On the night of the 8th of October, Hayling Island was hit by a catastrophic miniature tornado that spiralled unexpectedly and swiftly swept across the island, leaving devastating consequences in its path.
One place in particular that was affected by this bizarre storm was Hayling Island Sailing Club, which, located on Sandy Point, is a continual hive of activity, home to many different classes of sailing boats and hosting events and competitions throughout the year.
In an event of extreme misfortune, the miniature tornado which swept across the island struck right in the centre of the boat park, making its way through the grounds of the sailing club and leaving disastrous levels of damage behind it. In particular, the club’s fleet of 29ers- two-person high-performance sailing skiffs, sailed generally by the youth of the club- was heavily affected.
The storm swept through the area where these boats were tied down to chains in the ground, which are put in place for the event of strong winds, in order to protect the boats from damage. Yet it seems that on this occasion, these normal safety precautions were simply not enough, and the tornado managed to wrench the chains from the ground and wreak havoc amongst the carefully parked boats, blowing many on top of each other in a crushing stack; snapping masts; damaging hulls; even managing to blow several of these roughly 74kg boats into a large bush situated in the boat park and up the railings of the club stairs!
When asked how she felt upon arriving at the sailing club the next morning, Sarah Mitchell, Vice Commodore of Sailing, says, “I was sent pictures at 6:30am but was still not prepared for the devastation that met me when I arrived on site- boats literally piled 3 deep!”.
Thousands of pounds worth of damage was done to the boats, leaving their owners understandably devastated and forcing many to cancel their sailing plans for the foreseeable future until their boats have been repaired. Fifteen-year-old Freya Philips, whose boat was badly damaged in the storm, says, “It was so unexpected and destructive, and it massively disrupted the sailing of myself and so many of my friends whose boats were also made unusable by the damage.”.
Yet, on the positive side of things, in a miraculous display of club community, members of the sailing club banded together to help and, on the very same day that the damage was discovered, a party of over 15 people made their way down to the sailing club, some travelling hours to get there in order to aid with the clear up alongside the club’s marine team, and to help the owners of these dinghies in any way they could by retrieving items that had blown away and identifying the damage done to each boat in order to inform their owners. “We soon had a small group together, donning high-viz jackets, and we began to unpick the boats from each other. It took all day!” says Sarah.
Although the destruction was heart-breaking to behold, it is admirable how many people took the time to lend a helping hand, and the end result was a wonderful example of what can be achieved by a hard-working team and of the strong sense of community that is revealed by catastrophic events such as this.
