TRUE 1 footers yes, pretty flat...in a 17ft boat, even 1footers you'll pound a bit. Stay in sight of land, be safe with all the proper safety gear, watch the weather and don't cash a check your rear end can't cover!

 

1 foot at 4 sec is pretty smooth.

We look for the wave period to be at least 4 times the wave height.

Also, you'll have wave/swell height and then wind-waves on top

3 footers at 12 sec with little to no wind-waves will also be pretty good.

Even staying within site of the land, put together a decent emergency bag and safety gear. A decent current can take you a pretty good ways if you have engine trouble.

Ditch Bag - What's Missing?

Time to refresh the safety gear and check for any items that may be coming up for expiration. I'm curious as to what others might have in their Ditch Bag, or what items I might be missing, essential and/or convenience items. My Ditch Bag inventory goes as follows (not including items in...

www.2coolfishing.com

Relentless

 

I would definitely heed the advice to stay within site of land. You are just starting out and need to get some trips under your belt for for going any further. Your equipment needs to be top notch before going deep. You need to learn how to read the buoy information and relate that to the comfortability of the trip. For me...if its 3.0 we don't go. The wave period has a significant effect on the ride. 3ft at 6sec and light winds is better than 2ft at 4 seconds. The smaller boats will fit in between swells that big boats won't. You just have to find the pace and stay off the keel.
Ive been offshore fishing since 1990 when we launched on the beach. Before Packery, before most boats had GPS. We used the rigs and compasses. Back then there were a lot of rigs and we only had to go the Samedans to get limits of red snapper, lane snapper, and strawberry grouper. Those were the days.
Nowadays, I always go 25 miles out in a 17ft Montauk. VHF radio, float plan, and normal safety gear. We have been rescued by the CG once and towed in by fellow boaters more than once. I have never been caught by a storm. I don't mess around with inclement weather.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

At 1 ft, 4 sec with light winds, I'd say fuel-range is your only limit as long as you have a good VHF, EPIRB, PFDs, and your engine is well-maintained. It's all about confidence in your equipment and ability at the helm at that point. I used to run to the Liberty Ship about 20 miles offshore out of Packery Channel during snapper season in a jet ski, which is essentially a 12 foot boat with a 0 degree deadrise. There was also a guy who ran a 13 foot whaler out there in the same conditions. Just get comfortable going offshore and build up your confidence. I worked my way up from 3-4 miles offshore to 25-30 miles offshore on the ski over two years.

As others note, the wave period and wind are just important as the height. For the wave period, I'd shoot for 3 times the wave height. 4 times seems a little conservative and you're really going to limit your days. 2 foot 6 seconds in 10 mph wind is nice. I wouldn't go out in anything over 2 feet unless it was really nicely spaced--like 3 feet 10 seconds or more and light winds. And even then, I'd stay in state waters. And keep a close eye on the weather, not just current conditions... Things can pick up quick as you can see in this video, where I put up the live buoy data at some points in the video so you can see how the ski reacts to different conditions. You get to see a nice 2 foot 7 seconds, then 3 foot 4 seconds, all within one hour.

And slow down. Even in 1 foot, I expect you will pound if you run at your normal cruising speed. No need to do 30+ mph or whatever speed maximizes your fuel economy if you're only going out 10 miles or so. Any time it's calm like that and the bay boat fleet comes offshore, it is a mad house out there with Channel 16 getting busy. I feel like they're always cruising around at 35 mph+, pounding and going airborne off every other wave, breaking things on their boats.

 

My personal favorite is 3ft at 5 seconds. Everything breaks, not pounds, **** flies everywhere, you get soaked and stability sucks!