During the night and early morning we still hoped this cyclone would veer south and miss us, by 4:30 in the morning with wind increasing I picked up friends who did not wish to stay in their old house and made a dash by car heading into town having to drive off road through mud to avoid a fallen large fig tree which completely blocked the road, lucky my vehicle is a 4WD. As we drove we could hear trees crashing behind us. I almost left it too late for this dash to shelter. We crossed the bridge into the main CBD then not long after large trees fell across both sides of this bridge blocking access. We sheltered as planned in the semi underground carpark of a supermarket along with about another 12 carloads of cyclone refugees.

The cyclone was at it’s peak, worst winds between 7 to 8am.

During the eye of the cyclone I ventured out, walked the CBD of Innisfail observing all the destruction.

I had to move the car to another position after the eye of the cyclone as the change of wind direction.After the cyclone it rained heavily which flooded the Johnstone river. TRIAD floated off, was washed from mangroves opposite where it was moored, out to sea, or that’s what I was later told.

Editors note; This is where your editor came in as I took the picture of Triad on page 14 (not knowing the identity of the craft at the time) from flying fish Point soon after Larry passed.

The Army came in with a large 12 person inflatable and 2 large Army ducks. I was promised help but it didn’t eventuate. The army went up and down the river, plus they had helicopters flying everywhere, yet for 5 days I was not even advised where TRIAD was located. Later I was told the army was just there to save lives, but by a miracle no one was killed, or not directly attributed to injury from the cyclone, one person died from heart attack.

People told me TRIAD was washed out to sea, as it wouldn’t sink, not like a mono yacht. Then later I was advised it had floated down to sand banks at the middle of the mouth of the river where people in tinny’s were boarding TRIAD and looting everything they could.

Five days since I first saw TRIAD after the cyclone I managed to fight my way through a jungle of fallen trees in the last 500 metres of still uncleared road to the beach at the end of Coquette Point Rd and walked a long way along the beach at low tide and found TRIAD washed up against mangrove trees on the south bank of the river mouth.

Editors note; The road mentioned above was a jumble of debris. I went as far as I could in an attempt to investigate the wreck but found the way impassable .

Whilst I was there I salvaged what I could carry, though all the expensive items had already been stolen. Whilst there I was watching 3 people in a canoe with a dog. They waited till I left and next morning when I returned the long main sheet rope, blocks etc, had been looted.

Then next day I laid out another new anchor and chain trying to hold TRIAD off the mangrove trees, as TRIAD floated at high tide.

Next day when I arrived I found looters had stolen this new anchor and chain. I guess it was too much for them to leave behind even though they must have seen it was there for a reason.

I undid all mast fittings which by then had fallen into the sand with the step bottom end bashing a hole in the cabin port side. I also took the boom away using a 4WD tractor on the beach.

I paid for a salvage guy in a modified trawler from Cairns to help, but he didn’t listen to me when I said you have to pull the mast out of the way first as the top of the mast was laying in the sand with the bottom step end jamming into the cabin. It was a high tide, and TRIAD was floating and moving up and down in the swells, yet low in the water. His salvage trawler was rolling about in the swells and he was worried of going aground, so all he wanted to do was attach a rope to the new anchor winch I had installed on deck and he tried pulling TRIAD sideways against the mast jammed into the cabin which didn’t work, his rope came off and he gave up, cost me money for nothing.

I had to use a chain saw to cut off mangrove trees and branches stuck on the front deck and in the back hatch. At high tide TRIAD still floated and moved about in swells. Waves broke over TRIAD so all the work was done at low tide attempting to dig out the sand and debris to salvage TRIAD.

The cyclone stripped all trees of leaves which floated down the river and then washed ashore in some places pilled up to 6 foot tall mountains of this leaf and vegetation matter, and it became swept into TRIAD.

I spent days trying to dig this out by hand with a small garden shovel into buckets then carrying it out dumping it over the side but I hardly made an impression, as it was over 3 foot deep inside the main hull, covering the engine room floor up and over the cockpit floor level. In those days I only removed about 6 to 8 inches in the cockpit and above the engine.

Two yacht friends then came to help and that day the winds and tide had blown away a lot of the outside leaf matter. We removed 2 sections of the then 3 pieces of mast which was damaged pulling it out of the sand by the 4WD tractor even though we dug out so much sand from around the mast.

The last high tide for months was due so it was imperative to float TRIAD off next day.

 As mentioned, often the tides and winds changed the leaf and vegetation mulch washed down.

Next day when we arrived, first I bogged the 4WD tractor up to the axles as the tides and leaf matter had changed again and a further mountain of this vegetation was everywhere, it was so soft under the sand with this mulch like vegetation you could hardly walk as your feet sunk to near your knees.

With 2 yachtie friends plus 6 prisoners on work release we struggled to walk the rest of the way to TRIAD. The boat could hardly be seen, it was covered in this leaf matter, and vegetation again, only worse than before.

We worked hard and dug a lot out, the prisoners did a great job with shovels and by hand until lunch time. We found damage under the wings, where my bunk was, there was nothing. The underwing area collapsed, I’d fall straight through to the sand, or into the sea if the tide was in.

The 2 yachtie friends helped me and I rushed to town buying sheets of ply and sikaflex, screws etc. We worked covering all holes and complete underwing deck until after 4pm with the tide rushing in to complete the fix up job to keep water and leaf matter from coming in again.

Next day I returned and it was all washed away, all the materials and work, money spent, all was wasted. You can’t beat the forces of nature, TRIAD was open to the elements where it was washed up. From then on I concentrated on removing anything I could salvage.

Three times I had approached General Peter Cosgrove who promised help, but unfortunately neither the army, nor any of the other services were able to help in time. The Volunteer Marine Rescue boat was still stuck washed up into the mangroves, where later these mangroves had to be cut down to extract their V.M.R. Boat which was then taken to Cairns for repairs.

At high tides the waves and swells came in over the sand bar, bashing TRIAD against mangrove trees, some large which by then had broken branches, some I had cut off, but the remainder and stumps did all the damage gouging holes into TRIAD’s main hull.

I first removed the drums off the new winches so they wouldn’t be stolen again.

Removing the winches was a tough job. Trouble was I did too good a job with epoxy on the bolts and nuts after previous winches were stolen. So I tried a chainsaw, trying to cut out that section but the original builder had installed stainless steel bars between the ply to strengthen the winch area, which didn’t help the saw’s chain.

I had to chip away at the epoxy to undo the bolts and nuts to salvage the new winches.

Next the whole stern broke off, just behind the rear cross beam. Then the whole bow broke off just under the front cross beam.

Another day I came at low tide to find the whole cabin and roof was wrecked, blown apart like a bomb went off, with the roof upside down lying on the sand.

The centre of the main hull with diesel motor is now buried under sand, cannot be seen. The 2 main crossbeams are still intact which shows the strength of them, even though they have been bashed around, and part of the bow is about all that can be seen of the wreckage.

So this famous racing multihull yacht TRIAD is TOTALLY DESTROYED!!!

TRIAD was uninsured as few insurance companies insure tri’s and ferro yachts.

During the storm, my mooring didn’t move. Basically the front big anchoring bollard on TRIAD gave way, bent large ¾ inch stainless bolts that were through the bollard and deck into an “S” shape and the nuts/threaded part of the bolts on top disappeared.

There were many boats damaged or wrecked by cyclone Larry. A Trawler sunk at the town main jetty. Another trawler sunk in the river, ended up near where TRIAD was moored. A large power cruise boat was washed up over the bank near the town slipway and destroyed. The Mourilyan harbour Volunteer Marine Rescue boat was blown up on shore into the mangroves.

Almost every second building in Innisfail had major damage or roof lost.

The friends I drove to town with for shelter at 4:30am on the morning of the cyclone lost their house, wrecked by the cyclone. They may not have survived if they stayed in that old house.

Then working in mud and debris trying to clean up after the cyclone, I came down with Barmah Forest disease, and, just for a double dose, also Leptospirosis (which can be fatal) this affected me for months where I couldn’t do much at all.

One day I may buy a catamaran to replace TRIAD, not considering another tri due to insurance hassles and cruise further north to Lizard Island or beyond as I intended sailing TRIAD to Lizard Island last year but cyclone Larry destroyed all my plans.