BigN8
Jetboaters Admiral
- Messages
- 2,663
- Reaction score
- 5,990
- Points
- 397
- Location
- Corinth, TX
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2010
- Boat Model
- SX
- Boat Length
- 24
We anchor over in our normal cover with 2 other boats that are 26' and 27' long. About an hour or so goes by and my wife looks south and says, wow that cloud looks pretty dark over there.
First mistake, I let my friend look at the radar and report that it's a small cell and looks like it is going to miss us. This guy, bless his heart is always hopelessly optimistic. I should have known better. So we continue to hang out when all of the sudden it starts pouring. And I mean big fat raindrops like Forrest Gump talked about. Then the straight line winds hit. I swear the winds kicked up to 40-50 mph. I immediately started grabbing ski vests and required everyone to put on a vest and sinch it down. I unsecured the back bimini poles to pitch the bimini forward to try and shield us from the rain, but then the anchor let go and we started drifting so the boats turned broad side to the wind. The bimini is of absolutely no use to a side 40 mph wind! My buddy had the center boat and the only anchor. He uses one of those big Fortress Aluminum anchors that I believe is rated for about a 40' boat. It still was not holding all three boats, so we walked out on the bow of his boat and tried to let out more rope. This was impossible because there was to much tension on the rope that was used to tie up the boat on his port side. Lesson here is don't share a cleat with a boat line and an anchor line. If one is on top of the other it is a problem either way. I use the bow hook for an anchor attachment point, but this boat is not good for that due to the enclosed front cabin and not being able to reach over the front of the boat and get to the bow hook.
So we were slowly drfting out of the cove with the anchor catching intermittently. I would say the visibility from the down pour and the wind was about 50-100'. So we are huddled in our boat down on the floor and then a large gust hits the side of my boat. I was on the windward side of the storm. It literally lifted the side of the boat up what felt like a foot or so and tilted us toward my buddies boat in the middle. It may have been a combination of the swells with the wind but it freaked me out! At this point I started thinking, now I understand the news stories of the drowning victims when their boat capsized in a storm. I believe we had the potential to capsize in this storm had we not been tied up to the other boats.
I look aft and a can see the courtesy dock of Westlake park coming into view. It's OOC because the whole park is underwater and the ramp leading to it is underwater, but the dock is still there floating. We are drifting straight for the dock! I fire up my engines and turn hard right and give it about 25% or more throttle. I slowly turn all 3 boats and get us off the line that would drift us into the dock. I shut it down and then just hunker down.
It felt like the storm blew for about 20 minutes. In reality it was probably more like 10. Everything that did not go in the head storage was completely soaked, compartments filled, bilge pump kicking on about every 90 seconds.
A few people rode out the storm in my buddies cabin area in his Formula, but we could not traverse the swim decks with the blowing wind and rain safely, so my wife and kids just huddled on the carpet with towels over there heads.
I've been caught in some good wind storms, and a few of them we had time to separate the boats and drft apart and ride out the storm seperatley. This one came so fast and went from calm to blowing so fast there was not time to batten down the hatches. Could have maybe cut loose with a knife, but there was no danger of running a ground so we decided to ride it out together.
I'm not even sure a weather radio could have given us warning on this one. When we left the lake you could tell it had barely rained about 2 miles from where we were, so the storm was very small and isolated, it just happen to hit us dead center I guess. All I know is it kicked out assess! Had to take everything out of the boat to dry when we got back to the marina, including carpet.
First mistake, I let my friend look at the radar and report that it's a small cell and looks like it is going to miss us. This guy, bless his heart is always hopelessly optimistic. I should have known better. So we continue to hang out when all of the sudden it starts pouring. And I mean big fat raindrops like Forrest Gump talked about. Then the straight line winds hit. I swear the winds kicked up to 40-50 mph. I immediately started grabbing ski vests and required everyone to put on a vest and sinch it down. I unsecured the back bimini poles to pitch the bimini forward to try and shield us from the rain, but then the anchor let go and we started drifting so the boats turned broad side to the wind. The bimini is of absolutely no use to a side 40 mph wind! My buddy had the center boat and the only anchor. He uses one of those big Fortress Aluminum anchors that I believe is rated for about a 40' boat. It still was not holding all three boats, so we walked out on the bow of his boat and tried to let out more rope. This was impossible because there was to much tension on the rope that was used to tie up the boat on his port side. Lesson here is don't share a cleat with a boat line and an anchor line. If one is on top of the other it is a problem either way. I use the bow hook for an anchor attachment point, but this boat is not good for that due to the enclosed front cabin and not being able to reach over the front of the boat and get to the bow hook.
So we were slowly drfting out of the cove with the anchor catching intermittently. I would say the visibility from the down pour and the wind was about 50-100'. So we are huddled in our boat down on the floor and then a large gust hits the side of my boat. I was on the windward side of the storm. It literally lifted the side of the boat up what felt like a foot or so and tilted us toward my buddies boat in the middle. It may have been a combination of the swells with the wind but it freaked me out! At this point I started thinking, now I understand the news stories of the drowning victims when their boat capsized in a storm. I believe we had the potential to capsize in this storm had we not been tied up to the other boats.
I look aft and a can see the courtesy dock of Westlake park coming into view. It's OOC because the whole park is underwater and the ramp leading to it is underwater, but the dock is still there floating. We are drifting straight for the dock! I fire up my engines and turn hard right and give it about 25% or more throttle. I slowly turn all 3 boats and get us off the line that would drift us into the dock. I shut it down and then just hunker down.
It felt like the storm blew for about 20 minutes. In reality it was probably more like 10. Everything that did not go in the head storage was completely soaked, compartments filled, bilge pump kicking on about every 90 seconds.
A few people rode out the storm in my buddies cabin area in his Formula, but we could not traverse the swim decks with the blowing wind and rain safely, so my wife and kids just huddled on the carpet with towels over there heads.
I've been caught in some good wind storms, and a few of them we had time to separate the boats and drft apart and ride out the storm seperatley. This one came so fast and went from calm to blowing so fast there was not time to batten down the hatches. Could have maybe cut loose with a knife, but there was no danger of running a ground so we decided to ride it out together.
I'm not even sure a weather radio could have given us warning on this one. When we left the lake you could tell it had barely rained about 2 miles from where we were, so the storm was very small and isolated, it just happen to hit us dead center I guess. All I know is it kicked out assess! Had to take everything out of the boat to dry when we got back to the marina, including carpet.
