Salvage, Bahamas style...

[yachtsmanbill]

TH... where did you duck into? Slidell was really wiped out and youre just west of that arent you? ws

[ThirdHatt]

Yes, Slidell is in the same parish (county) as us. My boats rode it out here at the dock I had just built the year before. I got good advice to use big thick pilings driven deep and left tall combined with a wide slip to weather storms and it turns out it worked great. ZERO damage to the new-to-me 58YF and a few very minor stress cracks behind the port fwd rubrail on the 41TC that I was about to sell. It was port side to with the nearest stbd dock 100' away so with a couple of 100' lines kept it sprung apparently ALMOST out of contact with the dock at the most vigorous of movements. I consider that zero damage from such a big storm. My new 700' fence, yard, garage, etc were trashed but I was one of the lucky ones. I have never seen so many good boats get ruined so quickly. They were EVERYWHERE!

I hope the owners of that Bahamas salvage boat got off okay.

[captddis]

Byron,
Just curious, How wide is the slip for the 58 and how tall are your pilings ? I Have a 21' wide slip at the house with doubled and tripled poles bow and stern as well as intermediate poles. I have risers on the pilings as well. I went as high as I could get away with @ 12 to 13 ft above high tide. [ code is 10]. I wonder how well I can keep the 14'9" in the center of the slip. I also have a hurricane haulout as well if I decide to do that. Dave

[ThirdHatt]

Dave, the slip is 24' wide and 62' long. Class B 14" diameter 30'-50' pilings are spaced every 10'. There is no code here for piling height and most people cut them way too short. Ours are 9' above deck which is about 4' above extreme high tide, about like your 13' above. The slip is built into a dock on both sides that keep the pilings stable under loads.

The whole key with centering the boat IMHO is LONG spring lines. They run much of the length of the boat (~50') and are extremely accomodating to huge tidal swings without adjustment and keep the boat well away from the pilings. I have a line on all 8 cleats at all times in my slip, but I double them for Hurricanes. One thing I thought of after Katrina is that I could have let out some chain and wrapped the big oak tree that is about 80' directly in front of my bow.

It sounds like your slip is the perfect size for your boat. Unfortunately around here there is no land high enough to make a hurricane haulout for a big storm a good enough option so I gotta ride it out!

[captddis]

Thanks for the info. I wish I could have put in 20' tall pilings, glad to hear your similar height pilings worked. Of course my problem will be my do nothing neighbors who's boats will crash into mine. The marina where I have a haulout is not that high either, but I think it would be ok for maybe 10 feet of surge, taking the draft of the boat into consideration. Dave

[ThirdHatt]

Good point about other boats Dave. Luckily there are really no other docks with boats near me in this bend of the river and the closest are 2+ miles and four bends upriver. As long as I do what I'm supposed to to secure my boats I shouldn't be fouled up by anyone else's boat(s) coming loose. There are lots of curves in the river and after the storm many of them had boats tossed into the woods that apparently broke free. YIKES!

[DeeRow]

...The whole key with centering the boat IMHO is LONG spring lines. They run much of the length of the boat (~50') and are extremely accomodating to huge tidal swings without adjustment and keep the boat well away from the pilings. ...

Another alternative to LONG lines is a TideSlide ( http://www.tideslide.com/ ). With these, you tie the boat tight and the lines move up and down with the surge. The lines are short so that they don't "work" and stretch. I side-tie my 42' with 2 TideSides but I have not "hurricane tested" them yet. I live on a canal that is only about 600' long and is not open to any wide water. I had a 28' tied in the middle of the canal with long lines for Francis (2004), Jeanne (2004), and Wilma (2005). None of these storms were close to what you experienced. Also, what worked for a 28' doesn't work for a 42' which doesn't work for a 58'. I tied the 42' in the middle of the canal for Edwardo (5th storm in 2006?). It was only 35kts and it was clear that the palm trees would not work in anything stronger. With 75 foot lines tied as tight as I could get them, the boat still sailed around the canal.

With four TideSlides in a narrow slip, you could use short lines that would not stretch and therefore would keep the boat off the pilings and allow the boat to rise with the surge.

Mark

[SKYCHENEY]

Look at that tideslide page. Here is what they caption as an "80' Yacht" but it sure looks like a 58LRC to me.

[ThirdHatt]

I gave a hard look at the tideslides several years ago when we built our docks. The Tideslides in that pic with the Hatt LRC are ONLY $2759 EACH! That boat can only take about a 4' rise in the tide from where it is and he's done with that setup. I would not trust only 4, I would think if you use all 8 cleats with 8 tideslides that might work but now we are talking $20k just in parts!

You still have the problem of running out of room. They have to bolt to the piling so even though they come in 12' lengths (those are well over $3k/each) and if your cleat height ever went over the tideslide height like in a really big storm you're done. With lines your boat can still float higher and stay in the slip without the dreaded landing on a piling when the tide finally goes out.

For a narrow slip with really high pilings and an unlimited budget, they are probably the way to go but if I have a choice I'll take a wide slip with long lines any time. Just my $.02.

[captddis]

I use risers that are locally made. They use a piece of 1" galvanized steel shaft with a ring that slides on solid steel shaft and are 4 feet high. They bolt all the way through the pilings. cost about 40.00 ea. They will make them in any size.
I think the tide slides are very very overpriced and I have a hard time trusting the plastic slide. Most of the tide slides I see are only lag bolted into the pilings, I don't like that either.