew we'd headed for the island and said he was never so happy to see anyone arrive back as he was that day.. Heavy water never bother me until that evening. It took us better than 60 minutes to make it in and I had 3 cracks between a foot and 18" to repair.. The deal was,, when we left the island it wasnt to bad but 1 minute into the run back to Provo I didnt dare try and swing the boat (21') around to duck back in behind the island because the waves and wind was so high. If so, we'd just hunkered down at the island and rode the strom out.. So keeping the nose into the waves as much as we could until we had to ride them at a 45 degree angle toward the harbor we managed to make it back. Needless to say, my brother and I never pulled that stunt again.
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Just checked the weather, use caution today, the winds are forcasted this afternoon 15-25 knots.
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Hey Glassyeyedpaul where is the 10' water in Utah lake? I rode out to the island on the ice this past Feb. and the best I could find was 6 1/2' checking the depth around the island and out from Lincon beach spring to the island.. In fact, I dont recall ever finding water over 8' or so deep in utah lake.
Btw,, what does yer boat look like?? Me thinks you must know of a special deeper honey hole, huh? lol
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Were where you 5 years ago![pirate] I had a bad experience there with my pregnant wife.We were fishing at bird island and it was a beautiful sunny day and then it came over the mountains!It got black and very windy in a matter of minutes.The waves had to be between 3-4 ft!I thought i was back in the ocean.Luckily my boat was a 16ft with a 90hp.I was trying to get off as fasts i could butmy wife couldnt take thebumps.So basically surfed my way in.I rode the waves in.And i told my wife not to look back because the waves were coming over the boat almost.I kept speeding up everytime we would go over a wave.Took us forever to get back and just as i reached the boat harbor i ran out of gas!That is great advice that u you just gave Paul
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Very good info here,for novices and experinced boaters.When we are on the water wind is not our friend,as we have lots of wind in the moutain west.Keeping one eye on the horizon for weather is a must ,remember the lake,and it dont matter what lake it is ,does not care if you live or die.But if you need to be on the water when it windy ,make sure you boat can do this.(see the attachment).....
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ok sorry the attachment didnt load
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Hey Guys , Gals, the thing I've learned about utah lake and big waves, and high winds, is what happens when the wave comes under your boat and you go over the top, the water in now very shallow under you boat, your motor will hit bottom and stick for just a second and the next wave will swamp you. In big wind I always get off and trim my motor up and ride the waves to shore. and always wear life jackets in bad wind and when under power to move to other spots. later chuck
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[replyAnd i told my wife not to look back because the waves were coming over the boat almost.I kept speeding up everytime we would go over a wave.[/reply]
I noticed the problem on my boat, so I ordered and put on my wave whacker, to keep the water from going into the back of the boat. Something to think about, definitely useful for backtrolling where you will have water going into your boat, and this wave whacker plexiglass does the job of keeping it out.
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One problem I have is that I don't have a good feel for how much wind is too much wind. Obviously I do when I am out on the water, but for example, I read the forecast and it says that wind will be 15 mph at Utah Lake, and I don't have a feel for whether or not that is too much wind for my 18' boat with an 85 Force outboard. You also failed to mention a major risk, and that is being close to Bird Island when the wind comes up. One can not quickly get out of there, no matter how large of boat or engine, because of that rock eating up the prop.
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[red][size 3]A great thread, just a coupla' more things. Tell me more about this wave wacker thing. Does it just bolt onto the transom somehow? Never heard of it before. Never been on Utah lake but thought I was going to die in a twenty foot Sea Ray open bow on the Gorge one afternoon. The winds would come up every afternoon but one day we were bassing in calm water on a clear day and fifteen minutes later we were taking two feet of water over the bow. We had to trim way up to keep the nose way high and hit them just about straight with moderate throttle to keep from getting swamped. If the main hadn't started the first crank and we'd taken a wave over the back I'd be writing a different (search and rescue) story. [/size][/red]
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Wave whacker is bolted to the transom of the boat. It is a plexiglass that uses the L angle and you drill a couple of holes for the L angle and then bolt it to the boat's transom. Here is the web site-
http://www.wavewackers.com/
It is rather pricey but worth every dime. I noticed I spelled Wave whacker... which should have been properly spelled wave wacker. I have not seen one here in Utah just yet. I don't know if I'm the first. Danzilla helped installed it on my boat and he said it is the first time he's done it and even went so far to say he hasn't seen one here in Utah. So I guess it's kinda rare, but if you wanna start the tread, go for it! LOL
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Kent,
What follows is a model to predict wave heights vs wind speed. I used it on the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes and found it to be fairly accurate. A couple of things to remember about the model; 1. Wave height is measured using only the largest 33% of the waves, therefore some may be larger than predicted. 2. Wave height is measure from mean sea level, a 3 foot wave is actually 6 foot high from the bottom of the throf to the crest of the wave. 3. If you are in 3 feet of water and 2 foot wave passes, you will have 1 foot of water under the boat. 4. This model is for open ocean, but should work on a large unprotected body of water like Utah lake. Wave heights will obviosly be less on the leeward side of the lake than on the windward side.
Sorry for the large size, I couldn't get it to shrink down. Beaufort Scale of Wind Force and Its Probable Wave Height Beaufort
number Description term Wind speeds Wave height (m) Wind Wave knots m/s probable maximum 0 Calm - < 1 0 - 0.2 - - 1 Light air Ripples 1 - 3 0.3 - 1.5 0.1 0.1 2 Light breeze Small wavelets 4 - 6 1.6 - 3.3 0.2 0.3 3 Gentle breeze Large wavelets 7 - 10 3.4 - 5.4 0.6 1.0 4 Moderate breeze Small waves 11 - 16 5.5 - 7.9 1.0 1.5 5 Fresh breeze Moderate waves 17 - 21 8.0 - 10.7 2.0 2.5 6 Strong breeze Large waves 22 - 27 10.8 - 13.8 3.0 4.0 7 Near gale Large waves 28 - 33 13.9 - 17.1 4.0 5.5 8 Gale Moderately high waves 34 - 40 17.2 - 20.7 6.0 7.5 9 Strong gale High waves 41 - 47 20.8 - 24.4 7.0 10.0 10 Storm Very high waves 48 - 55 24.5 - 28.4 9.0 12.5 11 Violent storm Exceptionally high waves 56 - 63 28.5 - 32.6 11.5 16.0 12 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 64 - 71 32.7 - 36.9 14.0 > 16 13 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 72 - 80 37.0 - 41.4 > 14 > 16 14 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 81 - 89 41.5 - 46.1 > 14 > 16 15 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 90 - 99 46.2 - 50.9 > 14 > 16 16 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 100 - 109 51.0 - 56.0 > 14 > 16 17 Hurricane Exceptionally high waves 109 - 118 56.1 - 61.2 > 14 > 16 [#0000ff][size 5][/size][/#0000ff]
Thanks for the reply, can you or someone else please provide an interpretation of how much wind (in mph please) is safe (I realize this is a relative term) on Utah Lake in an 18 foot boat (also the boat is a Starcraft which is aluminum, so it is on the lighter side of boats).
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Hey NeveronSundays, here's another link for the splash guards/wave wackers for your boat. It's abit cheaper.
Http://www.whitecapmfg.com
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[red][size 3]Hey GeyeP, thanx for those links. That's an interesting set up. I think I have seen something a little like it before. If you get a chance sometime check out the "aluminum splash guard system" on Predator's boat. Maybe he will post us a pic. [/size][/red]
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Great post Paul!
I know a lot of people don't really understand the danger involved with wind mixed with shallow water.
I have personally ridden out many a bad day from Bird Island back to Lincoln. As you stated, just stay calm and use your common sense, and most likely, you'll come out OK. Accidents can and do happen, all you can do is be armed with knowledge and be as prepared as you can. This information might just save a life sometime.
After getting caught in a freak microburst storm at Lake Powell in a 15.5 footer with only a 35h.p. on it, I will not go out unless I have enough juice to get me out of there quick, and enough to maneuver the boat as needed in the waves. Everyone else had already left with the truck and trailer for the marina (thank goodness I was alone). I was taking waves in the face because I coudn't see through the windshield from the water so I had to ride standing up. Every time I came off of a wave, I just waited for the fiberglass hull to just shatter as the boat would slam back into the water. I heard the prop out of the water at least four times if that gives anyone any idea of the size of the waves. I know they were better than 5 foot, but I don't know how big. As I would sink into one, I could not see over the next. Had that boat turned sideways, I would have easily been rolled numerous times. As was, the little boat without a bilge pump was 1/3 full when I hit Bullfrog marina.
If Grandpa and Dad had not already taught me how to handle a boat in rough water, I don't think I would have made it to the marina with everything in tact, particularly myself.
Even if you don't own a boat, read the posts here, just in case you are on someone elses boat and they panic, or don't know what to do.
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Here's another thought to consider. I have seen a couple of posts where the size of the motor seems to be used as a factor in determining when to get off the lake. My point would be to not get over confident just because your boat can go fast. Speed is a great help in getting off of the lake BEFORE things get bad but high speed may be a source of trouble AFTER you are already in big waves. Just think of the damage you can cause, like a cracked hull or transom when you pound into the shallow bottom at 40mph. Even in deep lakes going fast in big waves can lead to serious trouble. Utah Lake especialy is no place to take chances with your life or your boat. If it starts getting windy, get off asap. I too have had some pretty hairy rides in the winds there. Its not worth it to take those risks.
m
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