Sailing Visitors Blown Away By Help

[gary789]

[QUOTE=Tetepare;2521817]Oddly, I haven't heard confirmation of microbursts, though I suspect that was the cause of the damage.

In 1998 the mid-southern shore of Lake Ontario experienced epic destruction following a thunderstorm. The weather service, after a few days, announced that indeed there had not been tornados which is what everyone surmised. Instead, they said the damage was due to microbursts, a term new to most of us in the area.

Following the storm, an old salt (who also happened to own a different marina) emerged from belowdecks on his 42' brick shithouse powerboat a bit confused because his view wasn't what he expected. His boat had spun 180 degrees from the linear docking position. The bow and spring lines (which I'm sure were 3/4" or more) had ripped out the cleats and he was hanging by one line.

Our boat- not 50m away- looked like nothing happened.

Three boats at anchor were dismasted. Two were Beneteaus. I say that not to disparage Beneteaus, but because Beneteaus had only recently become popular, ergo most Beneteaus were at least 1990 models- more likely 1995+. Thus, being in fresh water and with a standing rig that was only a few years old, one can only imagine what it would take to dismast those boats. At least one of the Beneteaus the mast was snapped in half.

If one has ever heard a mature tree snap in half, it sounds like a bomb. I recall hearing repeated explosions of trees during the storm. In some areas, acres of trees were destroyed, snapped in half. The undergrowth was completely gone- it looked like Tunguska. The trees weren't blown over, they were blown to pieces. Yet, less than a klick away the forests were fine.

Wind gusts were reported by NWS at 115 MPH- in an area that wasn't particularly harmed. Here is the Wikipedia summary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yo...r_Day_derechos

So it is quite possible that if this storm in AUS included microbursts the damage could be, effectively, blamed wholly on the weather

[JPA Cate]

Generally, the Bureau of Meteorology issues thunderstorm warnings in a timely fashion. If you had been in Bundaberg Port Marina, one look at the edge on the roll cloud would have given you a fair wee bit of warning--had you been there to take care of the boat. However, there are many legitimate reasons to be too far away to get back before it hit.

Posts above indicate one line broke, the boat was tied with only one long line for all the functions, its forestay came agley when it hit the boat in front of it, and the furler sail unwrapped itself.

Boats with a lot of windage put a lot of stress on dock lines, which need to be upsized because of the windage. It is possible, where there is inadequate room on the dock cleats for larger diameter line, to use dyneema soft shackles to effectively extend the cleats' capability. However, then, one needs to really check how well the dock cleats have been installed. Often, they have been installed without backing plates. In this case, though, it was the line, not the cleat that gave.

Ann

PS. @ Tetepare, Yes, it could have been a microburst, but as easily could have been just a common old T/S. It's the roll cloud, and that funny, greeny color in it that are the warning.

[PaulinOz]

The owner of Felix posted this in another thread so cross pasting it here so in the future, if this is read the actually owners story is also here.

Originally Posted by Savanna
Just in case there is any confusion, as the owner of the L400 which all but sank in Bundaberg 7th November, our engine room to bilge drains were properly closed. The ball valves had only recently been cleaned up, reinstalled, and closed (as had the ball valves in the forward compartment to bilge drains). In our case the water came into the hull via a large hole in the side of the starboard hull much faster than the pump.html" target="_blank">bilge-IRJDSUNE9932123321222xxeww-pump could cope with, and the pump very quickly shorted out.

In our case, as the water came in the hole the starboard hull went down towards the stern, and as the hatch to the starboard engine compartment went under water the engine compartment also filled up. At this point water also flowed from the starboard hull into the port hull under the floor, and very soon the port engine compartment also went down to the point that it also filled up with water.

The boat ended up at an about 50 degree angle literally hanging from the flotation provided by the forward watertight compartments. If these had been breached, then the boat would have gone straight to the bottom.

[CatNewBee]

I wonder if some water tight foam or air objects could provide enough buyoncy to prevent the water from transiting from starbord to port and make the cat unsinkable...