colind3782
Well-Known Member
I ran a small building firm at the time and was kept busy for a while but, for the next year, everyone vaguely associated with the building trade was a roofer!
28 YEARS since that storm...
- Thread starter Greenheart
- Start date
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Stood at my bedroom window overlooking Poole Harbour knowing that my boat would be dragging as it was on a mooring in the shallow part of Parkstone Bay and subject to the full force of the wind and fetch across the harbour. Young silver birch trees at the bottom of my garden were horizontal!
Sure enough next morning found the boat on Whitecliff recreation ground having picked up its mooring and bounced of several other boats on the way. Fortunately a solidly built wooden boat so mostly superficial damage to toe rails etc. Insurance company (James Steel) paid out and i took the opportunity of replacing all the upper rubbing strakes and toe rails using mahogany that I had bought for £50 when Marley were closing their conservatory factory in 1983. Still have the boat and also some of the mahogany in my garage. Every year almost I find some use for bits of it.
Sure enough next morning found the boat on Whitecliff recreation ground having picked up its mooring and bounced of several other boats on the way. Fortunately a solidly built wooden boat so mostly superficial damage to toe rails etc. Insurance company (James Steel) paid out and i took the opportunity of replacing all the upper rubbing strakes and toe rails using mahogany that I had bought for £50 when Marley were closing their conservatory factory in 1983. Still have the boat and also some of the mahogany in my garage. Every year almost I find some use for bits of it.
Concerto
Well-Known Member
Not a night I wish to remember. Up at 3am to get a chainsaw out to remove a branch blocking the road outside my parent's large garden. As I finished the 100ft high lime trees started to topple like matchsticks. Then sat in the kitchen as about 50 mature trees fell in the garden. Four Scots pines blocked the road.
In the afternoon I managed to get to my yacht club to check on my 6 month old yacht. Moored in the centre of a fore and aft trot of 3 boats at the end of a mile long reach facing south west. It was badly damaged with a split from within the cockpit, down the topsides to the waterline after the oversized bow lines parted and she bounced on the boat astern. It was reported at daybreak the waves were 10ft high. The boat was deemed economically repairable and I had her roaded to the Hamble for repair. She returned 18 months later looking like new and even stronger than original. When I did sell her several years later, the buyer's surveyor never spotted any repairs. I believe she is still sailing, but doubt if many know the history.
In the afternoon I managed to get to my yacht club to check on my 6 month old yacht. Moored in the centre of a fore and aft trot of 3 boats at the end of a mile long reach facing south west. It was badly damaged with a split from within the cockpit, down the topsides to the waterline after the oversized bow lines parted and she bounced on the boat astern. It was reported at daybreak the waves were 10ft high. The boat was deemed economically repairable and I had her roaded to the Hamble for repair. She returned 18 months later looking like new and even stronger than original. When I did sell her several years later, the buyer's surveyor never spotted any repairs. I believe she is still sailing, but doubt if many know the history.
Beyondhelp
Well-Known Member
Incredible, I was 7 and remember an awful lot. It absolutely amazed me (and still does).
Seajet
...
I was up taking aerial photo's within a week or two - unrelated to the hurricane - the woods around Dunsfold ( SE of Guildford ) from there to the SW had a swathe cut through them, just like a router through wood; a wide path of completely flattened trees, but to each side of its path the trees were still vertical, giving a clean cut edge.
A chum near Horsham heard it all going on - those who heard it all seem to desribe it as like a passing express train but going on a long time - he went outside to try to secure a flapping fence, then noticed bits of glass whistling around his ears as a greenhouse upwind disintegrated, so ducked very low and beat a hasty retreat, ' **** the fence ! '
A chum near Horsham heard it all going on - those who heard it all seem to desribe it as like a passing express train but going on a long time - he went outside to try to secure a flapping fence, then noticed bits of glass whistling around his ears as a greenhouse upwind disintegrated, so ducked very low and beat a hasty retreat, ' **** the fence ! '
Torp
Well-Known Member
I don't remember it at all! But then, I was small and living in the West Midlands at the time.
You have now, however, got me wondering what my Corribee saw that day.
Seajet
...
Torp,
well the good thing about the Corribee is that they present a very small amount of windage even sideways on, so even if she was around at the time - and it was a pretty focussed, localised area that got the full blast - if she'd broken free she would probably bob through it just fine, unless you've noticed anything unusual I wouldn't worry.
Is there an owner's association to ask, or club if you know her history ?
Seriously I don't think you need worry, it was bigger 25' + boats, whose hulls and keels were difficult to handle ashore, which tended to get bodged !
well the good thing about the Corribee is that they present a very small amount of windage even sideways on, so even if she was around at the time - and it was a pretty focussed, localised area that got the full blast - if she'd broken free she would probably bob through it just fine, unless you've noticed anything unusual I wouldn't worry.
Is there an owner's association to ask, or club if you know her history ?
Seriously I don't think you need worry, it was bigger 25' + boats, whose hulls and keels were difficult to handle ashore, which tended to get bodged !
Torp
Well-Known Member
Oh, I'm not worried as such. Just interested. We're about the same age, and I am very aware that anthropomorphising is verging on nuts, but I do wonder what she has been up to all this time.
RichardTaylor
Well-Known Member
I was in digs near High Wycombe and remember being woken up by high winds which didnt seem to last very long. I remember a tile coming off the roof and landing where I normally parked my car (I had a failing battery so was parking on the road for a downhill slope to aid bump starting). I was wondering what all the fuss was about until about a week later when I had to drive to Ashford and saw the devastation first hand, then a few days later driving through Slindon Forest and being gob-smacked.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
I recall that on many estates the owners started repairing the tree damage. Those estates where woodland was left to recover on its own actually repaired themselves better than some of the managed ones
[70521]
Well-Known Member
I was overseas when it happened, flying back the UK gave a interesting view of the damage.
johnphilip
Well-Known Member
+1
I was contract manager for a local firm of builders and contracts were depleted of guys so they could go and fix roofs, we had calls expecting us to sheet over missing roofs even while the gale was still blowing.
Most remarkable escape was a lady whose chimney had come through the roof into the bedroom. Her husband showed us a lump of masonry on her side of the bed, she had been asked to do an extra night shift and so was at the local hospital when it happened.
Binman
Well-Known Member
Off the subject, I used to visit Dunsfold in the 70's, to pack Harrier aircraft, shortly after a paint job, we weren't aloud to sell them directly to Spain, so we sold to the Americans who in turn sold it to Spain, renamed the Matador.
Seajet
...
Torp,
quite right; imagine if our boats had the equivalent of a dashboard camera we could look back at !
Binman,
yes the eary Harrier 1 EAV8-A's had to be delivered discreetly, for fear of embarassing the Wilson government I think; in my day we delivered Harrier II EAV8-B's direct from Dunsfold to Spain, still called Matadors with ' Armada ' on the side...
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
I was in Greenland at the time! But I remember my wife telling me all about it afterwards.
PaulR
Well-Known Member
lots of vivid memories for 2 good reasons.
first as a property loss adjuster was incredibly busy for months and saw some incredible sights - shame looking back that it was pre digital photography as the photos I took of claims were sent to the insurers and the negatives left on the files and now are long gone. Some indication of the scope of the incident is that when a few years later I became the branch manager of Brighton office of a major loss adjusters - the office stats revealed that between 16th oct and the end of october 1987 that branch received more new claims than they had in all of 1986- and then in november 1987 received the same again - more than 2 years worth in 6 weeks - busy times!
secondly our much loved liftkeel Hunter Delta 25 Celox - was sunk on it's mooring at Orwell Yacht Club - recovered by divers a few days later and lifted out at Fox's - no structural damage to hull or rig and even the outboard was succesfully dried out and was fine BUT the cost to strip and renew all the linings and electrics was close to the sum insured - the insurer gave us the choice of taking the sum insured and them having Celox or having her repaired - the boss (swmbo) decided she preferred that we changed boats so we took the money - Celox was then bought by a fellow club member who refitted her and hopefully she is still out there somewhere ?
first as a property loss adjuster was incredibly busy for months and saw some incredible sights - shame looking back that it was pre digital photography as the photos I took of claims were sent to the insurers and the negatives left on the files and now are long gone. Some indication of the scope of the incident is that when a few years later I became the branch manager of Brighton office of a major loss adjusters - the office stats revealed that between 16th oct and the end of october 1987 that branch received more new claims than they had in all of 1986- and then in november 1987 received the same again - more than 2 years worth in 6 weeks - busy times!
secondly our much loved liftkeel Hunter Delta 25 Celox - was sunk on it's mooring at Orwell Yacht Club - recovered by divers a few days later and lifted out at Fox's - no structural damage to hull or rig and even the outboard was succesfully dried out and was fine BUT the cost to strip and renew all the linings and electrics was close to the sum insured - the insurer gave us the choice of taking the sum insured and them having Celox or having her repaired - the boss (swmbo) decided she preferred that we changed boats so we took the money - Celox was then bought by a fellow club member who refitted her and hopefully she is still out there somewhere ?
ex-Gladys
Well-Known Member
I was living in Gt Dunmow at the time and woke at about 0130 with a very funny colour light coming into the room. Looked out of the window to see a sycamore in the lawn finish levering its roots out and fall, with the tip just scraping past the window... Didn't get to work for a couple of days...
ronsurf
Well-Known Member
I was working in an orchard in Essex at the time picking fruit. I got the day off.
reginaldon
Well-Known Member
I think I was second on the scene when the Hengist first came ashore on the Apron, after the Fire Service got there and a fireman was making his way across the apron on all fours to the ferry.
I awoke with the racket, looked out and saw the ferry where it should not have been, in shallow water, found our lights were U/S, phoned 999 Coastguard to say there was a ship in trouble off Copt Point, they said they knew there was a freighter near the Warren in trouble. I said, "This is no freighter, it's a Cross Channel Ferry!" - the reply "Oh!"
I dressed, drove down there and arrived just as she was touching at the top of the tide, whilst it was still dark.
I awoke with the racket, looked out and saw the ferry where it should not have been, in shallow water, found our lights were U/S, phoned 999 Coastguard to say there was a ship in trouble off Copt Point, they said they knew there was a freighter near the Warren in trouble. I said, "This is no freighter, it's a Cross Channel Ferry!" - the reply "Oh!"
I dressed, drove down there and arrived just as she was touching at the top of the tide, whilst it was still dark.
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Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Great little stories there, thanks for all contributions. I don't think I've ever had 40 replies in 18 hours. 
As has been noted, how unfortunate that the ubiquitous availability of digital photography is such a recent phenomenon.
All I remember is driving north of Midhurst, home from the theatre at Chichester, and an airborne sea of leaves twirling endlessly in front of the headlights near Henley...
...that and the gusts thumping at our single glazing all night. Very unnerving.
As has been noted, how unfortunate that the ubiquitous availability of digital photography is such a recent phenomenon.
All I remember is driving north of Midhurst, home from the theatre at Chichester, and an airborne sea of leaves twirling endlessly in front of the headlights near Henley...
...that and the gusts thumping at our single glazing all night. Very unnerving.
