I am not about to start second guessing the professional captain in the incident that may be instigating this thread. I am not terribly experienced but have run a few inlets. The ones I am most familiar with are Galveston, Destin East Pass and Panama City St Andrews and Pensacola but I have visited Gold Coast East Florida passes as well. There are some rules that apply everywhere and some specific to the pass. In general, I stay away from having to return on an outgoing tide. My boat is small, a 19 foot Boston Whaler Outrage. But, small center consoles can do things large boats cannot do such as turn on a dime and accelerate like a Saturn V. That said, as far as I am concerned, bigger is better when running a pass, I guess.
I look at the seas, the the traffic and watch the locals and then I may decide it is to much for me or my boat or both. The East Pass at Destin is not to be taken lightly but I have seen some huge standing waves in Pensacola. I try to time the wave sets, guage their forward speed and then pick the smnallest one that is of a set that runs through and then get on it's backside and put the hammer down and hope I can stay on it. The water is often aerated and it can be a challenge not to over run it and fall off the top or for that matter lose traction and fall off the back and then get pitch poled by the oncoming wake or more likely in my small center console, stern swamped and capsized.
My boat likes a big 4 blade Rev 4 prop for traction in aerated water, I trim out a little and tabs up coming in, going out, if the waves are not too bad (in which case hopefully I will not be going out) I may put some tab down to get the bow down enough to punch through rather than letting the wave push me way up and loose momentum. Once committed, pretty much need to go, do not turn around. Well, sometimes it is possible to turn, the maneuverability part. Sometimes it is even possible to run across the backside/trough or zig zag a bit to keep with the wave speed.
The Hillsborough inlet and Boynton, wow, is all I can say. Unless it is a really nice, stable day, I just hire me a pro captain, not worth the risk for my little boat.
Also, especially in small boats, make sure everything is very well secured, passengers in jackets and standing behind the console in case I punch a wave, they do not get washed out. Also, especially for small boats, make sure it is understood that a lifejacket can kill you if you come up under the boat and it is capsized trapping you under it and drowning.
I have swam through surf, I used to surf a little, that no small vessel could reasonably negotiate, I have often told my wife, I would rather not be in the boat if it goes over. I would rather take my chances swimming (assuming warm water), let the insurance company get me a new boat, better yet, if it is not a blue sky, no seas, day, stay inside.
Back some (many) years ago, my friends and I in a BW 15 footer, we were filled with water when we fell off the back of a wave coming into Destin East Pass. A wave came over and swamped the little boat from the stern, fortunately, we were young, dumb and stupid and lucky in that we just hung to the sides and it did not flip, we somehow washed up on the sandbar inside the East Jetty, close to were people now dive. Bailed her out and continued on. If that boat had rolled over on us, might not have ended that way, but for whatever reason, it didn't. That is for another discussion and probably divine intervention.
N