Boss in Maya is a dynamics module explicitly made for ocean waves and ripples. It's part of the Bifröst family which you typically use for creating liquids and gasses.

In this tutorial we get started with Boss. Our goal is to create overlapping wave structures and finally place a boat in the ocean to see it's influence on the water surface.

If you want to use Boss for other things, see this tutorial about a floating inflateable doll:    • Maya: Floating Doll [Boss]