Boat wave

• • News • Subscribe • Print Subscription • Digital Subscription • Skills • Seamanship • Knowledge • Real life lessons • Maintenance • Gear • Tech • Reviews • Boats • New Boats • Gear • Books • Cruising • Guides • Stories • Events • Golden Globe Race • Vendee Globe • Southampton Boat Show • Awards • Brian Black Memorial Award • Other awards • Forum • YM Book Club forum • YBW.com • About us Sailing in waves can make for a jarring, juddering experience and long, uncomfortable passages and at worst, a dangerous, boat-rolling hazard. However, it can also mean a thrilling surfing ride to your destination. Understanding how to set up your boat for sailing in waves, to take advantage of them or ameliorate their worst traits is a skill that it is well worth understanding and practising in order to make your sailing more enjoyable, and to give you the confidence to sail in a wider range of conditions. Sailing in waves downwind ‘Fairly obviously, the bigger the boat you sail the less of a problem waves generally are,’ say Merfyn Owen of Owen Clark Yacht Design, himself a double Cape Horner and former BT Global Challenge skipper with over 250,000 miles under his belt. ‘To take that to an extreme, if you think about an oil tanker in the middle of an ocean, a wave that would barely wet the deck for her would be something big enough to roll a cruising yacht. ‘It’s really all about the wave energy transfer and the object that the energy is being transferred through, in this case, the boa...