Live aboard Hurricane planning

[Group9]

I'll say it again, there are yards that know what they are doing in blocking a boat for hurricanes, and those who do the bare minimum, and everything in between. Caveat emptor. At least around these parts, you are way safer up in a good yard than in the water. A yard that can't take a 6 foot surge? Yikes! Not to mention, it has to be protected from the major wind directions that hurricanes throw at you.

We had a ski boat that sank in our driveway, on it's trailer, in Katrina. I had the plug in, and had tied it to the trailer, and had lines to trees in our yard, where it could float up, and back down, planning on a ten foot storm surge at worst.

Unfortunately, we got twenty three feet, and I'm pretty sure the lines I tied it off with, pulled it under.

 

[rgano]

I'll say it again, there are yards that know what they are doing in blocking a boat for hurricanes, and those who do the bare minimum, and everything in between. Caveat emptor. At least around these parts, you are way safer up in a good yard than in the water. A yard that can't take a 6 foot surge? Yikes! Not to mention, it has to be protected from the major wind directions that hurricanes throw at you.

I agree that 6-foot surge and some wind protection would seem prerequisites for any yard where boats are hauled to avoid hurricane effects, but when cat five comes knocking, all bets are off. Such was the case with Miller Marine here 11 miles as the crow flies inland from the Gulf when Micheal's 150-plus MPH winds knocked over a number of boats (all sail) causing damage to numerous other power boats. They have never had such an incident since 1990 when I first moved here.

 

[BrianSmith]

We live aboard, currently in Sint Maarten. Last season in the Bahamas. Then, our plan was to always be within a couple easy days cruising from a really good hurricane hole. Never had to even think about doing anything last year, though.

This year, we had one Tropical Wave threaten our area, but it fizzled out before it reached the islands. Dorian was a TS and passed almost 300 nm south of us. There's one out there now that's possibly threatening, but very low chance of development. Our plan: as soon as something looks like it's heading our way with any potential to become a hurricane of more than Cat 1, we head for Grenada. About 400nm away. Stop along the way if the weather reports say we're far enough south.

This will be our last August-September on the boat in the hurricane zone. Too stressful, too disruptive. We'll either be somewhere with virtually no hurricane risk, or we'll haul out and go do our stateside visiting for a few months.

 

[Group9]

You have to have a plan, and you have to stick to it. And, it gets harder to do that after lots of false alerts. Our plan, when we're at home, is that the moment a hurricane hits or forms, anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico, no matter where it is predicted to go, we start preparing our boat to be moved to our pre-selected hurricane hole (a bend in a bayou about ten miles north of the gulf where we can tie it off to sturdy trees that also provide a wind break. Once we are in any part of the cone, it gets moved.

I will admit, it gets harder and harder to stick with that plan the more times we have moved it for nothing.

 

[rgano]

Yeah, having to be ready to move 400 miles to Grenada sounds ok for a little while as the adventure begins, but I do see the point about it being a wearing proposition season after season. Like everybody along the Gulf with a boat larger than will fit on a roadworthy trailer, I begin storm preps as soon as potential threats develop. If I move soon enough that could be 123 miles or if a bit later, it can be a couple of miles to shelter. Now that all the potentially damaging trees in this area have been blown down by Hurricane Michael, I will concentrate on local areas in canals and bayous using a combination of anchors and lines ashore. I majority of the US big boat owners who lost vessels in Dorian had no real plan of evasion simply based on the numbers lost. Risk analysis was flawed at the extreme end based more on hope than reality.

 

[Group9]

Risk analysis was flawed at the extreme end based more on hope than reality.

Yep, hoping nothing bad happens, aint' really much of a plan.