Boat owners count cost of gale

The wind died down and the sun came out yesterday morning allowing people to start cleaning up the mess and assessing the damage they suffered in Thursday's destructive gale force winds.

Several fishermen and boat owners, whose vessels were damaged by the violent sea, toiled to make repairs and those less fortunate struggled to fish them out of the water in St Julians, one of the areas worst affected by the bad weather.

Tony Muscat, known as Banis, owns a water sports business and stores his equipment in Spinola Bay. He said he suffered an estimated €16,305 (Lm7,000) in damage as the sea dragged away several of his boats and canoes, which he was trying to salvage yesterday morning.

Gejtu Borg, a full-time fisherman, said he had been berthing his boat in St Julians for the past 22 years. His years of experience at sea helped him save his boat as he knew what to expect from such weather.

His friend Paul Borg suffered minor damage to his boat. They recalled that, in 1988, there had been a similarly destructive storm but noted that Thursday's was more violent.

"Imagine, the waves were so high that we could not see across the bay," Mr Borg said.

They agreed that in order to avoid such havoc in the bay a better breakwater system was needed. "After all this is our livelihood," they said as they pointed to damaged boathouses and several slabs that had been ripped out of place by the sea.

Meanwhile, staff of restaurants situated in the bay cleaned up the debris that had accumulated on their property while tourists and curious onlookers gathered to witness the wreckage that had piled up in the bay.

Along the Sliema seafront, people walked along the promenade where some trees were battered. On the Strand, leading to Gżira an area where tiles had been dislodged by the sea was cordoned off .

On Thursday, gale force northeasterly winds uprooted trees and stirred up the sea, damaging several boats. One man's car was dragged away by the sea in Valletta and another man was injured when a water tank was blown in his direction in St Julians. No one was seriously injured.

The wind had such a devastating effect because of the very make-up of the Maltese islands.

With the cliffs dominating the west side of the island, most commercial areas are situated on the east where the shores are lower, a spokesman for the Meteorological Office explained.

Contacted yesterday, a number of insurance companies said it was too early to quantify damage, expecting claims to start coming in soon.