28 YEARS since that storm...

[Seajet]

Dan,

the West Sussex County Times did a special, ' After The Storm ' or something like that, with lots of dramatic photo's.

As I recall 13 people died ? Most if not all by falling trees I think.

Anyone who wasn't there probably can't understand or believe it; I have no hesitation at all in calling it a hurricane !

One bit I forgot; France was badly clobbered too.

In the summer of 1988 we turned up at Cherbourg to find no marina, just a pile driving barge hard at work making the new one, so we just anchored in the middle.

 

[Greenheart]

...the West Sussex County Times did a special, ' After The Storm ' or something like that, with lots of dramatic photo's.

I remember that.

And I think we had another terrible couple of stormy nights, a year or two later.

I reckon my Topper must have been in the dinghy park at Bosham. Or it might have been in the garden at home, that late in the season. No damage anyway.

 

[johnalison]

There were large swathes of woodland with fallen trees across Southern Britain. I remember seeing the effect in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. I believe that this was the first time that dendrologists realised that trees didn't actually have tap roots but just plates of roots without deep anchorage.

The '91 blow actually contained higher wind speeds but was, I think, in January so that without the burden of leaves, fewer trees were lost. There were pictures of lorries being blown over on TV.

 

[Floyd Raser]

Great thread. My boat's a 1979 and I'd love to know where she was in '87.

Here in the Midlands we know that if we're having bad weather, some poor b*gger's getting worse. We had a bit of a breeze on that night.

I had to drive to Cambridge from Leicester in the morning and I remember the uncomfortable feeling when the breakfast radio presenter asked people not to call the fire brigade as they were at full stretch. As I got closer to Cambridge there were more and more branches and larger bits of tree on the road. I could only imagine how bad it must have been further south.
One thing we shared though: our insurance premiums went sky high and the renewal notice included an apology and the excuse that due to the claims from the storm...
I have symapthies for all who suffered in any way, but not insurance companies!

 

[Seajet]

There were large swathes of woodland with fallen trees across Southern Britain. I remember seeing the effect in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. I believe that this was the first time that dendrologists realised that trees didn't actually have tap roots but just plates of roots without deep anchorage.

The '91 blow actually contained higher wind speeds but was, I think, in January so that without the burden of leaves, fewer trees were lost. There were pictures of lorries being blown over on TV.

Maybe most of what could blow over had already bought it in '87 ?!

The effects still show at places like Slindon, just east of Chichester - still all small young trees and the corpses of old big ones on their sides.

Re dendrochronologists, didn't the National Trust have a particularly far sighted attitude towards the fallen trees, for research then stockpiles or something ?

Pretty sure people suddenly had access to wood which they didn't have previously, for all sorts of projects.

 

[ffiill]

And Panam jumbo jet out of New York tried to land at Heathrow with my brother on board.
They bounced a few times realised the error of their ways and flew on to Paris!
The boxing day Hurricane on the Clyde 1998 is far more memorable to me.
The power went at about 23.00 from Girvan up to Greenock plus Bute where we were living and Arran.
All you could see were the beacons and lighthouses.
We were without power for almost a week.
Dwarf trees lining the prom were torn up and several yachts with winter moorings were wrecked plus as I recall a few sad fatalities on the Island.
The gardens at Mount Stewart were destroyed and a big plantation of mature pines next to the road looked like they had sustained a nuclear air blast looking like a pile of matches dropped out of a box.
The screaming sound over our house on Canada Hill was horrific.
Matched in a more local fashion by the Hurricane this January whose 140 mph winds here in the village felled some very big mature trees and stripped the 140 year old slate roof off a neighbours house.
Yet again listening to that sound as though a jet was about to land on our roof.
We managed to head off south the following morning after packing by candle light and pick our way through the fallen trees on the A82 up to the airport.

 

[KellysEye]

Jane and I were woken up by a loud roaring sound which we thought was a military jet overhead. When we went out in the morning there were estate agent's signs down, trees down and debris everywhere. It was an incredible sight.

 

[des16]

Yes remember it well.
My girlfriend and I had a 17ft Seahawk on a mooring at Portland. I had missed a lift out the previous weekend and it was planned a few days later.

I can remember racing down to the dockside early in the morning and she wasn't there!

The boat, not the girlfriend, we are still married ...

The boat was later found smashed to pieces under the concrete dock. It was so upsetting. I had used a large but nylon only mooring strop - never again.

Now I have a larger boat at a marina in Plymouth but when it blows, that sense of paranoia returns. Last year I stayed on board overnight during that blow, trebling lines and fussing about and I'm sure other owners thought me crazy.

 

[Fantasie 19]

I slept through it in Portsmouth.
First I knew about it was riding my bike to work, spotting caravans upside down by the Eastern Rd.
I got to work, riding down a few footpaths to dodge fallen trees etc.
My mate's car had ridge tiles embedded in the bonnet.

Me too, and I was in Pompey as well.. first I knew of it was when I turned out of my road, and the outer brick skin of a house was lying in the road... :ambivalence:

 

[Sailingsaves]

Some photos (mostly after the roads were cleared):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gRg43mbxU

We couldn't get to work so took our chainsaws and landrovers and started clearing roads.

Homeowners and police thanked us and we got a LOT of wood for the house.

Wouldn't happen now. Would need a chainsaw ticket, insurance and all sorts.

 

[alant]

...unbelievable. Still seems like it was sometime in the last fifteen, to me.

Amazing to think, that was only eight years after the Fastnet disaster. That seems much longer ago to me.

Any over-riding memories worth bringing up, here?

Was anybody actually on that ferry?

My village was completely cut off, due to fallen trees (some on cars trapping drivers), place looked as if an A bomb had gone off.
Amazingly, the beach huts demolished on Feb 14th storm, survived.

 

[alant]

Dan,

I thought the ferry was full of passengers who had to stay on for quite a few hours until things coud be sorted out ? Maybe thinking of another vessel.

In my case I set from Horsham off for work at Dunsfold Aerodrome as usual - I had slept through it, but my parents had retreated to the living room in alarm leaving me to it !

Within a few miles it was clear I had underestimated things, and the A281 to Guildford was impassable.

Then all thought of work disappeared and I was frantic to check my boat; at this time very luckily I had sold my A22 and she was safe at sunseekers in Poole - but my Carter 30 was on a mooring at Mill Rythe with Hayling Yacht Co.

The drive to the coast was interesting, at the Slindon forest the road disappeared into a mass of fallen trees, so I casted around the backroads trying to find a way through; I soon had a little convoy following who seemed under the false impression I knew a clear way !

I finally got to Hayling Island hours later; my boat had been sheltered by the high earth banks, she was safe with just the main cover part off and the exposed bulb of the deck floodlight had been sheared in half - not shattered - by the wind...

The boatyard was carnage, many of the boats ashore had blown over with a domino effect, hulls were shattered, keels torn off and rigs lay around.

I went back to Langstone SC at the mainland end of the Hayling road bridge, where as usual in emergencies people had arrived unbidden.

11 boats had blown ashore from the Chichester side moorings; my father's Centaur had stayed put on her new uprated mooring, but ha dbeen badly damaged by other boats going past.

The boats ashore were mostly in a bad way, some twin keelers had keels torn off when they hit the shore.

There seemed a completely different law of physics, lots of things sheared off by the wind rather than blown over.

We set to clearing the fallen trees on the old smuggler's lane to the shore, Pook Lane - it took several days and of course one couldn't get a mobile crane for any price, but within a few days the boats were recovered; about 60 % never to sail again.

The boats on the Langstone side had fared worse as they had concrete to leeward; a much loved Mirage 28 had been driven right under the road bridge with her rig in pieces - I helped the owner get her out on what was clear would be her last trip, there were obvious cracks through the hull, we got the engine going, cleared the rig and just managed to beach her, vibrating crazily as the propshaft was way out of alignment.

One little point; after this, small grp repair companies sprang up everywhere overnight, some better than others.

There were plenty of tales later of twin keels put back at wrong angles; so a good question to ask if buying a pre-1987 boat is, ' where was she in October '87 and what happened ? '

"Sold your A 22?

 

[Seajet]

Alant, I'll PM the explanation.

Back to the Hurricane, I just remembered wasn't there a Contessa 32 approaching the Needles Channel from the west when all this happened ?

I seem to recall they had a bit of a rough sail ( ! ) not helped by all the lights on shore going out, but made it to Portsmouth I think.