Everyone has provided really good information about different boats responses to following seas. Jenny, a Nordhavn 46 has a really soft stern, a full keel, and a large rudder. She tracks very well in following seas and I have yet had to hand steer her in following seas. However, a big piece of this ability is due to the towed passive stabilizers. I believe they act like drogues on steroids. When the boat tries to accelerate one side over the other, that side digs in and strongly resists the turn. This can easily be verified by seeing how fast the boat turns with the birds up v. them down. When my cousin Chris, two friends and I were caught in a gale off the coast of Oregon, we had Coast Guard verified following waves 20 ft high. We saw our speed through the water go over 10 knots with our hull speed being 8.3 knots. We never took the boat off of the autopilot. It was not even working hard. Again, I believe the passive stabilizers were a big factor in this stability , combined with a boat designed for sea kindliness.

----- Original Message ---- > From: "KI6CEL@Winlink.org" <KI6CEL@Winlink.org> > To: passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com > Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 4:29:00 PM > Subject: [PUP] Following Seas > > She tracks very well in following seas and I have yet had to > hand steer her in following seas. However, a big piece of this ability is due > to the towed passive stabilizers. Much has to do with the setting and sensitivity on your autopilot. Initially we had the sensitivity on the Raymarine autopilot (very satisfied) set too high and the boat tracked a straight line. This is hard on the autopilot. We reduced the sensitivity and our boat will yaw as much as 3 degrees on autopilot in following seas, but this is acceptable within our parameters. We do not have stabilizers of any kind and don't miss them. We have a canoe stern and following seas are a piece of cake. Patrick Willard 40PH ALOHA La Paz, MX