The squall that struck a junior sailing regatta this week was alarming, but was the reaction excessive, asks Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
Williwaws are the native-American term for those sudden, violent gusts of wind which can sweep down from mountainous areas to coasts on high latitude and wreak havoc on the water. Recorded frequently in sea areas such as the Straits of Magellan, they are not a regular feature of our meteorological system.
"We do get squalls, perhaps not of that intensity, but they tend to be associated with thunderstorms or cold weather systems," says Hugh Daly, Met Éireann's forecasting service duty manager. What occurred out in Dún Laoghaire during Thursday's junior sailing regatta was not unexpected and not some freak of nature, he believes. The service had been forecasting a gale warning from 4am.
That a fleet of dinghies should have put to sea outside the harbour, and that an entire emergency plan had to be activated when a number of boats capsized, will be widely discussed out on the waterfront, overshadowing chat about Ireland's biggest sailing event this year - the four-day Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta with 500 entries from 10 different countries, which starts on Thursday.
It will be the subject of a detailed analysis by the Irish Sailing Association (ISA), which is keen to study what lessons can be learned for its members. More seriously, it will also be the focus of an official inquiry by the State's Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB), which does not normally handle situations where there are no casualties or no pollution.
It is to the credit of the emergency services that there were no casualties, no serious injuries and the rescue of the junior fleet was accomplished within 2½ hours, according to David Branigan, press officer with the Dún Laoghaire lifeboat. As Patrick Blaney, principal officer in charge of the Royal St George junior international class regatta, said in his statement on Thursday evening, most of the 141 competing sailors sailed ashore unassisted, while others were taken in some of the 22 rescue boats the club had on duty. There were also three support yachts on the water - in total double the recommended ISA ratio of one rescue craft for every 10 dinghies. "All of the sailors have, for several years, participated in club training courses which are approved by the ISA and they have been trained to cope with these conditions," Blaney said.
"During the second race a sudden squall from the south hit the fleet causing multiple capsizes (boats turning over)," he said. "I made the decision to abandon the race and initiate our rescue plan. In the light of expected worsening conditions I decided to declare an emergency. The club contacted the emergency services, including the Dún Laoghaire lifeboat, who came immediately to our assistance. The Coast Guard, the Air Sea Rescue, the Garda, the ambulance services, the fire brigade and the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Authority were also called."
Why this level of response was necessary isn't clear, as preliminary official inquiries have indicated that the rescue boats did their work - starting with the upturned vessels furthest out and sweeping in to assist those closer to shore. Most of the competitors were kitted out in wetsuits, would have capsized many many times before during their sailing careers, and wouldn't have been allowed on the water without buoyancy aids. Yet there were reports that some who only wanted a hot shower on landing were being cajoled into ambulances and rushed to hospital.
If the competitors were equipped with safety tags, as recommended by the ISA, there should have been minimal difficulty in matching up juniors at sea with names confirmed on race lists. The ISA is expected to examine this as part of its own analysis, and this aspect may also be focused on by the marine surveyor with the MCIB.
A remaining question will be interpretation of the detailed sea area information broadcast four times a day. Met Éireann rejects the suggestion that its small craft warnings err on the side of caution. "We're issuing warnings for potential winds, which may or may not occur in every bay, and our focus is on the pressure pattern," Daly explains. These small craft notices are for winds of force six and over in coastal areas up to 10 miles out to sea. Gale warnings, which replace them, are for winds of force eight and over. Ironically, the small craft warnings were introduced some years ago by Met Éireann at the request of the rapidly developing marine leisure industry.