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Old 25-05-2021, 16:15   #1
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Tweed Heads, Australia bar

yesterday a US flag cruising cat "Begonia" (who we know to wave to having sailed from lake macquarie at the same time)came OH so close to disaster on the bar at tweed heads

video

https://www.facebook.com/598030266/v...58051594785267

the bar at tweed is well known as one of the most tricky in NSW and i think they now know they picked the wrong time to try it.

fortunately only boat damage...no casualties

swell here is quite powerful at present and getting bigger...6m forecast for the weekend. we (and about 20 others) are sitting tight in iluka until it settles

cheers,
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:14   #2
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Chris,

Could you tell us a little more about this? We don't do FB, but I wonder was it just timing? and what kind of damage to boat? Should be enough depth for a cat, but if they had 4-5 m. waves that bar could have been very nasty on the ebb! and with all the rain, the runout would last a long time.

Ann
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:24   #3
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Ann, I couldn’t get to it on Facebook either, but here’s a YouTube from 7.

https://youtu.be/nCjZgJ87aeg
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:33   #4
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Wow! Lucky to survive that one IMO. Looked damn close to going over on the second hit. Not sure I would have tried that even if someone else held my beer!

Glad they made it!!!

Jim
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:36   #5
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

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Originally Posted by Dsanduril View Post
Ann, I couldn’t get to it on Facebook either, but here’s a YouTube from 7.

https://youtu.be/nCjZgJ87aeg
Cool, extra bit of footage I did not get to see. plus a trawler.
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:38   #6
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Thanks very much Dsanduril.

It looks like, when he surfed backwards, that took out the rudders. Then, he was able to try to keep her head into the waves with skillful use of the motors, while she surfed backwards some more, and regained the flatter water. Terrifying. Sure a lot of the boat out of the water! Lucky!

Don't really know why he didn't turn back after looking at the bar, with it looking like that.....

Ann
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Old 25-05-2021, 19:39   #7
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

I think you mean about this moment. Caused me to hold my breath.

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Old 25-05-2021, 19:51   #8
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

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Don't really know why he didn't turn back after looking at the bar, with it looking like that.....

Ann
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Old 25-05-2021, 20:08   #9
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

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Chris,

Could you tell us a little more about this? We don't do FB, but I wonder was it just timing? and what kind of damage to boat? Should be enough depth for a cat, but if they had 4-5 m. waves that bar could have been very nasty on the ebb! and with all the rain, the runout would last a long time.

Ann
hi ann

i strongly believe in not criticizing anyone for their decisions, but i do find going out the bar at the time they left hard to understand

and not turning back when there was still a chance even harder

perhaps the tidal over-run was an issue, but you never ever go over a bar on an outgoing tide (unless the sea resembles a billiard table...and even then, at tweed you think twice)

there is some big powerful swell up here at the moment (driven by some bad weather over in nz) and we are all being hyper cautious on the bars right now

anyway, super glad they are safe as seem really nice people

cheers,
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Old 26-05-2021, 00:35   #10
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Yes, Chris, we've a friend who knows them, said they're nice folks.

And since this is in the boat handling forum, let's raise our hats to the skipper, who, using only his engines, managed to keep his vessel head to waves enough to be able to survive this event... hope that first big crash didn't do bulkheads....

Ann
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Old 26-05-2021, 00:42   #11
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

They are a super lovely couple who I sort-of ran into down here in Tasmania a few months back.

They struck me as smart and experienced sailors.

Ironically, we failed to meet up at an agreed anchorage because I got clobbered by a slightly similar set of conditions leaving the Tamar River and had to turn back. They got out fine.
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Old 26-05-2021, 00:54   #12
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Gday all, very very lucky couple and extremley happy they are safe and sound and the boat is still floating. For those that may not be aware most of navigavable river bars have video cameras at their entrance so you can access the waterways site and have a good look at the bar via the internet. A very handy tool regardless of good or bad weather conditions.



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Old 26-05-2021, 09:18   #13
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

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Thanks very much Dsanduril.

It looks like, when he surfed backwards, that took out the rudders. Then, he was able to try to keep her head into the waves with skillful use of the motors, while she surfed backwards some more, and regained the flatter water. Terrifying. Sure a lot of the boat out of the water! Lucky!

Don't really know why he didn't turn back after looking at the bar, with it looking like that.....

Ann
News report said they lost power so no engines? Should have waited.
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Old 26-05-2021, 11:26   #14
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

Pretty damn impressive, IMHO, that boat didn't go over. I'd like to hear the details of how the captain kept her off the beach. The article said he had no power-
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Old 26-05-2021, 11:39   #15
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Re: Tweed Heads, Australia bar

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News report said they lost power so no engines? Should have waited.

It sounded more like they lost power after being driven backwards.

They had no sails up, so they had to have had engines to get out there.
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