tophatyachts.com

Crew in the water worth watching full ten min.
http://vimeo.com/m/87355387

That's Insane!!
I'm amazed the mast stayed in!! and how easily it rode it self!!
Just goes to show how many silly people are out there and it scares me that we share a harbor full of idiots like that.
I believe you never leave when it suits you, like when your holidays are, you leave when the weather God gives you a green light, not when the start gun goes or to a dead line. Other wise you ended up in trouble.
Hope no one does that to there Top Hat.
Cheers,
Aaron

Aaron, don't be too quick to judge. This was in the north of France from memory, and the tides there are 14 metres on average. This means if you want to get in or out you have to go on when the tide says so. By the look of the swell, he was probably better off trying to get in to safe Harbour, than staying out in the open channel (English Channel). Really, the only thing he did wrong was to have people on deck and no tethers... Which is bad enough. Having been in this area, I think a lot of e yachties have seen a lot worse, so will try their luck much more than we do, having big wide Harbour entrances, and relatively small tide heights.

Bavarias are good strong boats, Very capable of a roll over like this one. For that matter, so are Top Hats.

Michael if you look at the waves it looks to me to have the tide going out backed up by the drift of the guys in the water .
They must have been apprehensive as they turned around , not knowing if there was a weather warning which depending on the severity of it made them take the risk they should really of hove to for the top of the tide or gone on to another Port.
The size of that wave was by far larger than the average if you look carefuly it breaks over the wall before rolling the yacht.
It sure did seem forever with that rescue though .

I thought the waves were big but when they got inside the harbour mouth and the water and spray came over the top of the rock wall, I thought WOW!

If the boat had to come in, that is, no safer place to go, then in my armchair opinion, the skipper did a heap of things right. He or she stayed outside for a bit watching, tried to pick a good time and cut in close to the most protected section. I would have liked for the camera operator to zoom out so we could see the rest of the harbour mouth. Reckon it would have been lots of foam and spray.

The wave that knocked over the boat, I think if the boat had been straighter to the wave then there is a chance it may have surfed instead of being broached. The forces on the boat at that point as it started to twist into the broach would have been totally huge, impossible to stop once it started.

Interesting the wave that tumbled them seemed to be bigger than most of the others as I don't see that much spray coming over the rock wall again. And after the tumble, the boat is very close to safety and the swimmers are also safe enough, practically no risk of getting thrown onto a rocky lee shore. If the boat was gunna have trouble then I guess that spot was better than many. : )

Happily the swimmers appear to have lifejackets. Too many times I read of deaths in boating where folk go into risky conditions and don't put the lifejackets on.

What's the advice on tethers in this sort of situation? Is it better to be connected to the boat or free to get away from the boat if it's in real trouble?

troppo

With 20/20 hindsight and the comfort of my lounge chair; I would not have had anyone on the fordeck crossing a bar like that. Also I don't think he/she waited long enough outside to assess the size and period of the set waves. From a surfer's point of view the time to run in is straight after a large set - he seemed to go in the middle of a lull. I have not sailed there but I found when surfing on the Atlantic coast that the set waves were significantly larger than the average wave height (I find the same in Hawaii) and I think a lot a patience would be required to cross a bar like this. I also wonder about the tide, which if running out would have steepened the breaking set waves even more.

Too scary for me

Yep, lots of lessons, but from the blokes I met in France, this kind of thing is reasonably common, as in it doesn't happen every day, but it does happen on occasions. I was wrong, it's not the channel coast, but the North Atlantic coast. There is a long topic over on the Seabreeze sailing forum http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Sail ... -to-do-it/ that covers both arguments about tethers and having people above or below decks. Good discussion, including some salient points by our resident junkette pilot.....

This is a picture of the Harbour entrance, in good weather. Notice way up inside the channel there is a small Harbour. This would usually be closed off much like a lock, to keep all the boats afloat while the tide is out.

Thankyou Michael that power boat didnt wast much time getting there having vovered that distance wonder where the camera was ???