VIDEO: Getting hit by a waterspout

Dramatic footage of the moment the GREAT Britain team were hit by a tornado as they competed in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, which returns to London on July 12 after covering more than 40,000 miles between six continents over eleven months.

The film is from a fixed on-board camera attached to the mast looking down towards the stern. It shows the team in challenging conditions a week out of Australia heading towards the equator with heavy rain and squalls battering the fleet. The waterspout was pretty invisible in the conditions at the time and hit without warning, rolling the boat through 120 degrees pinning the mast down on the ocean’s surface in swirling winds over 100 knots.

Crew are thrown into the sea on their tethers and scrabble to hang onto the boat which starts to right itself as the tornado passes and is visible in the upper left hand side of the screen disappearing into the distance as the crew start to clamber back onto their feet.

Published on Jul 9, 2014.