270 Following Seas

[Muskokan345]

Well...theres lots of info here about how bad the F26/270 is in following seas, I even had a fellow on board my boat, telling me he owned the same boat years ago, and how bad it was in following seas. So, I can now confrim this as well. I was at the bottom of Lake Simcoe, heading back to Orillia last Wed, with following seas, by the time I was about half way accross the waves were between 4 and 6 feet. My strategy for dealing with this was to keep her powered up, 2600 rpm and steer to avoid "holes", that said, we were doing anywhere from 7.5 kts to 16 kts, depending where on the wave we were. The boat handled most of the trip very well, and I am satisfied with her handling, although a couple times we did get pushed into turns I did not plan. Just to qualify, the wind was not supposed to pick up till late afternoon, so I the hour run should have been fine. $ hours after we were safe and sound at the dock the tornadoe warnings started!! I'd like to hear others opinions on how I could have dealt with these conditions, ie slower, faster.

[gitchisum]

I have a 77 263 ( F-26 FB) and it sounds like you did everything you could have. Bow up, speed up, avoid the stern quarter lift as much as possible. I love everything about my F-26 except the handling characteristics.

There were several mods to mine that the PO did, extended tabs, and rudder extension, that were sppose to help.

Others have much more experience with this model than I do, and would love to hear more about how they ( Paul, Dog house ) handle this situation.

[Paul]

Getting these boats to handle well in a following sea requires moving faster than the seas. If the wave catches up to you, it pushes you from behind and takes some of the flow off of the rudder resulting in reduce control. I've had to deal with some rather nasty following seas on Lake Erie and I've found that the boat handles it well with the tabs up (bow high) and the throttle pushing 3500 rpm. This keeps me climbing the backs of the waves, without struggling, then pushing thru to the next wave. You do however have to watch your speed because you don't want to "slam" into the back of the next wave. Turning from a following sea to run parallel to the seas for things such as pulling into a marina, where possible I usually run a little past my turn, then turn the boat around quickly heading back to my turn taking the seas head on. This keeps me in control the entire time without being pushed from behind.

The thing that makes this a little tricky for you is that the waves on Lake Simcoe can get big and they are usually close together. You are often dealing with 2 at a time. I'm thinking that the reason for this is the shape of the lake.

Hope this helps.

[Muskokan345]

Thanks for the info, yup, I've been on Erie, can blow up fast and strong. You are absolutely correct about Simcoe, I havent been out on it for some time. And to compound things, when I got to the top end, what I call "confused seas", waves coming from pretty much everywhere. Now, the one thing that I did that was a little different from the two responses was that I "stuffed" the bow down a little to, in my mind kepp the bow down and help cut through the waves. I'd be interested to hear comments on that attitude.

[Stripermann2]

Paul has it correct. Following seas suck...

Whoever coined the phrase, "Fair winds and following seas my friend" never owned a midsized F series Trojan!

[Lawman]

Paul has it correct. Following seas suck...

Whoever coined the phrase, "Fair winds and following seas my friend" never owned a midsized F series Trojan!

+1

[DOUBLE R]

I used to take my 78 F26 offshore diving here in jax FL, and a couple times it got quite rough. One day seas were supposed to be 2-3 but the wind whipped up in the afternoon and I had to battle a 3-5' stern quartering sea for twenty miles. With about 1000 lb of dive gear and 4 beefy divers on deck, getting on plane was not possible. It was a long trip back and I was exhausted from constantly trying to keep her on course. Keeping the rpms and the bow up helps but only a little.