News & Views for Southern Sailors - Southwinds Magazine

zine Seaworthy (available at$10/year from www.boatus.com).The group recentlycame out with itspamphlet on hurricane protectioncreating a concisereport on hurricane preparations.At 12 pages, it islong enough to providevaluable information andshort enough to absorbwithout lengthy reading.The guide is for both sailand powerboats.The hurricane preparationguide first discusseshow to create a plan and what to expect from a storm in surge,wind, waves, rainfall and tornadoes—and when to take action.It then goes on to the various methods to secure your boat indifferent places: ashore, at a dock, at a mooring, at anchor, in ahurricane hole, on a trailer, on davits and lifts, and in storageracks. The guide also has a section discussing chafe, reducingwindage, cleats and chocks, lines, fenders and more.There is also a worksheet that one can copy or tear outto help guide one through the list of things to do in yourboat preparation.Also included is a discussion on preparing marinas andmarina plans before the storm and an article on what to doafter the storm if your boat is damaged.The guide is available at the BoatU.S. Web site for hurricanes,www.boatus.com/hurricanes.Letter From BoatU.S.:Hurricane Tie-DownsFirst, I would like to applaud your ongoing efforts to educateyour readers on the best ways to prepare a boat for ahurricane. It’s a complex topic, and all too often it’s ignoreduntil after hurricane season. I’d like to comment on theSOUTHWINDS article (“Storing Your Boat on Land”) in theAugust 2006 issue. The writer says his boat survivedHurricane Isabel in 2003 at Port Annapolis Marina inAnnapolis, MD, with no tie-downs. He notes that none ofthe boats at Port Annapolis had tie-downs and none fellover. The author concludes that, while he prefers them, “Thejury’s out on whether tie-downs work or not.”Hurricane Isabel was actually a tropical storm by thetime it reached Annapolis. Damage in the area was almostalways the result of surge and not the wind. In a bona-fidehurricane, tie-downs have proven to be very effective. Usingscrew anchors, as noted in the article, offer some help,depending on the type of soil and depth of the anchors. Thebest tie-downs, however, are secured to eyebolts set in concretepavement. All of the boats at Sebastian River Marina inFlorida survived Hurricane Jeanne’s 125 mph winds usingthis technique. Not a one was damaged. During the samehurricane, boats at the nearby Hinckley yard in Stuart, FL,were secured to concrete deadweight anchors, similar to thetype used for moorings. I think only three or four of themarina’s 178 boats were damaged.I recently talked to the manager at Marina Puerto delRey in Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Georges destroyedmany of their boats stored ashore in 1999, the marinainstalled two long strips of poured concrete. Boats are nowpositioned parallel to the strips and then secured with galvanizedwire to eyebolts set in the concrete. The technique isrelatively inexpensive and workable at almost any marinawith a storage area. I hope it doesn’t take too many morestorms for the benefits of tie-downs and concrete to becomeapparent to more marina and boat owners. It works.Bob AdrianceEditor, SeaworthyA BoatU.S. Marine Insurance publicationBob, I too have heard of those successes and believe that dry-landstorage with tie-downs for sailboats can be extremely effective insaving boats under very strong storms. Few studies have been doneon this, and it would be beneficial for someone to do one. PerhapsBoatU.S. would like to pursue such a study. We are asking any ofour readers who have experience with tie-downs to send us their storiesso we can share this information with BoatU.S. and others.Steve MorrellEditorSOUTHWINDS Web Site Hurricane PagesVisit the SOUTHWINDS hurricane pages at www.southwindsmagazine.comfor stories and articles on how tosave your boat during a storm, tips, links to other Websites, great weather links for hurricanes and more. ThisWeb site is becoming the best save-youNews & Views for Southern Sailors SOUTHWINDS October 2006 35