In this episode of our Sailing Chelsea vlog, we show you the damage to Chelsea after our encounter with the waterspout and Faye does a LOT of research and di...

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so the storm passed and we were making

our way into the nearest marine out

which was Albert acts on the east coast

of Sardinia we knew there was something

wrong with the electronics and we

presume the sail was damaged but we

couldn't tell anything for sure until we

assess the damage properly the next day

so it's the morning after the day before

this is how the sails how we manage to

get them lashed down in the end sail

back to everywhere really we're gonna

try and raise the mainsail the Holly it

is caught around radar detector radar

reflector so we need to unhook that and

then we can raise the main and try and

get the sail back back up and actually

see what damage we don't

now we're gonna have to go up Brian went

up the master unhook our main halyard

from the radar reflector he also had a

quick look at the Riggin to see if there

was any noticeable damage we could raise

the sail up to about this point but it

was getting stuck as it was going up and

down so we knew something was wrong with

the runners runners also known as sail

slugs or sail slides should move freely

up and down the mast when raisin or drop

in the sail the actual sail looked

pretty good there was a few tears but

nothing too major so we're just

assessing the damage of the sail

so it's worn through all of the battens

and you can see that is from the battens

it's all marked that is a bit of a slit

it's like when you was at school we had

the parachute I mean when I was at

school as my job this is a Friday

afternoon yeah I mean there's bits that

are worn we've got those surveyor coming

today you should be here in a couple of

hours which is good although who's

coming to look at the mainsail and this

is the weather which is typical pretty

strong winds tonight

I think we've had up to about 25 knots

already so we started sharing the survey

the runners which were jamming on the

mast but when we all looked closer we

found a screw in the mast that was

causing the problems this was amazing

news as it meant the runners are fine

but we just have to try and work out

where the screw came from the surveyor

confirmed we needed two new blocks these

have a lot of pressure on them from the

lines so we can't risk failing with them

cracked like this ones for our light

wind so and this one is for our reef

line these are the rivets and attached

the boom to the mass they're supposed to

be solid and these ones and now loose

and so the surveyor said we've got to

get those redone we've really don't want

the boom falling off or they were tears

in the mainsail or minor the surveyor

advised us to get it checked and

repaired by a sail maker so the tears

don't get worse when we sail it in

future the biggest and most annoying bit

of damage from the storm is our

electronics the surveyor didn't think

we'd been hit by lightning because there

were no burn marks on the boat but he

said it would have struck very close to

the boat and induced a massive current

in our electrical circuit which

basically fried everything the

chartplotter

and the repeater at the chart table

downstairs which we use to view charts

and plan our passage our wind depth and

speed instruments our autopilot which

automatically steers the boat for us and

our radar all of which have repeaters

downstairs there is no way to repair

these so we need a full replacement and

because a lot of the wiring is

underneath the boat Chelsea needs to be

lifted out of the water for around a

week so after the storm I wanted to do a

little bit of research to find out what

actually happened

and if we really were in danger so start

stop looking at the Beaufort scale which

measures wind speed so the highest speed

the we saw was about 63 knots which

equates to around I've got my note says

73 miles an hour

and 117 kilometers an hour now on the

Beaufort scale that's around a force 11

which is quite crazy and it's classified

as a violent storm now on average we had

between about 50 and 55 knots the 63 was

kind of the top level so this is still

classed as a whole

gale but the difference is and that why

I think we can't really rely on this

scale is with those forces of wind

you're expected to have between 9 and 13

meter waves we didn't have that we only

had three so I don't think we can 100%

rely on this scale to define what

whether we actually went through so then

I started looking at tornadoes and I

found out that the only difference

between a tornado and a waterspout is

that a waterspout is over water and it's

a basically a tornado over water and a

tornado only has occurs over land there

are three types of water spouts one is a

snow spout which involves snow and ice

so we didn't have that another one is a

non tornadic water spout which usually

occurs in coastal waters it normally

only lasts about 20 minutes and the wind

doesn't get above 63 miles an hour and

the last type of waterspout is a tornado

waterspout which our waterspout is

connected to severe thunderstorms so

with this knowledge because we had a

higher wind speeds it lasted much longer

than 20 minutes and we had a pretty

major thunderstorm going on at the same

time I think that we were in a tornado

waterspout which is pretty cool

interesting little facts in the 18th and

19th century

sailors genuinely believed that if you

shot a cannon into a water spout it

would disperse and you would survive so

I think that is a myth but Ryan wanted

to get a cannon on board so I think this

gives him a little bit more incentive to

do it maybe we can get one now so where

are we actually in any real danger well

when it was all going on and the boat

was literally on its side it really did

feel that we were gonna roll but I've

done the qualit research and it turns

out that it's really difficult to

capsize a sailboat with the wind that we

had it is possible but you have to also

have quite big waves so the wind can

push the boat over onto its side if you

go beam onto the swells so the swells

are not coming from behind the boat it's

coming from the side and you get a big

wave it could go over the boat and push

the boat all the way around and that is

when you roll but with the three meter

waves that we had it would have been

unlikely for us to actually capsize so

we weren't in danger of that which is

amazing even though it really did feel

like we were but we were in danger of

first of all getting thrown off the boat

because the boat was going absolutely

everywhere and the wind was so strong

and if that would have happened we would

have never have found the person so we

immediately put our life jackets on and

we clipped on so we were safe

papi was already downstairs so we shut

the hatch so that she was safe and no

water could get into the boat so with

regards to that danger it was a real

possibility but we did the right things

to make sure that we were safe and the

other real danger was because the

mainsail was out of control and banging

against the rigging it could have meant

that something were broken and fallen

and injured us that way so for example

with the sail bang in on that that

amount of pressure on our rigging the

rigging should be strong enough to

withstand that but you just never know

and if the rigging would have failed or

something

but have snapped or broken that would

been really bad the mainsheet

that controls the boom if that snapped

the boom would have them being free to

to flap around everywhere which would

have been really dangerous so when the

wind was really strong that was a

possibility but as soon as the wind died

down slightly Brian got on deck and

strapped the mainsail down which secured

that and kind of eliminated the risk of

that causing something to break which

could have been caused of an injury to

us so overall it was pretty mad weather

conditions it wasn't the norm and it was

really scary but it hasn't put us put us

off at all if anything it's made me

confident more confident after doing

this research because I didn't realize

how difficult it was to capsize a

sailboat I'm not going to get cocky

obviously but it has put my mind at ease

a little bit really we're really pleased

that none of us got hurt

Chelsea is damaged but not damaged

beyond repair it's gonna be a bit of a

long frustrating and journey to get her

back to normal but it's been a really

eye-opening experience relatively

positive and so yeah no stress