Even in midsummer, strong storms are nothing unusual in the Mediterranean. Even in Croatia and the Balearic Islands, typical areas that are often recommended to first-time charterers, skippers need to be prepared for them. And yet two storms in early July and late August this summer left a trail of devastation across the north of Croatia and the west of Mallorca. Dozens of boats sank, ran aground or were damaged, and crews had to be rescued or towed in.
A closer analysis of the events shows that there appear to be two factors that caused this to happen. Firstly, in both cases, cold fronts met enormously heated land masses, as the countries bordering the Mediterranean experienced an exceptionally long period of heat in July and August. Secondly, it became apparent that many crews were ill-prepared for the storm. This was despite the fact that at least the one in Croatia had been forecast very accurately and storm warnings were issued in good time. However, they were not announced by all the weather information sources used by the sailors on site!
We asked YACHT weather expert Dr Michael Sachweh to analyse what happened, and sailors who were caught out by the storm report on how they fared, what mistakes they made and why it happened. Now in the new YACHT No. 24/12.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
