Small-Boat Survival

Introducing Yourself to Rough Weather and Tidal Currents—Safely

Article Paul Krantz | Illustration Russ Kramer

Not long ago, two 14-year-olds in a small outboard boat vanished off the Florida coast. To this day, nobody really knows what happened to the boys, although severe weather was likely involved. If they’d had even rudimentary survival training, they might still be with us today.

Our hope here is to increase your chances of coming home in a small boat, if unexpectedly caught in adverse conditions, by offering self-guided exercises you can do in protected or partially exposed waterways and close-to-shore coastal areas, since most small-boat accidents happen close to home ports.

On the nicest day, wind can come out of nowhere, whipping up frightening seas—all under bright sunshine. You can suddenly find yourself caught in a tidal rip, or in a thunder squall that comes out of nowhere. An unexpected loss of wind can leave your sailboat stranded and drifting. Loss of an engine can have the same effect on a small powerboat. But with a little confidence in your ability to handle your boat safely in a variety of weather and sea conditions, none of this should be a cause for panic.

Regardless of your skill level or years of boating experience, learning essential survival skills goes hand in hand with wearing a life jacket. Knowing how your boat behaves and how to handle it in heavy-weather conditions tops the list of safety must-haves. Your boat is your best “life jacket.” Keeping it afloat is paramount to survival when the weather is raging.

The following are techniques I have successfully developed and used over the years to advance my own skills in all weather, in under-20-foot sailboats on the open ocean. Much of it—but not all of it—is just plain common sense.

Okay, how and where to start?

First of all, some basic ground rules:

• The suggestions herein do not substitute for U.S. Coast Guard approved safe boating, navigation and seamanship guidelines, and none of the techniques described should be attempted until safe-boating classes have been attended and passed.

• You must become proficient with the techniques of “piloting” and “dead reckoning” using only a paper chart and a compass to navigate. Your GPS is a convenience, and shouldn’t be relied upon as your primary means of navigation.

• When you plan to experiment with unfamiliar weather and sea conditions for the first time, arrange for someone to watch you from shore or from another boat—if possible with both the wind and current heading toward shore.

• The smaller and lighter the boat, the better for early experiments, so that swamping and capsizing are merely fun events and the boat can be dragged ashore and relaunched.

• If swamping and capsizing are not good options—as with an outboard powered craft— start out in fair weather with a stable weather forecast.

• Repeat your experiment many times under similar wind and sea conditions, perhaps over a period of several weeks, until you’re confident you and your boat can handle them.

• Advance your challenges in small increments. Wait for the right conditions even if it takes days or weeks to get the small increase you are looking for. Be patient!

• Understand that even small increases in wind speed, such as 12 knots compared to 10 knots, can produce substantial new unanticipated challenges. Tidal-current speeds of 0.7 knots compared to 0.5 knots, for example, can have similar consequences. Any current at all can cause confusion and disorientation to new boaters, as they can drift away from familiar starting points.

• As you take on increasingly challenging conditions, you may find yourself tending to over-focus on the boat and its response to wind and sea along with your efforts to control it—at your peril! Never abandon your “situational awareness”—that is, your wider understanding of where you are (navigation); other boats that might be coming at you from any direction; changes to the sky and weather, and other factors.

• Heavier weather will put heavier strains on your boat and its equipment. Be prepared for things to break or fail to function properly. Try to identify weak elements of your boat’s design, construction, rigging and equipment, and carry appropriate spares and tools for use underway. Heavier weather also places you at greater risk of injury while underway. Always carry a small first aid kit with the usual basic items.

As you can see from the ground rules, advancing your skills safely in progressively more challenging boating conditions is not going to be a quick process but one that will evolve over a period of months, seasons and years as you steadily accumulate knowledge and sharpen your skills. This should be a lifelong journey.

1. A Fun and Simple Start—Drifting

Row, paddle, sail or motor out to a quiet location close to shore, on a nice day with a mild breeze and let your boat drift unpowered for at least 10 minutes. Stay in the seat or position you used to get out there. If in a sailboat, let out the sheets so that the wind is not driving the boat forward, or better yet take the sails down. Do not heave-to. If in a motorboat, shut the engine off. And of course, do not drop an anchor.

Now observe. Note how the boat positions itself relative to the wind and waves and listen to the sounds of the water against the hull as the boat repositions itself and finally settles into a stable position. Do you feel comfortable and safe sitting in the boat in this situation—in the same seat you occupied to travel out to where you are? If not, why? Does it feel like the waves might splash over the transom unless you move toward the center of the boat because, for example, the boat is resting stern down and bow up?

Now move to where you think the hull would become more stable and let the boat drift until, once again, it finds its natural position on the water. Did repositioning your body in the boat improve its stability during the transition process and after it finally came to rest on the water?

At this point, you will have a baseline “feel” for your boat’s behavior if unpowered in a seaway under mild conditions. Be assured that any weaknesses or vulnerabilities you noted about your boat during the experiment will be magnified in stronger weather. Anything you did to improve stability—such as moving to a more stable location in your boat—will also work in rougher conditions. You are now ready for the next step.

2. Underway—Circling

After you’ve completed the drifting exercise, get back underway and make a slow, large and complete circle (not a tight turn) around some imaginary fixed point. The circle radius should be great enough so that you can spend enough time at every point of the compass to adequately assess your boat’s stability at each point. If you need to dwell at particular points longer than others, do so. The “circle” does not have to be round—it only has to be complete. Powerboats should do this at idle or just above. Sailboats should start hard to windward (as close into the wind as possible) and plan on one downwind jibe and one tack.

During the circling exercise, note the stability of your craft at all angles relative to the waves, and make a note of where your boat feels most stable and where it feels least stable or safe. During spicier weather, you may want to take advantage of your safest (sweet) angles relative to the waves in order to maximize safety, and avoid the least stable (hot) angles to prevent or minimize shipping water or the danger of capsizing. In general, an angle of about 45 degrees from a heading directly into the waves will be the most stable for many boats. A heading directly downwind may be the most precarious for some, while a heading of 90 degrees off the wind (waves coming from directly abeam) may be the worst for others. Each boat will be different, so you’ll have to experiment with yours to find its sweet and hot spots, or angles.

If no obvious difference in stability is revealed during the circling drill, you may need more wind and larger waves to define your boat’s behavior underway.

A special advisory for motorboats, particularly those with transom mounted outboard engines: In the same calm weather, with your life jacket on and a bailing bucket and sponge handy, put your engine in reverse and try circling—slowly! You may be shocked at how easily you ship water, particularly while reversing into the waves. You need to try this, so you will realize how easily and quickly you could swamp your boat while trying to reverse in heavier seas—fishermen take note.

The above drifting and circling exercises should be repeated on different days, but still in relatively quiet weather, until you feel comfortable and confident doing them. Then you will be ready to advance to more challenging conditions.

3. Increasing Wind and/or Seas

All Boats: When subjecting your boat to increased wind and/or seas, if at any point you feel unsafe because you’re concerned your boat may swamp, capsize or become uncontrollable, discontinue the test and head back to safety. You may have reached the limit of your boat’s capabilities or your own skill sets. Advancing in small increments of wind and/or seas will help to prevent unmanageable situations.

Using a compass will help to more precisely record the direction that the waves (and most likely the wind) are coming from as well as your boat’s direction of travel relative to the waves at any point during the circling tests. The compass will be particularly helpful in noting and recording sweet spots of maximum stability and hot spots of maximum instability.

Be aware that under stressful conditions, even basic navigation becomes a challenge. For example, is west to the left of north or to the right of it? Did I turn right when I came out of the harbor or did I go left? Where am I, exactly? You may have aced the navigation tests during your Coast Guard boating safety course in the peace and quiet of the classroom. However, now that you are bouncing around in a little boat trying to deal with too much wind, perhaps with water coming over the rail, you may not be able to remember whether to add or subtract 180 degrees to get your course back home—or was it 150 degrees? Always use a chart and plan where you want to go ahead of time. Then track your position on the chart as you proceed using a compass to direct your travel. As you begin to function in increasingly heavy weather, you will learn to keep your cool if you allow yourself to progress gradually and accustom yourself slowly to the rising demands. This includes training yourself to navigate under windier, wetter and bouncier conditions in the cockpit of a boat that is responding more violently to every wind gust.

At each increase in wind and/or sea conditions, complete the same unpowered drifting test described above before initiating the first circling test. You need to know how your boat behaves unpowered in a variety of conditions. At some level of wind and sea height, you will not feel safe in your unpowered boat. At that level, the unpowered drifting tests should be discontinued.

Please, wear the life jacket! And wear it with a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) attached, if possible. PLBs are small, lightweight and not that expensive. Many PLBs come with GPS capability so that, when you are floating in the water, your PLB, when activated, will automatically signal your exact location to rescue authorities.

One final note: Learning to sail (or power) and navigate single-handed, with no one else aboard, is the best way to acquire confidence and skill. Advancing your skills in progressively more demanding conditions while single-handing is also preferred.

Powerboats: Start and complete the circling test at or just above idle power. Then advance the throttle for a small increase in speed (no more than 5 knots faster than the previous test). Repeat the circling test, noting the change in your boat’s stability at different angles to the seas. Does the increased speed make your boat more stable or less stable? Continue advancing speed in small increments, completing the circling test at each new speed.

As you increase speed, you may find that your boat’s greatest stability (sweet spot) occurs at different angles to the waves for different boat speeds and that the angle of greatest instability (hot spot) also varies with boat speed. For example, let’s say that your boat’s sweet spot of greatest stability occurs at 30 degrees to the direction of wave motion at a hull speed of 5 knots. At a speed of 10 knots, you may find the sweet spot changes to 35 degrees from the wave travel. Then at a speed of 15 knots, the sweet spot could change to 45 degrees. Similar variations could be realized with the hot spots of instability at various boat speeds—all under identical wind and sea conditions. Some boats may experience a single sweet spot that remains constant at all boat speeds; the same may be true of the hot spot.

Once you begin to conduct more aggressive circling tests by applying more power and speed, your boat may become alarmingly unstable at particular angles to the waves. Do not push your boat past this point. You have learned all you need to know from this phase of testing.

As you advance to higher wind speeds and wave heights for your circle testing, you may discover that you cannot employ the same range of boat speeds that were possible in milder weather. That is normal. Don’t use power settings that threaten your safety under existing weather and sea conditions.

Safest speeds in high wind and sea conditions are generally found at low to moderate power settings. Under rough sea conditions, you want your boat to move with the waves as gently as possible. Do not try to fly over the wave tops or across choppy seas at high speed, as this is a recipe for disaster. Also, do not feel you have to charge into the seas to keep your boat from swamping or taking on water. Work with the sea—it will accommodate you. (And besides, at slower speeds, the storm feels less intense and not as scary because, at the lower speeds you actually are safer.)

In more challenging conditions, you may want to minimize or avoid your exposure to the hot spots of instability that you identified under milder conditions. If that is the case, during the circling tests, try to turn your boat quickly but smoothly through those hot spots. Do not dwell at hazardous angles of attack. Again, if you become uncomfortable with the overall conditions of the day, discontinue testing and head back to safety.

Sailboats: For your first sailboat test on a windier day than you’ve been accustomed to, complete the drifting test as described earlier. Then go through the circling test.

Be particularly careful during your first jibe in the stronger breeze, since it will be notably more forceful than on calmer days. In order to soften the jibe while running downwind, try pulling the mainsheet in until the boom is almost centered, then continue your turn slowly until the sail jibes (snaps) across the boat’s centerline onto the opposite tack. This will greatly reduce the violence and energy of the jibe. Quickly release the sheet to avoid heeling over at a steep angle and reset the sheet for a broad reach on the new tack. Some sailboats, especially lighter ones, will try to spin into the wind after a jibe, allowing the sail to face the full force of the wind, which in turn will force the boat to lie over on its side and possibly ship water. You may want to practice jibing several times until you become comfortable with it. You will inevitably jibe your sail unintentionally, so you’d better be familiar with your boat’s response and confident in your ability to handle it. For all the noise it makes, jibing shouldn’t harm your sail or your boat.

However, the fast-moving boom can definitely hurt you, so always keep your head down when on a broad reach or downwind run.

The larger the seas, the more likely an unintended jibe will occur. As the seas increase in size, your boat will begin to yaw from side-to-side when sailing on a broad reach or downwind. If the yaw is too great, the mainsail may jibe without notice. So practice deliberate jibing until you are assured of your ability to respond competently at each increase in wind speed and wave height.

You may wish to practice with a small increase in wind speed without a corresponding increase in wave height. This is possible, but requires an area sheltered from the sea but not from the wind. An offshore breeze (blowing from the beach, not at the beach) will do the trick. The closer you are to the beach, the smaller the waves will be. As you venture farther from shore the fetch increases, allowing the seas to build accordingly. (As most of you know, fetch is the distance over the water the wind has available to keep pushing the waves higher and higher.) So, the closer to shore you can stay, the smaller the waves will be for any given wind. Now remember, if you plan on possibly capsizing or swamping, be advised to do this with an incoming current and rising tide and, preferably, with someone watching.

Canoes, Kayaks, Dinghies, Paddleboards and Other Self-Powered Craft: Be cognizant of your personal strength and stamina. It’s a lot of fun to blow with the wind, but not much fun to turn around and head for home and realize you can’t make it against the wind and/or current. If you have a small anchor aboard, at least you can stop and rest if you are in shallow water. Another option is to head for the nearest land that is not directly upwind or up current and that you can make progress toward, if there’s a threat of being washed out to sea or into other dangerous areas.

If you know you are starting out from shore with a tailwind or current, make an immediate turn into the wind and/or current to be sure that you can, in fact, paddle or row against it. If you find that you cannot return to your starting point, head for the nearest shore at any angle or direction that allows you to make progress back toward shore.

Carry a small handheld VHF radio, two-way radio and a cell phone in a waterproof case to connect you with help, should you need it. Flares may also be useful.

Let someone know where you are going and when to expect you back.

4. Dealing with Tidal Currents

While fishing with a friend on Long Island Sound, in a constricted but deep passage through which the entire Sound fills and empties twice a day, he became confused by the swift 4-knot-plus tidal current in tide-rip waves up to 3 or 4 feet in height. He was unable to guide his boat slowly around Race Rock in search of a school of feeding fish. After unsuccessfully trying to coach him along, I was allowed to take over and complete the challenging circumnavigation. My friend is an experienced fisherman and boater, but became flummoxed by the strong current and rip seas at that time. Circling any fixed object in a current, even in calm water, is more difficult than one would imagine, and should be practiced in order to learn how current affects the boat and how to compensate for it.

Another situation involving strong (5-knots-plus) current took place in Hell Gate, a nasty S-shaped curve in the East River adjacent to Manhattan Island in New York City. My companion was sailing my boat at the time and had just entered Hell Gate. He was aware of the current and attempted to compensate but was swiftly washed out of the channel toward a pile of rocks. Again, I had to take over to return safely to the channel. Granted, that was an extreme situation that most people will never encounter, but it demonstrates the need to be familiar with the effects of current on a boat…and to learn to handle your own boat in a current.

Currents do not have to be strong to cause problems. Weak tidal currents can slowly carry a boat off course or into unfamiliar waters over a surprisingly short period of time. If you have not been navigating carefully, you might not even notice the current and could soon find yourself lost and disoriented.

As with increasing winds and wave height, start with gentle currents in calm weather and attempt to circle any fixed object, such as a lobster or crab-pot buoy, without being washed into the buoy by the current. This may take several attempts to succeed but will provide the savvy to successfully compensate for current while traveling from point A to point B.

After several successful roundings of the buoy, select a time or place with slightly stronger current and repeat the rounding test.

Try sailing, motoring, rowing or paddling past the buoy and upstream of it in a straight line with the intent of coming fairly close to it without hitting it. Initial attempts will likely result in a complete miss, or a steadily increasing change of heading to avoid hitting the thing. Success will be defined by being able to set a heading to compensate for the drifting effect of the current (crabbing into the current) and being able to hold that heading without change while passing upstream of the buoy.

The next step is to repeat the above tests in slightly heavier weather, again starting with lower speed currents. Rough or choppy seas make compensating for any given current amazingly more difficult, as demonstrated by my fishing buddy. So, gradual increases in difficulty are still important to avoid trouble and confusion.

Wave forms in a tidal current are much different than those of simple wind-driven waves. They are larger, steeper and can be more random in direction than the surrounding waves outside of the tidal current stream. This alone increases the challenge of piloting one’s boat in a current. Any wind blowing against the current further steepens the waves forming very choppy, or rip seas. Broad areas of such seas are called cross rips.

Sailors and power boaters alike take note: Steep, choppy seas can make a boat hobby-horse, that is pitch up and down at the bow and stern. If being propelled by an outboard engine, the prop can be lifted out of the water each time the stern is pitched upward. The rudder may also come out of the water. If the rudder and/or prop spend too much time out of the water, your ability to steer and to drive the boat forward can both be lost. Be alert for these tendencies. Even boats with inboard engines can experience loss of power and control if props cavitate in a chop.

A sailboat under sail can likewise lose control in a chop if the rudder is constantly becoming airborne and windage of the forward part of the hull and mast is forcing the boat off course.

Human-powered craft can become exceedingly difficult to paddle or row in a chop, since any stroke of the oar may unexpectedly reach only air in a trough; and the backstroke (return stroke) can stop your boat cold if a high wave crest is hit by the oar while setting up for the next power stroke. Time your power strokes to avoid troughs. “Feathering” your paddle or oar for the backstroke is essential to make progress against a strong wind, even in a calm sea, to reduce the windage of the blade during the backstroke.

Oarlocks that capture the shaft of an oar, as opposed to the open top “horseshoe” type, are quite effective in choppy seas to prevent popping the oar up and out of the oarlock.

Learning to handle your boat in a current is extremely important. Learning to handle it in a current in heavy weather is most challenging and takes practice. But the skills acquired in the process can be lifesaving or, in less dire circumstances, sufficiently empowering to save your boat from severe damage.

“Okay,” you might be thinking, “what if I get into a current or wind that is too much for my little outboard to handle, or for me to row or paddle against? And what if the engine dies, or I’m in a sailboat and the wind dies…and I start drifting toward the rocks?”

Even if you cannot power your boat directly into the current or wind, you may be able to maneuver or paddle away from or around the danger while still drifting with the current or wind. Keeping an oar or paddle aboard small powerboats and sailboats for such emergencies is a wise precaution. If you have a small anchor aboard, you may be able to stop your boat. If bad comes to worse, and you drift into the rocks, don’t try to stop your boat by putting any part of your body between your boat and the rocks. Use anything else aboard—seat cushion, duffle bag, paddle or whatever you can come up with—to protect the hull and soften the blow.

Whatever the challenges as you learn to handle your boat in rougher water, strong currents and other challenging conditions, expand your horizons in a deliberate, measured fashion and enjoy a lifetime of safe and exciting boating. •SCA•

Paul Krantz is the author of Riding the Wild Ocean.

First appeared in issue #104