Abstract
It is essential to understand the actual characteristics of wave in the sea for the safety and sea keeping quality of fishing boats. From this point of view, attention should be paid to empirical knowledge : waves develop when wind and water currents have opposite directions. In this paper, we propose a simple method to forecast wave height based on experimental results in a wind-wave channel. We also applied this model to clarify the conditions of the sea during the actual capsize of a fishing boat and confirmed that the boat was subjected to very high waves generated by opposing wind and water currents. Judging from the results, we conclude that the simple forecasting method contributes to establish the safety guidelines for operation and navigation of fishing boats.
