Most Dangerous Inlets in the United States for Boaters

The title of my article makes a bold statement. I’m basing it on the US Coast Guard requirements for establishing what’s called a Surf Station. Surf Stations are required at locations where surf runs 8 feet or higher for more than 10 percent—that’s 36 days—of the year.

That’s a real 8 feet measured by wave gauges and with lidar, not the 4-foot waves that some social-media sailors might call 8-footers. While the size of waves alone is not always the sole criteria for rough or dangerous seas, I think that prevalent 8-foot breaking waves qualifies.

The signature boat at a Surf Station is the 47 Motor Lifeboat (MLB), which can right itself from a capsize or pitchpole. You can read more about the 47 MLB on page 80 of this issue. Briefly, this boat is rated to operate in 30-foot seas or 20-foot surf in 50-knot winds.

Perhaps more important, Surf Station personnel, or Surfmen, are rated to operate the 47-foot MLB in its most extreme operating conditions after undergoing training at the National Motor Lifeboat School near the mouth of the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment, Washington.  Surfmen is the highest qualification in the Coast Guard for small-boat operations. There are currently about 200 Surfmen in the Coast Guard, and only about 500 have ever earned the designation.

Most Surf Stations are on the Pacific Coast. But a number of Surf Stations also exist on the Atlantic Coast. What follows lists the most dangerous inlets in the US, clockwise, from northeast to northwest. If you will be navigating these or any coastal inlet, time your transit for incoming water and/or times when wind is not opposing the current, and get local knowledge.