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King Tide Storm Damages Inverness Yacht Club Pier
It’s just a pier, right? Though to sailors and members of a yacht club, a simple pier is so much more. The pier has launched a thousand dreams in kids who’ve learned to sail, hosted endless racers, and 20 years ago set this month’s Good Jibes podcast guest on a course toward buying a catamaran for $2. The Saturday storm, combined with the king tide, did damage to coastal facilities all over Northern California. The Inverness Yacht Club, on the shores of Tomales Bay, is one of those that suffered damage.
Skip Allan wrote on the Singlehanded Sailing Society bulletin board, “The tide was scheduled to be one of the highest of the year at plus 6.6 feet. What was not scheduled was a low-pressure vortex with gale-force winds coinciding with the high tide. The northwest gale blew down the length of Tomales Bay, also oriented northwest/southeast, pushing a lot of water along with the flooding tide. The low barometric pressure also allowed the tide to rise even more. The result was a high tide of plus 8.1 feet, rather than 6.6, that flooded the lower floor and boat yard knee deep.
“The below photo taken about 9:15 a.m. Saturday shows IYC’s pier as it is being torn adrift. Adrift to windward are the remains of the neighbor’s pier, which was completely destroyed.”
“Running perpendicular to this high tide and current was the Inverness Yacht Club pier, 250 feet long, with its two small-boat hoists. It was not even close. All this extra water picked up the pier deck for its entire length and floated it off its pilings. The pier deck now lies floating nearby like an undulating sea serpent while a fully committed work crew is attempting to reposition the pier back on its pilings. Unlikely they will be successful without a barge and crane. But don’t underestimate the sheer determination of IYC members.”
It’s a huge challenge for all clubs to keep the infrastructure intact so sailors and sailing programs can stay active. The Inverness Yacht Club is home to a terrific junior program, a very active 110 fleet, and winner of the 2018 Lipton Cup, and is where Terry Castleman, guest on this week’s episode of Good Jibes, learned to sail.
It won’t be easy, but we hope the club can get it all back in place for summer sailing.
This short clip taken at Marshall shows Tomales Bay at the height of Saturday morning’s storm. Wind estimate = hurricane force. https://www.threads.net/@thewestmarinfeed/post/DDkU6DHykrb/media.
Good news for Inverness YC is through amazing determination by Port Captain Milly, Commodore Seth, Engineer Bren, insurance advocate Ben, and the rest of the crew, repairs will soon begin on repositioning their dislocated pier back on its pilings. None to soon, as IYC is one of the few locations on Tomales Bay allowing emergency responders access.
Thanks for this article, dear John, and your comments, dear Skip, it was a very sad day for us, and the whole Tomales Bay waterfront community, as there was significant damage everywhere. Gratefully, we have lots of fine people in place to remedy the situation and work will begin very shortly, in order to mitigate further damage and get the pier back and available to the Fire Department and the membership