Cyclone Debbie

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Considering the wind at 142 knots I think Hammo's marina has done all right.

Just can't get over the number of hours it was pelted with gusts over 100 knots. It certainly was stuck in the eye-wall the whole time.

The pics I posted of Hamilton Island's marina are the only 2 I could find while scouring the news site's, maybe worse maybe not, am guessing more information will come to light during today and hopefully what we see in the pics above is the extent of it. Still no news of any more serious injuries (besides the poor fella that the wall fell on) and no fatalities reported, praying it stays that way...

As for Hamilton Is been stuck in the eye wall, couldn't agree more, I was following it on the radars, and while Hayman and a few of the other islands got a breather in the eye, poor old Hammo rode the eye wall for the duration taking a right old shellacking...

[JPA Cate]

Dumnmad,

the 3rd photo was before the storm. The first one, with the boat obviously broken did have its sail still on, but the schooner, that must have been early on, did you notice the man on the foredeck? And its sails had been removed.

PS. The guy who the wall fell on is in hospital, and in stable condition.

Ann

[IslandHopper]

"WTF WAS THAT....???" (poor little fella)

Nocookies | The Australian

[hoppy]

Only in Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrJSPIQv7o8

[PaulinOz]

Some images taken from social media.

[IslandHopper]

Unfortunately as the day(s) go on I think we are going to see more of this....

Meanwhile down here in Bundaberg, a lot of prep work has been going on at the marina, really hoping we don't get a repeat of the 2013 floods, a lot of water still inside ex TC Debbie that's going to get dumped in the inland catchment areas...

Interactive Weather and Wave Forecast Maps

[JPA Cate]

^^^^Island Hopper, iirc, that Bundaberg Port Marina made out okay in the last event of this nature, most of the lost boats came from upriver. At BPM, there's space for a lot of the water to spread out and slow down over the northern banks if it floods. I hope your boat stays safe, too. She's in the water, not on the hardstand, right?

Ann

[sparau]

Originally Posted by brownoarsman

Was surprised to see even a mainsail pulled off the boom and billowing out.

There were several in mast furlers that had unfurled and shredded in the Abel point marina footage as well as jib furlers.

Obviously there are absentee owners (not taking down the jib makes me think this...) but it made me wonder how hard it is to remove an in mast furled sail before a storm? Or is that not really necessary?

Did the mast furled mains escape because they left a little corner of sail poking out of the mast and the furling lines chafed then let go? Was it just an error of not furling the main all the way into the mast?

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

^^^^Island Hopper, iirc, that Bundaberg Port Marina made out okay in the last event of this nature, most of the lost boats came from upriver. At BPM, there's space for a lot of the water to spread out and slow down over the northern banks if it floods. I hope your boat stays safe, too. She's in the water, not on the hardstand, right?

Ann

Hi Ann

We still had a quite a bit of damage when nearly the whole of the old Midtown Marina, upriver from BPM, broke loose and floated down on us. A few of the boats floating down clipped the ends of the fingers at BPM, and the boats that where on them, we lost half of one finger and two more where put out of action, plus three boats submerged in the marina.

The Midtown Marina was never rebuilt after that, but there is still a lot of boats anchored up there, most unmanned, so BPM is a little worried that if it happens again these may end up travelling down here, plus yesterday we where spinning a few of the bigger boats around and pointing the bows upstream, we should be ok though, just helps to be prepared

Me? I'm in board of the furthest out board pontoon of the finger I'm on (if that makes sense lol) outboard is a 40ft power cruiser, I'm banking on him taking the hit before me if anything comes our way (only kidding, don't want anyone to take one)

Here's a small selection of pics I took on the day, you can see a few of the boats and pontoons from upstream heading out to sea, most washed up on the beaches up and down the coast from the mouth of the Burnett River, I've got a short video from the day but it's 20+mb and to big to post here...

[brownoarsman]

Originally Posted by sparau

There were several in mast furlers that had unfurled and shredded in the Abel point marina footage as well as jib furlers.

Obviously there are absentee owners (not taking down the jib makes me think this...) but it made me wonder how hard it is to remove an in mast furled sail before a storm? Or is that not really necessary?

Did the mast furled mains escape because they left a little corner of sail poking out of the mast and the furling lines chafed then let go? Was it just an error of not furling the main all the way into the mast?

This is more what I was talking about:


Hard to grab a good screenshot on the phone, but looks like the catamaran's mainsail is flying off the boom, held on by the halyard. Doesn't look like an inmast or inboom furled main, so don't know how the sailties, stackpack, or bag came undone or what they were using, but surprising to see! Certainly strip it all!

Less surprising is the inmast furling sails coming undone. I know I've incurred some small damage to a furled jib in much less wind!

[hpeer]

We had 60 knots last summer in our marina. Next door Bayfield 29' was not careful furling his Genoa and the wind picked out a ballon. I was really struck by the amount of force contained in that little bag of cloth. We eventually got it tamed but it took concerted efforts of 5 folks to do it, at the dock.

It reinforced my desire to take all cloth down in big winds. In smaller winds I'll wrap the Genoa with spare halyards, and the main with spare rode or something. It pays to pay attention when furling and to make a nice tight wrap.

[sparau]

Originally Posted by brownoarsman

This is more what I was talking about:
Attachment 144214

Hard to grab a good screenshot on the phone, but looks like the catamaran's mainsail is flying off the boom, held on by the halyard. Doesn't look like an inmast or inboom furled main, so don't know how the sailties, stackpack, or bag came undone or what they were using, but surprising to see! Certainly strip it all!

Less surprising is the inmast furling sails coming undone. I know I've incurred some small damage to a furled jib in much less wind!

Yes, well that's definitely off the boom and at the mast looks to have a bag/stackpack.

I can't find an image online but yesterday on the live footage I'm pretty sure I saw several shredded mains running the height of the mast, so I guess would have to be in mast furling to do that.

I would have guessed if well furled inside the mast a main would be quite protected, but perhaps the vacuum created by such a wind could suck out a loose pocket and then it would be game over.

[Jim Cate]

For the in mast furled main, seems that a spiral wrapped spare halyard, tight around the mast from top to boom level (or to where the clew patch hangs out0 would effectively prevent the sail escaping the mast.

Jim

[brownoarsman]

I guess at the end, wind is unpredictable, except for predicting that it's going to be very strong and do strange things ...!

[44'cruisingcat]

Just got off the phone with our friends in Airlie.

He said while their boat is still afloat, it's severely damaged. Spent several hours riding on the forestay of a sunken maxi.

He says the marina is pretty much wrecked. (Not the word he used.)

He said there were many boats sunk, some that broke free, but also ones damaged by the marina coming apart. The finger they were on ended up on it's side with the concrete underside pounding their hull. The only reason their boat didn't get loose was a line he'd thrown round a pile during the eye.

He'd had to use a dinghy to get to his boat, the marina was coming apart, there was no access.

He estimated possibly 200 boats severely damaged or written off. (He's a boat builder).

The marina is unusable. He said the marina saw 251 kmh wind. This was after the eye.

Apparently Port of Airlie marina is just completely gone.

Going to take a long time to get over this one.