I live in Townsville and have my 47' Bavaria yacht moored at Breakwater Marina. Last Thursday night we had Tropical Cyclone Kirrily visit us. It was a Category 2 cyclone when it crossed the coast near Townsville.
My neighbour cable tied his GoPro to his bow rail and let it run.
It doesn't look scary at all in this video. The wind was coming off the land and over the marina though. There was virtually no damage to any of the boats there.
Adjacent to the marina there is a free anchorage surrounded on three sides by rockwalls. It is known locally as the Duck Pond. It is less than 2 metres deep at low tide in there.
On Thursday evening before the storm there were 15 yachts anchored in the Duck Pond. On Friday after the cyclone there were 8 yachts at anchor. 7 yachts broke free. 3 hit the rock walls around the Duck Pond and were extensively damaged and sunk. 2 washed up on the local beach, The Strand. 2 more washed up on another beach about 4kms to the north. The beached yachts did not appear to have much damage.
I had a look at these yachts trying to work out why they broke free. Two appear to have about 6 metres of anchor chain out, which is fine for anchoring in 2 metres of waters in a sheltered area. One yacht had a good length of chain out but no anchor attached to the end of it. The last link had failed and the third last link appeared to be so worn through it would not have lasted much longer.
The point of my post is that the washed up yachts are the ones that make headlines. People then assume it was a big storm that caused these yachts to break free but it appeared from what I saw as poor preparation or maintenance.
The site won't allow me to post a link to the video or the photos I took.
Sean

Very interesting. Thank you. Yes it's around 10 days or so until you can post pictures and annoyingly the site does not permit videos so you would have to post to another app such as YouTube and then leave a link.

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SeanTsv said..
I live in Townsville and have my 47' Bavaria yacht moored at Breakwater Marina. Last Thursday night we had Tropical Cyclone Kirrily visit us. It was a Category 2 cyclone when it crossed the coast near Townsville.
My neighbour cable tied his GoPro to his bow rail and let it run.
It doesn't look scary at all in this video. The wind was coming off the land and over the marina though. There was virtually no damage to any of the boats there.
Adjacent to the marina there is a free anchorage surrounded on three sides by rockwalls. It is known locally as the Duck Pond. It is less than 2 metres deep at low tide in there.
On Thursday evening before the storm there were 15 yachts anchored in the Duck Pond. On Friday after the cyclone there were 8 yachts at anchor. 7 yachts broke free. 3 hit the rock walls around the Duck Pond and were extensively damaged and sunk. 2 washed up on the local beach, The Strand. 2 more washed up on another beach about 4kms to the north. The beached yachts did not appear to have much damage.
I had a look at these yachts trying to work out why they broke free. Two appear to have about 6 metres of anchor chain out, which is fine for anchoring in 2 metres of waters in a sheltered area. One yacht had a good length of chain out but no anchor attached to the end of it. The last link had failed and the third last link appeared to be so worn through it would not have lasted much longer.
The point of my post is that the washed up yachts are the ones that make headlines. People then assume it was a big storm that caused these yachts to break free but it appeared from what I saw as poor preparation or maintenance.
The site won't allow me to post a link to the video or the photos I took.
Sean

This is a link to Sean's video.

?feature=shared

What type of boat is Skylark III, too nice a boat to have a poor condition chain. First glance I thought it's Skylark II, an Arends but it's not. A Swanson or an Island Packet?

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EastCoastSail said..
What type of boat is Skylark III, too nice a boat to have a poor condition chain. First glance I thought it's Skylark II, an Arends but it's not. A Swanson or an Island Packet?

I don't know the boat manufacturer but can confirm the photo I took of the chain is from that vessel.
Sean

The last photo has two sunken ships. One in the background against the rock wall, slightly to the left of the main yacht's rigging.

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EastCoastSail said..
What type of boat is Skylark III, too nice a boat to have a poor condition chain. First glance I thought it's Skylark II, an Arends but it's not. A Swanson or an Island Packet?

Maybe? Maybe....Swanson 38?
Island Packets don't have canoe sterns, however, Pacific Seacraft do. Americans didn't have such a love affair with alloy toenails as Aussie boatbuilders did so maybe not a Pacific Seacraft...??? Nice boat anyway.

No Nicholson 32's in the photos! One of our Seabreeze listers has one on a mooring in the bay and because he is unwell could not get to his boat before the blow.

The boat in the 3rd photo was in good condition and the mooring was fairly new it still has the ball attached ,
It looked like a vander state design in glass over ply.
The problem with the duck pond is the wave action fatigue the chains at the mud level quickly.
you also need to realize there are no safe options for them to go to as if they have not got insurance they are not allowed in the marina and there not much room up the creeks due to bridges.
The Duck pond is free to anchor but is gazetted mooring field and requires permit and fees to set up a mooring and is generally safe except in strong northern winds.
Although our marina is the safest protection in a cyclone , in Cairns they kick them out and send them up the rivers i don't know there insurance covers that.

A lot of those yachts had their furling sails still rigged up their forestays!

Surely they should have removed that sail if not their main sails as well??

I tryed to buy some 25mm nylon dsr rope recently at a chandler and supplier they would not cut to length and would sell as a complet 100 meter only, also getting 10 meter lengths of large anchor chain was imposible

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Ramona said..
No Nicholson 32's in the photos! One of our Seabreeze listers has one on a mooring in the bay and because he is unwell could not get to his boat before the blow.

Sadly I received an email from Gary this evening and his yacht was wrecked on the Southern stone wall of the Duckpond.

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Ramona said..

Ramona said..
No Nicholson 32's in the photos! One of our Seabreeze listers has one on a mooring in the bay and because he is unwell could not get to his boat before the blow.

Sadly I received an email from Gary this evening and his yacht was wrecked on the Southern stone wall of the Duckpond.

what type of boat was that Ramona, it is the boat in the 3rd photo, looked in good condition and recently established mooring, the mooring held up untill the cyclone almost passed going on where it ended up.

The third (second boat photo) and last photos are on the southern rock wall of the Duck Pond.

Excellent input Sean, and welcome. 7 out of 15 dragged anchor or broke moorings & at a wild guess the anchored boats dragged and presumably blew of luckily to soft landings and again presuming the moored boats held till the worst of the storm and the wind direction at that stage put them in peril, I wouldn't like to be a mooring contractor in an area prone to big storms especially the recently laid mooring. Commiseration to the Seabreezer & others who lost their vessels

there is also 1 more boat that ended up on a sand bar at the front of bushland beach, the owner died last year it was left on a anchor .
Anchors tend not to hold to well with the change of wind as there is a half a meter fine silty mud and sea grass to block up flutes.
The four boats should be easier to recover on the next high tides

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grich62 said..

Ramona said..

Ramona said..
No Nicholson 32's in the photos! One of our Seabreeze listers has one on a mooring in the bay and because he is unwell could not get to his boat before the blow.

Sadly I received an email from Gary this evening and his yacht was wrecked on the Southern stone wall of the Duckpond.

what type of boat was that Ramona, it is the boat in the 3rd photo, looked in good condition and recently established mooring, the mooring held up untill the cyclone almost passed going on where it ended up.

Nicholson 32. I have the photos but won't be posting without Gary's permission. The headsail is still rolled on the foil. There is not going to be much to recover.