Wed on the water

[dgax65]

Those boats are Mk V's from the Special Boat Teams. They are SEAL delivery boats. Back when I used to do a lot of paddling in the San Diego Bay I would see them frequently. They operate at night a lot. It's kind of freaky when you see them cruising through the harbor, blacked out and doing 30kts (crew is on NVG's). One of the guys in my unit was a Mk V cox'n when he was with the Special Boat Team. I asked him about the wake that those things generate. It seems very large in proportion to the size of the craft. He told me that the hull is optimized for planing at very high speeds and when they are at lower speeds the hull displaces a lot of water. That is true of any planing hull, but these are pretty big; 80' long with a beam of over 17'. The wake generated by one is bad enough, but they usually operate in pairs. If you happen to get close to them and are in a spot where their wakes are at a peak or a trough it can be a very exciting ride. One night I got too far out into the channel and I had one pass one either side of me