A Cork Harbour houseboat resident has told of his shock at seeing a “tornado” whipping towards him on Tuesday afternoon (21 May).

As Echo Live reports, Gavin Higgins was watching TV below deck on his converted classic RNLI lifeboat in Drake’s Pool when he was drawn to his cabin by a loud boom.

“It was a lovely day and I thought it was thunder, but I came up into my cabin and I saw this tornado making its way toward me,” Higgins says.

Video shot by passers-by shows the waterspout — the term for a whirlwind that forms over a body of water — whipping across the normally tranquil anchorage.

Luckily for Higgins, his houseboat the Lilly Wainright was unscathed in the incident.

“I always wanted to retire to Crosshaven and now I have,” the Doncaster native added. “I’m at home here, although I don’t know why God sent a tornado after me!”

Ireland is not known for such extreme weather events, but last December a tornado dealt significant damage to a number of moored motor cruisers in Co Leitrim, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The damaging tornado which tore a narrow path through County Leitrim towards lunchtime yesterday (Sunday) may have very conspicuously swept roofs off buildings while flattening many trees. But as conditions settled back into a grey winter's afternoon and the visibility improved, boat people were astonished to find that some moored boats in the area - some quite substantial boats at that - had been overturned as they floated in their supposedly secure marina berths.

The boat numbers affected when all areas are accounted for are still being collated, but at the moment, the consolation is that the tornado path seems to have been quite narrow, though the high concentration of boats home-berthed in the area may yet result in a significant figure.

Above and below) A cream-hulled Aquafibre 12-metre (circa 40ft) motorcruiser weighing approximately 10 tonnes is capsized on her mooring in Leitrim

The Civil Defence has put a boom in place to try and contain any diesel spillage.

The Leitrim jetty is badly damaged after the tornado

NEW ZEALAND EXPERIENCE OF MOORED FISHING BOAT CAPSIZED

As for motorboats on moorings or otherwise secured being capsized by rogue wind blasts, a number of cases have been documented. A notable one is that of a large ocean-going trawler on a mooring in the mountain-surrounded harbour of Wellington, New Zealand. The stability of such vessels with their often large amounts of top-hamper is much increased when they are underway, but being completely still out on moorings makes them sitting ducks, particularly when a freak mountainside-accelerated athwartships squall strikes seemingly out of nowhere.

This is what happened in Wellington. Observers saw the moored trawler disappearing into an impenetrable wall of spray and spume as the squall engulfed her, and when it cleared relatively quickly, the ship was upside-down and sinking rapidly.

After its World Championship in Carnac, France at the hands of Mr. Paul Bastard (France), the International Tornado Class Association has announced him as the official Tornado Multihull Class Race Officer.

Paul Bastard has been an international judge and race officer of World Sailing since 1987 and technical representative in the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens, Olympic games. Sailors and collaborators praised his work as an excellent competition manager and sporting event organiser. From now on he will be the key person in conducting high quality Tornado Championships on and off the water.
“Today is a big day, we have been able to bind one of the highest qualified Technical Delegates and International Race officers to our class. We will profit from Paul’s experience, future Tornado championships will be exceptional.” said Jürgen Jentsch, President of International Tornado Class Association looking forward to the next 2016 World Sailing Tornado World and Global Mixed Youth Championships in Lindau, Lake of Constanz, Germany from the 10th to 17th of June.