Yes, that's a very good approach. With a little care, you can make very realistic wakes that way. I think this because I just spent 40 days at sea, and I shot a lot of photos of ship's wakes and bow waves. Soren's techniques look good to my eye. Just so you know, I will be releasing a set of mesh models for boat bow waves and trailing wakes in about two weeks. I'm working them against my photo sets right now. The first set(s) will be for "boats", rather than for "ships." (To a mariner, a "boat" is smaller than a ship - a "boat" can be put onto a "ship", but not the other way around.) Anyhow, bow waves and wakes for smaller vessels first, and then if anyone wants them, for larger ships. But, for large ships, Soren's technique is best, at least in my opinion. Just as Monsoon's ocean techniques are best for most things that are not in relative close-up view.