Sven Yrvindvideo
They don't make storms like they used to.
14 July 2026 · 9 min · 2K views
Lone figure on cliff as giant wave explodes below.
What this video covers
Sven Yrvind recounts three extreme storm encounters from his Cape Horn campaigns between 1969 and 1980, drawing on personal logs and photographs to argue that storms were more severe in the 1960s–1980s than in the decade before this recording.▶ 3:13 On 22 September 1969, a 68-knot storm struck Göteborg while he was in England.▶ 0:33 In November 1972, a depression in the Kiel Canal near Brunsbüttel produced a peak gust of 132 knots (245 km/h); he watched a large Indian cargo ship heel 30 degrees and lose steering, crashing into other vessels.▶ 2:04 In 1974, south of Cape Horn aboard First Breeze — built in his mother's basement — a wave capsized the boat, forcing him to abandon the Horn attempt.▶ 4:47 He deployed a tyre drogue, survived a pitch-poling near-miss, and diverted to Tristan da Cunha, where he spent four months and taught mathematics to the island's 293 residents.▶ 6:11 He notes that wind force scales with the square of speed, making 132 knots four times as destructive as 64 knots.▶ 4:10 His current high-latitude build is designed to handle conditions at least that severe.
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