I've read about this before but don't remember that there was a fix for it. In my chor the camera isn't even that close to the surface of the water, but there is a major distortion in the finished render. Is there a work around?

Is it a material displacement? I think decal displacements can be seen in realtime if you PageUp.

Will only work in Shaded / Shadedwireframe mode, not in wireframe-mode.

*Fuchur*

Yes, it's the standard Babbage water displacement. At first I was able to render it properly, and then after doing a bunch of different stuff, modeling, decals, etc, I rendered again and it got whacky.

Could you provide the projectfile or a rendered image?

*Fuchur*

Looks like you either need to raise the camera up off the water OR decrease the amount of displacement... your literally getting your camera wet.