North Sea: pics of huge seas this week

[jfm]

My brother just sent me these, from a reliable source - a friend of his who works in N Sea exploration and has lot of mates/contacts in that business. So they're not photshopped, i believe. Apparently these were taken from the Beryl Alpha stand-by vessel this week. The guy said Northern North Sea Platforms were recording waves in excess of 17.5m yesterday. Serious stuff. (When I said in the other thread (sq78 build) I wanted rough conditions in the N Sea tomorrow I didn't quite mean this. Careful what you wish for).

 

[tico]

Oh Sh**...... noticed that the Saturday afternoon sailing of the 'Isle of Innishmore' (Pembroke - Rosslare) had been cancelled due to bad weather, wind was howling well on Saturday night.

 

[benjenbav]

Sweet fecking jaysus.

I know fisherman are renowned for having their dayshapes welded to the mast but you'd think they would take the trouble not to indicate that they are trawling when there's no sign of any trawling going on.

 

[MarieK]

I know it would be a nightmare situation but do you think that 78/70 could survive in those seas? Or any 80 foot pleasure boat for that matter?

 

[jfm]

I know it would be a nightmare situation but do you think that 78/70 could survive in those seas? Or any 80 foot pleasure boat for that matter?

Tee hee. Funny, cos as I opened the email and looked at the pics this morning, I wondered what sort of pleasure boat you'd need to survive that. I don't know and have never had to endure such seas so i can only guess. I would think that with a good skipper you could possible survive an hour of that in an 80 footer, but you'd have to make zero mistakes so as not to broach and have a lot of luck. You'd lose loads of things, including maybe the radar mast, and you'd risk being thwacked in the back of the head by flying dishwashers and things. Thing is, not many people could withstand it physically and once everyone on board is uber seasick you wont have the helmsman skill to not broach.

Also you can lose the boat through a window failure (remember the superyacht Nadine that went down off Sardinia, over 10 years ago? It could have survived but the hard tender came loose and smashed thru the saloon windows, causing the seas to come in and the boat to sink)

So that's a "no" I suppose!

Remember also, as has been said on here many times, the sea looks better in pictures than in real life. So the reality of that must have been hell

 

[paultallett]

WOW!! I'm going to show these to SWMBO to stop her moaning when the run to Cowes gets a little choppy!!

 

[idpnd]

Impressive pics..

you'd think they would take the trouble not to indicate that they are trawling when there's no sign of any trawling going on.

Well-spotted!

 

[benjenbav]

Some stats and background on PD98 "Harvester":

http://www.worldfishingtoday.com/newbuildings/110708_harvester_ocean_harvest.asp

At 28m, not that different in length to a Sq78

 

[Philiz]

Thanks for that JFM, I was just sitting in the office wishing I was out on the boat as the sun is shining, but suddenly it doesn't seem so bad being here for some reason.
Good photos by the way.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Holy cow!

That doesn't look a lot of fun!!!!!!!

I don't think it want to put ANY boat to the test in that... sod the academic arguments... it makes shiver just thinking about it.

 

[rafiki_]

Tee hee. Funny, cos as I opened the email and looked at the pics this morning, I wondered what sort of pleasure boat you'd need to survive that. I don't know and have never had to endure such seas so i can only guess. I would think that with a good skipper you could possible survive an hour of that in an 80 footer, but you'd have to make zero mistakes so as not to broach. You'd lose loads of things, including maybe the radar mast, and you'd risk being thwack in the back of the head by flying dishwashers and things. Thing is, not many people could withstand that physically and once everyone on board is uber seasick you wont have the helmsman skill to not broach. So that's a "no" I suppose!

Remember also, as has been said on here many times, the sea looks better in pictures than in real life. So the reality of that must have been hell

You might need your Stugeron's tomorrow, as well as your thermals. Looking forward to the vid even more now, and don't tell us that F/L are going to postpone the event please?

 

[DTIM]

Great photos JFM, that sea would indeed give your stabilisers a serious work out, hope things are a little calmer for you..

 

[Kipper]

bit of a swell

 

[Nautibusiness]

Tee hee. Funny, cos as I opened the email and looked at the pics this morning, I wondered what sort of pleasure boat you'd need to survive that.

In July 2008 I took a 13m power cat around the Western Cape of Norway.
The 20 mile open water run from exiting the fjord to rounding the cape had 15m seas that looked remarkably similar to those all rolling in on the port quarter.

Myself and the engineer / relief skipper, Oistein, were screaming like kids on a roller coaster when we realised the boat could handle it if we stayed on our toes.
The owner almost drew blood by clenching onto the dashboard so tight and his whole side of the boat steamed up!

In hindsight, it was hell, but a 13m boat coped with +/-15m seas. I wouldn't have wanted to have done it for more than an hour though!

 

[fireball]

Holy cow!

That doesn't look a lot of fun!!!!!!!

I don't think it want to put ANY boat to the test in that... sod the academic arguments... it makes shiver just thinking about it.

What - not even an oppy .... ok - perhaps a topper as you're a bit big for an oppy!! ...

 

[White Horse]

Well scary they are, and that's for sure!

 

[burgundyben]

Very interesting set of pics JFM.

Some 20 years ago I was on board a Flemming 55 in the north sea, coming from Cuxhavn back to the Solent, we experienced seas about half that, some gusts of 70 knots and a steady breeze of 50 odd knots or so.

The boat sustained some quite serious damage, hull flexing cracked a bilge stringer and shifted a lot of cabin furniture, few bits and bobs came loose on deck too.

Best keep boating to fair weather!

 

[blueglass]

great images and sorry to be picky but are you SURE no photoshopping?
there are a few abberrations eg,
rocks just visible in the foreground in picture #7
undidentfied object mid sea beneath the bows in image #8
shape of a quayside or something flat and horizontal in image #6
others too if you look closely.

 

[davidej]

great images and sorry to be picky but are you SURE no photoshopping?
there are a few abberrations eg,
rocks just visible in the foreground in picture #7
undidentfied object mid sea beneath the bows in image #8
shape of a quayside or something flat and horizontal in image #6
others too if you look closely.

Intertesting reply.

I did not spot these but my immediate impression was that they were too 'Hollywood' to be real!

 

[Colvic Watson]

I know it would be a nightmare situation but do you think that 78/70 could survive in those seas? Or any 80 foot pleasure boat for that matter?

You don't need an 80 footer! Plenty of much smaller craft have crossed the Atlantic and survived waves like that.