54 e and rotating back 54 f to their original equilibrium position at each point of motion each of the tubes 12 a 12 b 14 thrashes through water 37 for every motion required therethrough drag factors may be found in standard textbooks identifying the form drag or fluid drag of various fluids at various densities as they pass over inner or outer surfaces of solid structures accordingly the tubes 12 14 present form drag to the passing wave 44 churning and thrashing the water 37 in response to their motions 54 resulting from the balance of resultant force 52 on the system 10 in each of its components 12 14 16 passing through the water 37 in experiments it has been found that an apparatus and method in accordance with the invention is very effective at reducing the momentum energy crest height and deleterious effects of waves 44 progressing toward shore lines and shore bound structures referring to fig1 through 16 several principles have been found significant in providing a suitable breakwater 10 initially the size and spacing of the tubes 12 14 appear to be significant for example it has been found that the diameter of the floating tubes 12 should be of about the same size or order of magnitude as the typical swells 44 or waves 44 a wave 44 expected should typically be not more than about two or three tube diameters in height between crest and trough of a wave 44 this assures that a significant amount of any cresting wave does not pass over the breakwater 10 upon breaking of the wave 44 another feature is the spacing between the floating tubes 12 the distance between tubes should also be about two diameters a greater distance is satisfactory but.