Some of the most challenging conditions you may encounter as a skipper are the adverse conditions of heavy weather. The size of your boat does not have much to do with its seaworthiness. How it handles adverse conditions is more or less built in during the design and construction. You should never use your boat for anything other than that for which it was designed and intended for. Don't venture into waters or weather conditions which are beyond your boat's design capabilities.
What may seem heavy weather to an inexperienced boater may not bother a seasoned and weather-wise skipper at all. The body of water on which you operate has a lot to do with how severe the conditions may get. While operating on deep and large bodies of water, wave action tends to build more slowly than on large waters that are more shallow. In deep waters, wind action may only cause moderate seas with slow, rolling swells. In shallower waters, that same wind force may make steep, breaking seas.
Know Your Boat
Handling your boat in heavy weather is as individual as the skipper himself. No two boats react exactly the same in the same sea conditions. Each hull design reacts differently to the sea variables, and even two boats with the same design may act differently depending on their load and trim. Every skipper must learn the idiosyncrasies of his own boat and know how it will react as conditions change.
Meeting Head Seas
In moderate seas, bow to the waves, and you should be able to slow your speed in order to ride up and over the waves rather than driving the bow into them. You also don't want to get to the top and the wave and fall off the back side, burying the bow. If conditions get worse, slow down until you are making bare steerage way and hold your boat at an angle of 45° to the swells. The more you reduce speed, the less strain will be put on the hull and superstructure. Continued pounding can pop out or break ports and windows. You really don't want to see how much water can come in a 12-inch porthole.
Running in the Trough
If your course dictates that you are running in the direction of the trough of waves (parallel to them), you must take extra caution. As your boat bounces up and down from trough to trough, it may roll excessively and possibly dangerously. In these conditions in a powerboat, it is best to change course and make a series of tacks, taking the wind and waves at a 45° angle, first broad on your bow and then broad on your quarter. This zig-zag course should leave your boat in the trough for only long enough to turn. You want to minimize the time that you are in the trough. Also, broad side to the swell to prevent broaching.
