Oyster Yacht in Storm Video

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

We were in similar conditions in the Coral sea. For 4 days wind never dropped below 35 kts, and on the second and third days it never dropped below 40, averaging 45, hitting 48 at one time.


Fetch? As big as the weather system, thousands of miles of open ocean to windward.


Conditions were pretty crappy, but I never thought of it as a storm. Didn't even think to take video. We were comfortable enough, cooked and ate hot meals, slept when off watch, didn't need weather gear">foul weather gear....


It was more annoying than anything else, I'd been planning on a nice sail lying on the trampolines watching dolphins play. That's what the original forecasts suggested....

Isn't the Coral Sea a bitch? And all those atolls refract the waves into a total mess. Still, can be a fast place to sail!

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

Isn't the Coral Sea a bitch? And all those atolls refract the waves into a total mess. Still, can be a fast place to sail!

Must admit, I was expecting nice long rolling swells. Didn't happen. Quite short and steep. But it didn't seem like a storm to me. Although apparently, it was...

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Must admit, I was expecting nice long rolling swells. Didn't happen. Quite short and steep. But it didn't seem like a storm to me. Although apparently, it was...

Yeah, it's those prevailing Southwesterlies putting the waves through the mess of reefs and atolls, which refract into a truly chaotic interference pattern that makes the CS such a "fun" place to sail.

[Orion Jim]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The video was done while we had a consistent 40 knots plus, but no gusting above 50 knots. The wind was very steady that day staying between 40 and 49 knots.

I had very similar conditions 300+ miles northeast of Bermuda last summer. It started out as a series of Gulf Stream squalls and one decided to up the ante and stuck around for eight hours. I systematically reduced sail from my main, staysail, and Yankee until all I had up was about 20 sq.ft. of my Yankee. I was close reaching and never took any green water, just heavy spray and an occasional whack from a wave top. The wind was from 43 to 50 knots and I estimated 18 to 20 foot seas. I let my Monitor do all the steering (did a fine job) and I stayed below where it was safe. I set my alarm for half hour intervals and popped up for a good look around and to check the rig.
If I had a boat your size I may very well have spent most of my time in the cockpit. Singlehanding in a 31 footer I was better off in the cabin if not needed topside.

This picture was taken in the early afternoon when the top wind speed was in the low 30's.

[Kenomac]

There's another active thread running currently titled "What't the difference between a blue water..... And coastal cruiser" monitored by RusticCharm. I think this video helps to demonstrate how a heavier boat moves through the water as opposed to a lighter boat... no pounding.

'Just a thought.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=roLIEIjsd18

[TheThunderbird]

I am quite happy there is some consensus here....

1. Wind up to 45kn should not be a problem to any leisure boat, although, depending on displacement, tactics can be different... and what can look like a nightmare on a 30' footer is just a hard challenge on a 40', a merry ride on a 50', and a pleasant run on any larger ones...

2. Winds in the 50+kn range are a problem to Any cruisers: wind breaks the waves' tips, water is white streaks of foam, there is spray at sea-level (such that any floating human can hardly breath in), and water wipes the deck horizontally (apparently flying over the deck).
As notes here above, the very walking on deck is hard

3. In the Bonifacio strait, as well as in other converging coasts, the wind easily increases by 2 full notches. And the Med it is particularly prone to LOCAL (5nm) phenomena, and guts...

4. A (heavy) boat running at a much larger than theoretical speed is only passively (keel, not rudder) controllable, and possibly subject to capsizing after piercing into waves. Not to mention the backslash effects on mast, rigging, after a brutal deceleration. No sailing vessel has adequate bow sections to countermeasure that.
I have nothing against speed, so far my nose is high and dry in an almost flat sea...

Running consistently above the speed limit (I mean 15+kn, not 11-13kn when descending from a wave..) is something wise oceanic cruisers like to avoid by means of (expensive) drogue lines
5. That said, I believe that ability to steer, and a lively immediate response to the upcoming events (waves, guts, crests....) is paramount safety-wise, and that means to be able to keep the boat lively under sail, enough powered and not passive, to an extent that no reasonable motor can grant in troubled conditions...

Micka Flugga describes what a real hurricane is (on a well crewed 72' !!) and I wish no one may experience that ever.

Nevertheless, even a pond like Erie or the Med can be a heavy fighter.
Local whirls may arise..
In front of Livorno, southerly winds encounter a shallow reef, and some commercial ship have sunk.
VITTORIO Veneto, the largest ship in the Italian Navy (a heavy battle-ship some 500' long) met terrific waves in the mid-Tyrrenian sea, forcing it to conservative tactics

A note: only breaking waves are dangerous to a sailing boat, given its high buoyancy/displacement ratio.
Waves' height is a factor useful for sea description, but of lesser relevance, in so far as no sailing boat can sail upwind (against sea) in such conditions.

NB the gap between apparent/true wind is absolutely a prime factor in subjective perceptions, and with regard to boating seamanship/behaviour, the way it is between a roller-coaster and a merry-go-round

[Kenomac]

Thunderbird,

Thank you for contributing your excellent, thoughtful post.

Ken

[TheThunderbird]

Errata corrige: please dead GUST for gut.

This time, it is hot a keyboard fault, bit my weakness :-)

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Palarran

I don't think there's ever been a video posted quoting wave height (including mine) where it wasn't questioned. After seeing so many though, IMO, we totally overestimate the heights and the camera probably represents the actual waves more accurately. 20 to 25 foot waves on the Mediterranean would be near catastrophic for any boat.

Here's a different video of a lifeboat in Force 10 conditions which also shows how the camera and rolling motion of the boat tends to flatten out the appearance of the waves.

Not picking on your comment in any way, just responding to several similar comments made earlier in the thread at the same time, after this one showed up on my youtube search today.

Does anyone else have video of their boat in gale or storm conditions that they'd like to contribute?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2qadk5mm0k

Compare the sea conditions in the previous video to the conditions we encountered at Force 9-9.5 in this video which is quite similar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roLIEIjsd18

[Polux]

Another Oyster (and older and smaller one a 46) on bad weather on the Med, near Alboran (50/55k winds). Curiously they have also the engine running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GigEf2Vtu98

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

"we had these conditions for 18 hours by the end of which one crew member had been thrown across the saloon injuring his back, a cabin door had been snapped off and thrown around causing other damage, gear was all over the place below, and we were all completely knackered "

[Terra Nova]

Unsubscribed.

[Kenomac]

Polux,

Thanks for sharing those videos, I hadn't seen the first one. I know the second video was shot during a delivery in the same area of the Med as ours, and their sails or sail sustained some damage as a result of the storm. I'd seen that one sometime maybe two years ago, and it was one of the reasons we chose not to use our furled Yankee as a storm sail in our situation. Which in the end was probably the right move, since on the next day our engine alarm came on when leaving the anchorage and we were forced to sail into Olbia under sail alone in 35 knot conditions. The UV protective cover on the Yankee ended up ripping which then required repair. Our yankee sail doesn't appear to enjoy 35+ knot conditions in a 70% furled state.

Next time, we'll use the staysail which is meant to be used as a storm sail.

Ken

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Unsubscribed.

Thanks you for sharing this information with us.

[s/v Jedi]

Then there's the Sundeer 64 in force 10

http://youtu.be/_BNabB0-XVM

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Then there's the Sundeer 64 in force 10 ]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing.