A WIND turbine at the Sailing academy has been blown down – by the wind.

The turbine in the academy’s car park was levelled in the early hours of yesterday as the Portland coastline was lashed by winds of up to 55 miles per hour.

Fortunately no-one was injured when the turbine was brought down and no vehicles in the car park were damaged.

Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy’s chief executive John Tweed said wind strength on the Portland coast hit its peak in the early hours of Thursday.

He said: “The wind turbine installed as part of the venue’s commitment to environmentally friendly power generation was damaged yesterday morning due to high winds of 48 knots experienced along the Dorset coast.

“There is no damage to the academy or its surroundings and plans are currently underway to repair the equipment.”

He added: “It’s extraordinary and it’s extremely fortunate that no-one was around to be injured by this.

“People from Scottish and Southern Energy are on their way to repair it.

“We will have to be very convinced of its strength before it goes back up.”

A spokesman for Scottish and Southern Energy said: “I can confirm that the damaged micro wind turbine at the sailing academy was installed by engineers working on behalf of our contracting business SEC.

“It is too early to speculate how the damage occurred we will be investigating thoroughly.

“A team of engineers from SEC are on site to thoroughly investigate the incident and ensure the equipment is removed safely.

“This is a very rare incident and we will be working closely with the turbine manufacturer and the sailing academy to understand precisely how the damage occurred.”

The downed turbine was cordoned off by sailing academy staff yesterday to ensure it caused no problems for visitors.