| I was going through my photo archive and came across these boat damage photos caused by hurricane Wilma in 2005. |
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| This boat in the above photo is a Catalac 12M and was owned by Stephen and Janet Metcalf.
Unfortunately the boat was driven onto the rocks you see in the foreground during hurricane Wilma
as a result of poor anchoring by a neighboring boat. The damage to the boat isn't readily
apparent, even after hours of pounding on the rocks. Although the Metcalfs' lost their boat as a
result of the damage, they promptly located and purchased a Catalac 10M to replace her. Talk about
brand loyalty!! |
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| The above photo needs an explanation. The Down Easter pictured above lost it's mooring during Hurricane Wilma. As she lost her mooring at the height of the storm, hurricane winds drove the boat into a very heavy Ferro cement boat. The rigging of the two boats became tangled and eventually the Ferro cement boat lost her mooring as well. Both boats were then driven into the Catalac pictured in the photo at the top of this page. The collision damaged her port side and knocked her from her double helical screw mooring. The Catalac was then driven by the hurricane force winds onto the rocky causeway where she pounded on the rocks hour after hour, eventually breeching her port hull. The Ferro cement boat sunk and the Down Easter, instead of being driven onto the rocks like the Catalac, was forced under the bridge portion of the same causeway bow first. The problem? Well, the bridge height at that point was 20 feet, and the mast height of the boat was 45 feet. As the wind caused the mast to be slammed into the deck of the bridge, her forestays pulled out of her foredeck. Repeated slamming eventually forced the mast backwards. Inch by inch the mast was driven towards the stern of the boat, pivoting on her keel step, causing her cabin top to shatter until it eventually peeled back like a convertible top and then gave way altogether. When the mast finally was forced out of the boat completely, it carried the cabin top away with it. This beautiful Down Easter wasn't properly moored and destroyed two other boats while becoming a total write off herself. This just goes to show you what can happen in a hurricane. That even when you do everything right, you can still lose your boat. I would also like to point out that this is a terrific case being made for a deck stepped mast. |
