BB FANS

Times Online May 22, 2006
Timesonline

Brittany Ferries was forced to divert its flagship vessel to a port in northern France last night after it was hit by a freak wave that smashed a cabin window and flooded several cabins.

The 41,000-tonne Pont-Aven was sailing from Plymouth to the Spanish port of Santander through a force nine gale when it was hit by a wave thought to be 40ft high.

Most of the 1,149 passengers on the ship, which has 11 decks, were in the ship's restaurant or bar when the wave hit at 10.32pm. Britanny Ferries said the wave broke the window of an unoccupied cabin on deck six.

Stephen Tuckwell, a Brittany Ferries spokesman, said that five passengers and one crew member were treated by the ship doctors for minor injuries. "It was mostly bruising, the worst was a sprained ankle." he said. "They were knocked over as the wave hit."

The ship was passing Ouessant on the northwestern corner of France when the wave hit and was diverted to Roscoff, where she arrived at 5am local time this morning. Most of the passengers had their cars on the ferry and decided to carry on by road, but some preferred to return to the UK.

Mr Tuckwell said the wave was exceptional. "It's the first time in recent memory that it's happened. I certainly can't recall it happening before," he said.

Brittany Ferries said that the £100 million ferry was to sail to Brest for repairs but the company expected it back in service by the end of the week. The ferry, built in 2004, can take 650 cars and up to 2,400 passengers.

Ah the theory on Rogue waves is complicated, its a known problem but simply up untill recently not understood by scientist.

As we know waves are formed ny the action of the wind on the sea, and the effect increased by intensity of the wind, the time period, then the dpth of the water and the tides. Wind against the dirction of a tide will create larger waves , and existings waves in shollow water will rise up higher.

Unlike tidal waves. normal waves are just the movement of the top percentage of the water so only in really shollow water will the wave increase, where as a tidal wave is the whole body of sea moving.

As to what happened to the ferry, it is a rekoned mathematicaly that these freak large waves are more common that we would think. and are not a result of shallowing water as had been the the first thought. More a prigressuve variation that occurs for some unkmown reason in a wave pattern. In a sea hight where the waves are say 10 foot from trouth to oeak a mommoth 50 foot wave could suddenly occur.

As a fact the transatlantic ships such as the Qe2 are designed with this problem in mind. the steel used on them is 3 times thicker than thouse of other linners used in more protected places like the Med. Indeed the QE2 itself has been hit by more than one in recent memory.

The reason wht these waves are so destructive is that they dont give a ship the chance to float over them, instead of being a wave with a trough their litraly a wall of water that crashes onto eth deck of the ship. Some ships have there steering house wiped out as the glass crashes in and the electrics fry when they get wet, and in the worse case because they cant steer, they cant helm into the storm and the storm waves finish it off. There is also the theory that loads of ships lost for unexplained reason with no SOS calls . simply had their backs broken by the weight of sea water and went straight to the bottom.

If you ever sat on a beach or surfed or swam in the sea. you cant have failed to notice that every 7 or so waves is much larger then any of the others ..

and the moral of the story is.............be a land lubber like me

Surfers hope to catch the seventh wave, thanks for explaining it blags

Yarrrrrrrrrr... stay on the land.....or fly.

Calrissian: He ain't gettin on no boat...fool

My most terrifying experience on the waves...

annual trip to Ireland..as we travel 5 hours to get to a port,4 hours cross sea then another 4 hours by road...always looking to shorten the journey

hence..the lure of the CAT...

However,somehow the captain thought it advisable to set off in a f4..into the headwind,into a depression that was deepening....I sat on deck with my 5 yr old(others had already taken to lying on floor with rosary beads as it becomes apparent this is stupid ).we arre now in a f6 and in between port.We are hit side on by a 20ft wave(ie drenched)...get inside the craft,and just lie down and count down the minutes til we get harbourside...