Knocked down by mini tornado & question....

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by carstenb

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...4&d=1352614013

I just hope to hell I never run into one like this! How the hell do you get away from it? I assume ti is moving much faster than I can sail.

I personally would concentrate exclusively on getting all sail off quick smart - then get everyone below (the latter not so much for safety but for trauma prevention)

Burying heads under pillows might be beneficial.

If you were to take all these precautions it's a safe bet the spout would be motivated to turn its attentions elsewhere

[carstenb]

Andrew

You forgot the part about;

Bend over, place your head firmly between your legs,

Now kiss your ass good-bye!

[jeremiason]

We were motor sailing last month from the Las Perlas Islands back to Panama City, Panama when we saw a squall on the radar that was about 10 miles long and 2 miles wide. Of course we were right in the middle of it and couldn't got around.

As we approached it... We saw the a black line coming down from the clouds and then what looks like a water spout... It disappeared about 1.5 miles form the boat.

[barnakiel]

Water spouts are not common here now but bad squalls, often with rain and with a major wind shift are pretty common between Madeira and Canaries any time there is low pressure to our W.

The problem is that once the squall is over, the boat does not have enough SA to carry on thru the chop and now lighter wind.

It does not take much to witness dramatic change in heel when a squall hits. Much depends on the boat but the forces quadruple with any doubling of the wind, I think.

Our solution is always to carry slightly more sail and bear off in squalls (unless there is land to leeward) - the boat will re-right and the genoa is easy to furl in the shade of the main.

If you got a water spout, well, bad luck. These can wipe you out and keep you pressed down for a time. One nearly sank our friend's W32.

b.

[Cheechako]

Nice thing about radar is you can see water spouts and avoid them. Which we did crossing the Gulf Stream once....

[barnakiel]

See -yes, avoid -not always!

b.

[noelex 77]

I have noticed a lot of waterspouts, particuarly this time of the year in the Med. my experience has been that generally your can avoid them providing your can steer away from their intended path at a reasonable speed 7-8k and keep a careful watch on the clouds for areas where they are likely to develop.
The only delema is that this means leaving up a moderate amount of sail, or motoring, when their is plenty of wind to sail.
Most days with waterspouts there tends to be a many forming, so it's a bit of cat and mouse game, with always the risk that one can form rapidly and be unavoidable.

I have never been caught in one. Cruisers that I have talked to that have been hit talk about ripped sails, but little damage if the sails are put away in time. I think the secret is that although the wind may be very strong there is no significant sea state and no debris in the air like there is with a tornado.

One problem is there may be some vertical component to the wind which can damage things like solar panels, or anything not tied down.


They do look very scary however.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Nice thing about radar is you can see water spouts and avoid them. Which we did crossing the Gulf Stream once....

We saw the Squall on radar, but we didn't see the water spout...

[hellosailor]

Mini-tornado is a new term to me, but the only difference between a waterspout and a tornado is "feet wet? feet dry?". That is, once a waterspout crosses the high water line and makes landfall, it is called a tornado.

Similar to the difference between a hurricane and a cyclone or a typhoon, it is mainly a difference in where the beastie is, and who is calling it. And oddly enough, US TV weather buffoons have taken to calling hurricanes "cyclones" this year.

[Mystic38]

Well its happened to me too...though I suspect it was some sort of wind shear rather than any sort of tornado.. water spouts I have seen aplenty and it was not one of those.

Anyway, about 45m off the coast of GA, heading North to Southport, NC, a large front passed.. seas built to 14ft and winds to 40kt+ from N.. eventually, wind veered from N>NE>SE and reduced to 15-18kts and seas subsided to 5-6ft quite quickly.. a few puffy clouds was all that remained so we put out full sail and felt relieved after a tough 14hrs...we spent an hour moving along nicely on a broad reach on starboard tack heading about 015....made coffee, all was well with the world...even had foulies drying on the rails.

Without warning, or visible signs on the water, in an instant the wind was 45-50kts from NW, backing both Genoa and Main.. boat had stbd rail, one lifeline and cabin side in the water, but luckily it didn't make its way down the companionway.. after that one second of WTF in disbelief, I simply let both the mainsheet and genoa sheets fly... the boat bobbed up and leaving the main to its own devices,, tried to tame the genoa with the stbd sheet and furl it as fast as humanly possible.

Really don't know what I could or even would, do different.. with the boat heeled like that and the prospect of water free falling down below there want much time for niceties.