Performance type boats can navigate rough inlets successfully if handled by experienced skippers, but relatively low freeboard can make it a challenge. (Bronco's Guru)

By Frank Sargeant

The incredibly successful “Boneheaded Boaters” video series has made the fumbles, faux pas and general mistakes of boating into a big money business, and if you’ve never seen it, you’ll be sure to get a few chuckles, and maybe a painful insight into some of your own past mistakes by watching. See it here: https://www.youtube.com/@broncosguru.

This narrow inlet is frequently challenging, but when there’s an onshore wind and an outgoing tide, the waves go vertical and make the pass nearly impassable for all but the largest, best designed boats handled by skippers who know what they’re doing . On the worst days, smart skippers go under the bridge, look over the conditions, and sometimes turn around and head back to the docks.

But there were always enough dare-devils willing to take on the risk that there was plenty of good footage. These folks were going out there anyway, and the videos were entertaining, no harm done.

Boats with lots of freeboard and flair might take a bit of spray, but they generally come through the rough water with no serious issues. (Bronco's Guru)

But the series has become so widely-known and so popular that running the inlet has become a dangerous amateur hour as dozens of boaters with minimal (or apparently no) experience run the inlet in its worst moods, hoping to get on the video series and go viral. 

There’s no reward for this except the notoriety of doing something really stupid and dangerous in front of multiple cameras, but every week there are more people going for it.

People get body slammed, have hands, legs and arms jammed, even on rare occasions get tossed overboard in the washing machine that Haulover can sometimes be.

It appears that some people with zero experience are renting boats, loading them up with scantily clad women and heading out the inlet on the worst possible days, hoping the create their moment of internet fame.

It’s a very bad idea, and it may well get someone killed one of these days. The guys who do the filming are not at fault—the responsibility falls squarely on those who run the boats.

Going too fast sometimes results in going airborne, which can lead to injured passengers when the boat crashes back into the water. (Bronco's Guru)

Lessons from Haulover
That said, there are useful lessons to be learned in watching the boats come and go on these videos.

1. Closed bow boats are usually better than open bow boats. When a big wave comes over the bow of a closed boat, it rolls off the sides. In an open boat like a center console, it stays in the boat and goes aft where it causes the lowest part of the boat to squat further—going down by the stern is a definite possibility.
2. Boats with more freeboard and flair forward perform much better than those with less of each. The classic “Carolina Flare” is revered in offshore boats for good reason.
3. Catamarans in general provide a far superior ride to monohulls. The sharp twin hulls slice waves without pitching or hammering as much as a “fatter” single hull. (However, those without lots of freeboard can “stuff” the bow in unusually vertical inlet seas.”  
4. Most boats ride large seas best on a moderate plane, which slightly elevates the bow while keeping the boat on top of the water. Going slower usually causes the boat to “squat. The bow can get too high on the back of a wave and can result in a loss of steerage, or alternatively scooping green water over the bow when the boat drops back into the next trough. Going faster causes the bow to drop to full planing attitude, and this gives less freeboard forward to keep water out. Higher speeds can also cause more discomfort to passengers. 
5. Riding in the forward half of the boat is not only uncomfortable and wet, it is extremely dangerous. People break bones in the crashing falls. Seated at the transom is the safest, driest and most comfortable spot on most planing powerboats.
6. In extreme conditions, everyone aboard should put on PFD’s. Getting tossed overboard in a fast-flowing inlet can drown even good swimmers.

All this said, Boneheaded Boaters is a bit addictive to watch, but just make sure you never wind up being the participant instead of the viewer.