whens the swell too big broken bay- port jackson?

Gidday all and merry xmas!
So i went up to the pittwater last friday. Was really nice. Decided to come home early on monday. The seabreeze report was a 2m swell. swellnet was 2ft waves from the nor east. 25 kn nor east winds.
Left at 5am from barrenjoey head.
I was gonna play it safe and come home wed after the southerly change and the swell dropped but i didnt wanna be going into the wind again. The swell was pretty big and the trip back most the way involved alot of work with the rudder to stay stable. I dont think id wanna be out there in swell much bigger. I went out about 2kms. the swell made for a pretty quick trip back averaging about 6 knots as i was surfing the whole way but i really had to use the rudder like a stabilzer.

Both being "all weather ports" (not barred entrances), 3 to 4m swells would be no problems for the TH25, however a lot of care needs to be taken off West Head, as in certain conditions and tides there is a nasty washing machine effect there, not quite as bad as just outside Port Stephans (between the entrance & the small offlying Islands), but still needs caution if moving around the boat or deciding to be manhandling outboards etc

I once owned an Endeavour 26 that I regularly sailed between Port Stephens and Boatany Bay.

I would imagine that a Top Hat doing the stretch between Broken Bay and Sydney Heads would be quite OK in anything below a strong wind warning. I imagine it could do it in stronger conditions if it was set up correctly and with an experienced crew.

Of course if your sailing short handed you will have a greater workload than if crewed but once you get the boat sorted out for the conditions all should be fine.

We are like Ramona in that we are retired and have the luxury of sitting out the rougher weather if it suits us to do so but at the same time we often choose to sail in stronger winds if they are in our favour and give us a quick passage.

A decent swell from the stern quarter might add a bit more work in managing the boat but can also give a nice bonus in passage times.

What we need to remember is that we are on sailing vessels. We don't sail without wind and with the wind we also get the swell, they just go hand in hand.

I might be a bit old fashioned but I like to feel the boat moving under me.

Have a great New Year and good sailing.

Its a hard question when is the swell too big. It depends on your purpose and experience and boat.

If someone comes from a surfing / dinghy sailing background then the idea of capsizing in a huge swell is not hugely frightening though the dangers are obvious unless the person is a twit. Not to mention breaking the boat. So in that case is possible to push to the limit and hang on.

At one time I had a Blazer 23 which we pushed to the limit on the swells at West Head trying to get max speed surfing the waves as in a huge 23ft surf board. It was fantastic fun. Sailing out then turning around and surfing down the rollers. The boat had a very long tiller extension and trapeze for two and sometimes we'd go a fair way out, get on the trapeze and surf miles in.

We didnt worry about risks much because the boat didnt have anything inside to damage if it did capsize, and if it did we would jump off. We nearly rolled it right over twice, and the second time lost the centre board was very expensive at the time. The owner prior to me of the boat apparently capsized it too.

But if someone has never experienced their boat going over (ie no history of dinghys like Laser Sabots etc) the possibility is a scary one. And rightly so. Its something really not to do. If someone has started sailing with a bigger boat then the water should always stay outside and what might happen in a capsize is scary.

But with lots of practice and getting the feel of your boat you can judge how far you can push it and what is scary and what is no problem. And after a while, as said above, a swell and sea and waves is something to really enjoy. The range of what is "no problem" gets bigger.