Trojan Boat Forum

just curious,
whats the roughest waters anyone here has experienced with their trojan
how do they fair in heavy seas

I've been in 10 to 12 footers on the west end of Lake Erie, head on, cut the trip short because of the tremendous force on the front salon windows. 8 footers are do-able with the proper seamenship skills. I find that the boat can handle more than our body can. Dealing with large waves sure takes the "pleasure" out of pleasure boating. Rich.

We ve been caught out in true 5 to 6 s running up from Ocean City Maryland to Atlantic City cut back the speed ran and into Cape May instead no fun running into the inlet used dead slow approach and into the inlet.My wife learned what throttle jockying was all about coming into the inlet. Lucky that we had full tanks of fuel she handles much better with weight on her The boat not the wife . To answer your question about handling its really all about the throttles and matching the speed to the sea conditions. with her flat aft section she can get pushed around with a following sea .you have to be aware of that and keep one hand on the throttles as well as look back when coming into an inlet. we run Manasquan inlet all the time which can be fun with anything out of the Northeast and a falling tide . slow and easy keeping in front of the incoming wave throttles throttles throttles looking over your shoulder.

Not sure what size boat Rich was running in 10-12 foot seas, but I can say that the F32 would not fair well (if at all) in such seas.

The F32's short length to width ratio (29 Water Line, 12-13 foot width), and nearly flat rear bottom section make it a handful. It can/will "snap"suddenly and feel as if she is going to roll, so its important, as Duchess points out, to stay on top of it ALL the time.

Because of this geometry, the F32's worst situations is a following sea, with a side current (inlet) and wind - and one must be careful of using too much (if any) tab. I have run in 4-5' seas, but would not purposely do it again. I would say 2-3' seas are the max for the F32.

I have been caught in 10-12' seas in my 26' Chapparal Express Fish, and felt much safer than my F32 in 4' seas. A Bertram or various Carolina boats I have been on handle the rough stuff much better, with sharper entries, and deeper vees. We have headed out n 9' seas in a friend's 56' Carolina custom boat, and it handled fine (some of the less experienced crew ate it).

I have a scale that I use when I go out. This is based on Great Lakes

0 to 1 foot everyone wants to go
1 to 2 foot most everyone wants to go
2 to 3 foot fun but a little work
3 to 4 foot still fun, some work, passengers complain (some will blow chunks)
4 to 5 foot don't go out if unless I have to be somewhere ( some will blow chunks)
5 to 6 foot don't go out for any reason ( wife and kids will blow chunks)
6 to 7 foot no fun at all especially when you get caught in it and (I want to blow chunks) Only been there once.
7 to 8 just plain stupid in an F-32 unless you get caught in it (everyone gets sick) Only been there once.
8 to 9 Plain stupid unless you get caught in it must like pain and I've never been there
10+ Hope you have good life insurance or are really lucky

August, 2006. Coming from Solomons Island , MD down the bay and up the Potomac river.

What normally would have taken 3 1/2 hours, moderatly cruising turned into hell. 7-8 seas, high wind. Then had to make a diversion into Jeromes Creek to rescue another boater in a small boat. By the time we hit the bay again, night was falling. We took the seas head on, slow but steady...

When we turned up the Potomac with the wind and seas were following. This is where it got scary quick. Surfing down seas, then going completely sideways and throttling to correct the attitude of the boat to keep from rolling sideways. White knuckle all the way home on a pitch black, moonless night.

Left at 2:45 pm and arrive at our slip, 60 miles away at midnight. 9 hour trip!

As Capt. Ross mentioned, the F32 is no fun for a heavy following sea. The difference between the 36 and 32 is quite a bit, when in following seas.

The F32 and I believe the 36 have only a 5 degree deadrise at the transom, making it pretty flat. Combined with the 32's W/L ratio, small rudders, it gets pushed fairly easy with the sea coming in from behind.

I will take a head sea all day long as opposed to a following sea. The only casualty of this trip was my aluminum half tower's LR support leg came loose from the cabin top and my sliding salon door and frame came out of square, all from the pounding... All of this was easlily remedied the following weekend.

...Can you hear the theme to "Gilligan's Island ' here??

I like to talk in terms of wave Distance between as much as height because I have had it in lake michigan where one time 4-6 foot waver are very manageable with good throttle and direction. Then I have had times where I have buried the bow in a bath tub 4-6 foot waves when there was a storm shift.

I also have to second the shallow draft and flat transon make a wonderful floating cabin but force you to step up your piloting skils in heavy seas.
Plus the itty bitty prop/ rudder with little 318 pushing her does not help.

Great boat (my F32) but I will admit my buddies 32 bert with diesels will probably tow my trojan in and still handle better in 6 foot seas.

But on the flip side I can sink 2 or 3 of my trojans for the cost of his one Bertram and with the current weather resources these days, its rare that I get caught by surprise. So I am keeping the F32........

I had my 10m out in true 8 ft seas. I verified the sea state via a weather buoy. My son and I had a blast. My daughter was terrified, and we had to abort. We managed to kick the screws out of the water a couple of times. These boats are really solid! The rudders are undersized and simply won't turn the boat in those conditions.

Sunday I found the limits of comfortable cruising. Steep 4 foot seas. The LI Sound was blowing a steady 25 from the west, stacking up a snotty sea against the tide. I had a boat full of guests, none of whom had been out on a boat over 30'. The 10M squashed 3' seas with barely any trouble. 4' seas induced some motion and a bit of a thump. 5' seas made a slam and spilled some beer. So 4's the limit for comfort in this hull. It was interesting to note that we were running with the wind between 40 deg on the stbd bow and on the nose, kicking up some serious spray. With the wind on the nose, the windshield stayed dry.

Brett

The trouble with rough seas, is that for example with four to six footers, especially with a short wavelength, every now and then you can get an eight footer thrown in, and that's no fun. Four to six is about my limit, mainly because with a 30 year-old boat, I personally worry about some type of major catastrophic structural failure , such as failure of the hull to deck joint, or an engine mount. It's supposed to be about pleasure, not crapping in your pants...

I would certainly echo the comments made about the shallow deadrise, and poor handling in a following sea.

I have an interior steering station, which is basically a waste of space, especially in heavy water, when you want a good 360° view of what is going on with this seas around you.

The last time I was in heavy water, up on-the-fly bridge, there was a big bang that came from a below, I almost crapped my pants imagining the worst, it turns out [I think, speculating] that the sette in the main cabin [which is quite heavy] lifted off the deck coming off a wave, then met the cabin floor coming up the next wave.

Safety first. Blowing chunks, bumps, bruises, broken bones, broken dishes, no fun. [ makes great stories, but no fun]

I've had my F-26 in 4-6' seas that were about 3-5 seconds apart. It was an extremely wet ride to say the least, had to go about 30 miles. The boat handled it OK, no major problems. In a following sea though it definitely kept me on my toes! Not something I want to experience too many more times. Though it did give me alot of confidence in the boat

Its amusing to read about your seas. Our boat is trapped on the upper Mississippi about 50 mi south of Minneapolis / St Paul MN. The largest body of water on the river is Lake Pepin above lock and dam #4. Its about 3mi across and 18-22 mi long, depending on where you say it starts and stops.

The heaviest chop we see is 3-4', and its chop, as close as 3-4 feet crest to crest.

Full of fuel, water, and guest, it gluides through the chop. The only time the first mate latches the fridge is if I'm going to burn some fuel on a jack-rabbit start . I can't image, but I'd like to take and F36 on an ocean ride some time.

thats a big boat for a small body of water

The deal is, every Sunday as we clean her up and get ready to head back home to work for the week, the option is always there to say to heck with all, fuel up, and head south. I think the gulf is about 1800 mi straight down stream. If I live long enough, I hope to do that some day....

In the mean time, its a very comfortable cabin that floats and like to tinker on old boats better than I like mowing the lawn.

I completely understand

My worst was 50 miles offshore in 10-12' seas in my 26' Chaparral ... and the steering cable broke, so we could only go straight or right - no left.

The weather turned bad and quickly turned up 5-7' following seas with 30-45 knot winds from the SouthEast. By the time we got in 3 hours later (surfing 30 knots downhill on the wave faces and climbing @ about 5 knots up the waves), we had 12 footers, and they were craching behind the boat just like the Bonzai pipeline. If one of those caught us, down we went!

My wife and I were OK, but my friend who races offshore 100+ mph boats blew chunks, and his 30 year old Marine Biologist daughter who lived offshore for 2 years in a 100' Research Vessel tossed her cookies.

We got in, and THEN fixed the steering cable. Bad day - never again I hope!

I'm going out to photo my new pennants on the boat and send them out for everyone to see!