Was there a storm in the Clyde/Helenburg Area on the weekend?

[DangerousPirate]

Hello,
I heard terrible news from my boat up in the area. They tell me it suffered damage from a storm, but when I check the history for the weekend I see nothing above 14 knots, my boat just looks like it survived a hurricane, even chipped off the corner of the transom. This looks more like a crash to me than a storm! Unfortunately, I am in South East England right now and can't verify anything about the weather and it might be a bit before I can fly up there...

Look what happened to my boat! I could cry and I am not even sure if I believe the storm.

 

[The Q]

the fenders have ridden up and the side of the boat has been rubbing against the dock side for some time, thats not enough variation for a storm that's just waves 6 inches or so making her bounce.
Your aft starboard corner has also been rubbing against something and has has caught something like a dock and been chipped off with her going up and down. I can't see how both could occur at the same time..

is the dock floating or solid?

 

[dunedin]

Certainly has been pretty windy in Scotland over the weekend, mostly from a southerly direction (suspect not a full F10 to merit "storm", but certainly F8 with stronger localised gusts).
Boats can heel quite a lot in the gusts, which means fenders need to be much higher up to avoid popping out when heeling. Bit late now but might help in future.
Difficult to see, but pontoon edge looks pretty unforgiving. Is there no rubber strip round the edge?

 

[Farmer Piles]

If it's your berth, could you fix fenders or a thick rubbing rope to the pontoon to avoid this happening in future?

 

[QBhoy]

It was extremely windy up here over the weekend. Strong gusts

 

[DangerousPirate]

the fenders have ridden up and the side of the boat has been rubbing against the dock side for some time, thats not enough variation for a storm that's just waves 6 inches or so making her bounce.
Your aft starboard corner has also been rubbing against something and has has caught something like a dock and been chipped off with her going up and down. I can't see how both could occur at the same time..

is the dock floating or solid?

Well, from where the boat is positioned the southerly side is on starboard, so should have leaned away from the pontoon. Hm. The pontoon is a floating one.

The pontoon isn't mine really, it's just a temporary solution that somehow lasted longer than I anticipated. Actually it was supposed to be on a swing mooring but the boatyard asked me if it's okay to keep there, and I said I think that's probably even safer. ?‍

And I only have third party insurance. Ugh. So annoying. And this looks like quite a bit of work to repair as well.

 

[DangerousPirate]

It was extremely windy up here over the weekend. Strong gusts

Okay, then it's not the boatyards fault. But annoying still.

To me it just looked like a workboat or something crashed in the aft, hence the chipped transom and the enormous forces on the side of the boat.

 

[bluejasper2]

well certainly felt like one on saturday night, we had just arrived at our new marina at lunch time flat calm bit of a breeze,after midnight the wind changed direction and a bit of a swell was running into holy lock marina, the visiter pontoon bridge was jumping and crashing with the swell.

 

[Farmer Piles]

Well, from where the boat is positioned the southerly side is on starboard, so should have leaned away from the pontoon. Hm. The pontoon is a floating one.

The pontoon isn't mine really, it's just a temporary solution that somehow lasted longer than I anticipated. Actually it was supposed to be on a swing mooring but the boatyard asked me if it's okay to keep there, and I said I think that's probably even safer. ?‍

And I only have third party insurance. Ugh. So annoying. And this looks like quite a bit of work to repair as well.

So if she was leaning away from the pontoon that may increase the chances of the fenders popping upwards. Springing to and fro between gusts might have done the damage?

 

[DangerousPirate]

well certainly felt like one on saturday night, we had just arrived at our new marina at lunch time flat calm bit of a breeze,after midnight the wind changed direction and a bit of a swell was running into holy lock marina, the visiter pontoon bridge was jumping and crashing with the swell.

Sounds violent, but yeah, explains the damage.

So if she was leaning away from the pontoon that may increase the chances of the fenders popping upwards. Springing to and fro between gusts might have done the damage?

Yeah, maybe. For now I just asked them to move me on the mooring buoy (where it was supposed to be initially). Have to deal with this once I am down there. I could always lift it out, but I plan to be there soon, and that's just 300 quid (150 each way) plus the shore storage,which costs more than afloat for some reason. unless you wanna stay6 months or more.

Oh jeez. Well, bad luck, I guess.

Now they tell me I should absolutely lift it out, as they strongly advise against putting her on a mooring buoy like this. Any opinions on this? That is a very expensive manoeuvre. Twice the storage costs plus the lifts.

 

[dunedin]

i don’t know any details, but to be honest I am struggling to see how a strong wind should cause that damage
(a) to the stern - unless some other hard object it could have impacted on
(b) to the hull IF the wind was blowing off the pontoon.
I wasn’t around the Clyde at the weekend to know for certain the wind direction - but would need a lot of wind pressure against the pontoon to do the side damage, which would not be the case if blowing off.
Does seem rather odd. Could it have been hit by another wayward boat?

 

[double_ender]

Hi you could always check the weather station records of the Helensburgh Sailing club, link enclosed, hopefully
Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground
Malcolm

 

[dunedin]

Hi you could always check the weather station records of the Helensburgh Sailing club, link enclosed, hopefully
Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground
Malcolm

Which seems to show peak at Saturday 2pm, with southerly winds at 55mph or so, and gusts much higher - so briefly F9-10 if these figures are accurate?

 

[Solwaycruiser]

In the first picture when you zoom in it looks like an old wooden upright pile just behind the stern. I would think that may well have caused the damage to the stern ?

 

[davidmh]

My guess at what happened is that when the strong south wind came the boat heeled and the fender went up and went onto the top of the decking, when the boat then rubbed against the dock. That not slip GRP stuff is right on the edge and is very sharp it could easily have scored the hull. Perhaps later someone put the fenders back to prevent further damage.
I would not want to leave my boat on a pontoon like that , it need a soft rubbing strip and the non slip needs to be well away from the edge.
I don't think you can really assess the damage until you visit with a GRP repair man.

David MH

 

[Simon__]

When we came down from Scalpay to Oban on Sunday there were Strong winds from Mallaig to Kerrera. Sat in Portavadie now and the weather is foul, so seems plausible there was bad weather there too.

If you’re in Rhu have a search on here as there are a few comments about storm damage there over the years so it may well be the case.

Hopefully it won’t be as bad as it initially looks.

 

[Robih]

We had gusts of 45kts in Oban/Kerrera on Saturday, it wasn’t pleasant. We’d organised ourselves to be on the leeward side of the pontoon and hung off the mooring lines, it was bouncy.

 

[dunedin]

In the first picture when you zoom in it looks like an old wooden upright pile just behind the stern. I would think that may well have caused the damage to the stern ?

That indeed looks a possible explanation for the stern damage. Particularly when you look in the same photo, the spring warp from stern to mid pontoon cleat is very slack - and the wrong side of the fenders, though the rope position related to the fenders may have been caused by the boat leaning and fenders popping above the pontoon. Certainly if staying on that berth would need the spring tensioned correctly.

 

[MM5AHO]

I see only one spring rope, and that pretty slack. I find four ropes required on a pontoon. A bow rope and a stern rope, both at right angles to the boat and neither tight, but excessively slack. The two (not less than 2, but sometimes more) springs, running at at acute angle, one bow of boat to dock near stern, and the other from stern on boat to dock near the bow end. These should both be tight - as tight as practical by hand.. This prevents forward and reverse movement of the boat, the type of movement that can cause the fenders to ride up and pop out of place. For the stern corner to impact that post, the bow much have been allowed to go well off the pontoon?

 

[Robih]

I see only one spring rope, and that pretty slack. I find four ropes required on a pontoon. A bow rope and a stern rope, both at right angles to the boat and neither tight, but excessively slack. The two (not less than 2, but sometimes more) springs, running at at acute angle, one bow of boat to dock near stern, and the other from stern on boat to dock near the bow end. These should both be tight - as tight as practical by hand.. This prevents forward and reverse movement of the boat, the type of movement that can cause the fenders to ride up and pop out of place. For the stern corner to impact that post, the bow much have been allowed to go well off the pontoon?

“Bowlines ashore, one rope one job, loose breasts, tight springs”. Our sailing instructor took much joy in that, sorry for thread drift,,,,