The Water Effects are thin, so you'll not get much depth out of them.
However, you don't need much depth of vision in a muddy river, either.
The Tamiya PBR has been set into a number of smooth plaster bases, which were then painted a suitable brown, and given clear coatings atop that plaster. Like Gloss Gel Medium, even clear silicone (I prefer the former to the latter).
The Water Effects ca go over the top of the clear coats politiely. And, at slow speed, the bow wave and hull ripples out to be clear, not brown.
At speed, you have a bit more work, and Luke Towan is a good go by for getting curled surf techniques from., and you'll need that for the amount of water a PBR moves at speed. That's a situation where I might be inclined to use clear resin for the base, as the water jets can "clean" the brown out of the color of the water pretty thoroughly.