I've just been looking at your 'seamanship' page on your website, you have a picture of a giant Catamaran and ask if anyone has had an encounter.......
I had a weird experience about 4 years ago when I was paddling alone from Swanage around to Studland in south Dorset. The sea was lovely and calm and quiet and I was enjoying the scenery when I suddenly heard the sound of a wave breaking out to sea which struck me as rather odd! I suddenly caught sight of what looked from a sea kayak like a tidal wave and just had time to swing the kayak round to face it, as it was at least 4 feet high. It frightened the life out of me but I survived intact! Some minutes earlier I had seen the giant Condor Catamaran that used to go from Poole to the Channel Islands pass by a long way off. A few weeks later I was talking to a local coastguard who remembered the wave, he said it had upturned several small boats in the bay and a lady had been injured trying to board a pleasure boat from the quay. The general consensus was that it was it was the wake of the Catamaran, but of course its very difficult to prove it so I'm not sure if the coastguard made a complaint. The lesson being that even if you see one a long way off, don't think it can't effect you!
Sarah Williams
This High Speed Ship passed very close whilst crossing between two islands
I was reading Sarah Williams' Bow Wave article, and remembered a similar occurrence witnessed by my brother & I, off the 'Heads of Ayr' in Scotland's Firth of Clyde last month.
We were paddling along a fine section of coast known as Bracken Bay in quite clam conditions when suddenly we were riding on what closely resembled ocean swell.
These swells had a wavelength of about 40 to 60 feet & were about 4 feet in height, creating very confused seas due uneven seabed & clapotis off the cliffy shore. This gave us quite a surprise & it was fun dealing with it. After several minutes conditions returned to calm & we couldn't figure the cause. However, it soon occurred to us that as we were setting off, 1 hour earlier, we had sighted the large Troon to Ireland Sea-Cat powering along the horizon - 8 miles out.
Clearly, these bow waves can travel huge distances over long periods of time, holding much of their energy.
David Owens.
We had a similar experience crossing with a group of school students fom Guernsey to Herm. A fast catamaran appeared out of St Peter Port Harbour and headed north, passing very close to out group and a number of small craft. The wash capsized 5 members of the group, after years of being a Coach I finally found out why we practice multiple capsizes on assessment courses.
The lesson to be learned from this is the need to respect any ships of this nature which might be encountered.
Kevin Mansell
