https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...830202783.html
cool or not cool depending if you're out in a boat. neat 3d model of the wave in the article.

Researchers have announced that a 17.6 meter rogue wave – the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded – has been measured in the waters off of Ucluelet, B.C.

Imagine you just out tooling around in your 38 foot sloop and suddenly out of no where a 57 foot monster smashes over your boat.

 

Some people have theorized rogue waves were responsible for taking out ships in the Bermuda Triangle.

 

And here I thought this thread was about a buying surge of Nissans.

 

Yeah it is quite the phenomena. I have watched a few videos on them and how they think they occur. So many reported this for years before people believed them too. Can't imagine seeing that. A bunch of regular old swells, then BAM!

 

Nahh. Elvis needs boats!

 

somewhere lurking in the back of my brain i can remember reading about the mathematics of wave combination/ multiplication.
there were always an artifact "that couldn't really exist" at the boundary condition. because it would be really big if true..

for the math geeks out there.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02875-y

 

The Navy is aware of rouge waves. They have been documented but that is not part of the "scientific" community.
I might add they have been bigger than the one mentioned. Carriers have experienced "waves out of the blue, literally," that have topped the flight deck (65') and damaged aircraft.
Not only can they swamp a ship/boat but they also break the keel of larger merchant marine vessels. Many go down without much of a call. We know that because other (Navy) ships survived nearby and reported the freak wave. Navy ships are pretty good at surviving rouge waves because of trained lookouts 24/7 as well as extremely good radar. The nimble Navy ship can quickly turn into the wave. All hands off deck and may go to general quarters.
Recall the Torrey Canyon in the 60s I think? That had it's keel broken not by a freak wave but a series of large waves called rollers. The first lifts the bow, it moves to the middle and overstressed the keel amidships, moves aft and then another roller hits the bow with a huge wave supporting the bow and stern as the middle keel falls in breaking it. Huge oil spill off souther Africa.

 

Sebastian Junger talked a lot about that in the book "The Perfect Storm"

 

My dad was on the Yorktown in the late 60's and has told me stories of green water over the flight deck which was 65' high. But, he did also add that the ship was pitching and rolling a lot so the waves were likely not that high, but still pretty crazy! Said the hangar bay exterior elevator was not secured once and ripped nearly off the ship by huge waves. In any case, waves making a carrier move that much are no joke!

 

I asked Vito how submarines react to big waves on the surface. He said if down deep, no problem, but near or at surface is a different story. He once got hit in the back by a big wave and was almost washed overboard. But his harness and a couple of his sailors saved him.