Jeanneau conquers real Sydney tornado

No doubt you have heard about the tornado that wreaked havoc and destruction on Sydney last Wednesday December 16. There were a lot of OMGs going around cyberspace as one of the most dangerous of all storm cells unleashed its fury around Kurnell, tearing rooves off houses and factories and causing serious localised flooding.

But at this time of year, hell hath not fury like a new boatowner without his pride and joy. So it was into the fray for Matt Willett from his eponymous Sydney boat dealership with a delivery of a new Jeanneau NC11 into Port Hacking. The owner was aboard and he hadn’t owned a boat before. Talk about the deep end… thankfully it was not.

As the super cell thunderstorm loomed up ahead, Matt snapped a quick pic and posted on his Facebook page saying: "Not the sunshine we had earlier in the week but the Jeanneau NC11 is handling the conditions well on the way south to its new home in Port Hacking."

The nothing...

Meantime, the Sydney media was going nuts with news of the wild storm and tornado warnings were spreading like wildfire across the web. Matt says after the photo was taken he drove into the weather and there was this eerie feeling akin to a cyclone.

"In my navy days I’ve been through cyclones and this was the same. I kept trying to remember which was the best quarter to be on in a cyclone. Then we lost our course for a minute. So I regained the helm. My biggest worry was something bearing down on us. You couldn’t see ahead," he recounts.

Soon after, the weather experts were saying that it’s lucky no-on was a few kilometres off the coast of Kurnell as that’s where the super cell was most intense. No-one, that is, except Matt and the owner of the brand-new NC11.

"We had more than 50 knots and when we lost course for a minute we copped a wave beam-on," Matt recounts, showing how the boat went up on its ear. "But then when we got to Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, the sun was out and people were drinking in the beer garden."

Nothing was broken and the NC11 made it through unscathed. The take home message aside from checking the weather is as follows...

Boating Tip: In the Southern Hemisphere, that part to the left of the storm track (when you are facing in the same direction that the storm is moving) is called the dangerous semicircle.

The wind speed is greater in the dangerous semicircle due to the pressure gradient, augmented by the forward motion of the storm. The direction of the wind and sea can carry your vessel into the path of the storm or to the forward part of the semicircle.

So if you are caught out and find yourself heading into a storm, tornado or cyclone, keep to left of it if you can. Or just don’t go unless it’s a Christmas delivery and, adds Matt, you are on a Jeanneau.