Hurricane IVAN - Game Plan

[ttom02]

Well, it looks like this one is going to give south Florida a break. From the pictures I have seen on the TV, at 160 knts, there is just nothing you can do to save your boat?
What would be the best game plan for the panhandle where the land level is very low? Are you better off to anchor out or haul out and risk being washed away with no lines attached? I',m in NC and already on the hill for this one and just not sure if the hill is hight enough.
tom

[Genesis]

its very, very difficult.

If you make the decision to go in time, you can run away. If you're wrong about which way you run (in this case, I'd head WEST) you get clobbered though, and being transient and destroyed is bad, bad, bad - worse if you're on board!

The problem with this is that I think you're only going to have 24 hours - and maybe less - from the time we have a good bead on where its going to hit before it gets us. That's not enough time to safely run away.

There are bayous and such that provide some shelter, but in a Cat 4+ your ground tackle will almost certainly NOT hold. If the eye goes over you then you're in even bigger trouble with some of the common strategies (e.g. nosing up to a bank, laying out a stern anchor and tying off to the trees) because the wind shift will kill you every time. So will one loose boat in the cove - everyone gets wrecked from the pinball machine action.

One serious problem here is that the pilings at the various marinas and docks are not high enough. Anything more than a 5-6' surge and you're doomed, and a Cat4+ will produce that.

My marina didn't lose any boats in Opal, and there were only a few that took any significant damage. That's a damn good record.

I'm going to make a "run or sit" decision on this thing either tomorrow late or Monday..... I'm in Niceville, and expect that we're going to get it bad from the present estimates. Tomorrow is time to get the 3/4" plywood out and board up the house.

[PascalG]

getting at of the way is the best option, especially when the storm approaches perpendicularly to the coast. while we seem to be off the hook in SE Florida, Ivan was a worst case scenario because it would have approached from the south... running up north or down to the keys not viable option. Only option would have been north and across the okeechobee ww assuming it remained open.

For Frances i went down to the upper keys, although that proved unecessary and boats left in my home marina suffered no damage, worst they got was about 40 to 50kts. However, Frances erratic motion meant i didnt' want to take any chances.

decision also depends on your home marina incl protection but also construction . wide slips, tall piling are all advantages... while floating docks are a receipe for disaster. The pictures from teh Ft Pierce Marina where all the floating docks got loose tell the story. none of these boats stood a chance, and they were mostly large boats, incl 2 53s and some 60, 70 or 80 footers.

www.boatus.com/hurricanes...photos.asp (http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/charley_frances_photos.asp)

pascal
miami, fl
70 53my

[Genesis]

... is that we have a "trapping point" that will nail you dead if you're wrong about the storm.

If you are confident its headed west to east, and most of them do, then once you know its not going west of Mobile you can head there in the ditch, refuel there (a few places to do so) and head up the Tom Bigby. I'll take that option over being where I can get nailed by the surge - wind doesn't bother me nearly as much.

However, it you end up running INTO it, you're done. The reason is that you get trapped up against Lousiana, and there's no good option to get around that spit of land; being trapped against a lee shore is a certain recipe for disaster.

Running east around here is extremely dangerous. You HAVE TO be right if you go that way, because the ditch ends at Appalachicola - and that's a really bad place to get caught by a storm. The "pocket" up in the armpit of the Panhandle is the worst possible place in the world to be in a storm - the water is shallow there and you have no real good sanctuaries. There is a "canyon" part of the ditch here between Destin and PC - some of the charter boats go up in there - the walls of the canyon are 50+' high. You sit in the ditch with power up and watch the storm go screaming over your head. This is a time-tested strategy here but its not for the faint of heart and losing an engine during the event means losing the boat as you'll get tossed up against the shore.

There is no such thing as "safe" in the Destin harbor. Bluewater, where my boat is, is a bit safer in that there's only one bad direction for the wind where surge can breach the marina. However, slip width is marginal and the pilings are not tall enough for my taste.

As with most things in life, its a trade-off..... We don't have the canal systems around here that you've got in S Florida where you can run to and then tie across the canal.

Getting hauled for a storm is dangerous here. Most places that can haul you are in high surge and wind risk places, with uncertain footings for the stands. That makes this choice one of the worst options for larger boats.

[Mike36c]

I agree with Karl in that east of the eye is a place you DON'T want to be in the panhandle. We got a 4-5' surge with Frances here in Stuart and I was amazed the number of docks destroyed. In several cases the boat, pilings, planks, fish cutting boards, I mean everything was pulled up and gone. Half of my dock ended up in a neighbors front screen porch. Even if you could find pilings high enough for a 10 to 15' surge I don't think they would stay put with that kind of force on them. Run away! As for storm gear, I'm throwing away the few of my braided dock lines that survived and going with nothing but three strand nylon. Good luck and we'll say a prayer for you all. Mike

[captddis]

Mike,
I am curious, The docks that swept away were they subject to wave action as well? I have weathered many storms with high water and never had a dock problem. I am on a canal with no wave action. Also I agree with Pascal, I dont believe the floating docks are the way to go unless they are in a protected area. The concrete docks everyone uses do not have hinges and can't move with the waves and cosequently break up. I believe that was the case in Ft Pierce. I am still sweating it out in Madeira Beach. Hope Ivan goes way west. Lets us all say our prayers that this monster stays away and hits a unpopulated area. Dave

[rtrafford]

don't entrust any dock with your boat! instead, spread the load out over several pilings and keep the vessel clear of the docks, bulkeads, and even the piles.

locate a spot where you can spider-web the boat. if you're forced to keep it where it is, try your best to center it among the piles surrounding the slip. if you're leaning to at a dock, floating dock, or other, get away.

as you see in the photos, the majority of the vessels tied up in the slips properly were spared. the floating docks came apart, and those on the seawall stood no chance.

tie her out in the middle of the slip, leave some scope in the bow/stern lines (not much needed as they will stretch!), and run duplicate spring lines with long, tightly pulled stretches. the longer the better for the spring lines, and pull 'em taught!

also, don't bother with tape on the windows. it only makes a mess afterwards, serving no purpose during. boats don't sink because they lost a window. they sink because they were harpooned by another object, most typically another boat or a piling.

[captddis]

All good points I have succesfully used the spider web system. My slip at the house is fairly wide and I use many different pilings as well as the davit bases that are bolted to the seawall and have yards of concrete under them. However you have to contend with do nothing neighbors who would probably love to get a insurance check for their boat. Some of the boats I care for have hurricane haulouts. That makes it easy but not necesarily safer. I think luck is about 40% of the equation.
But my question is still if docks come apart without wave action lifting them up. So far I have not had a problem with 5-6 ft tides. I have heard of people removing planks to lessen the effect. Dave

[Mike36c]

It was wave action that took out my dock. Unfortunately the storm surge turned the normally protected area into washing machine chop. My stringers were bolted and the planks set with stainless screws (just replaced a few months ago), half of which were sheared off. I'm not sure but suspect the force of the boat pull assisted the destruction. Other docks that were ripped out had been exposed to about a 3/4 mile of open river and I'm guessing about a 4 to 5' chop, only a handful survived. One boat, it looked like a 38' or so Tiara had been lifted above the pilings from the surge. She now lies on the bottom with a piling sticking up through her cockpit. Wish the best for all in Ivan's path, good luck. Mike

[Genesis]

My strategy where I am runs two stern lines on each cleat, each to a different piling. Two forward springs, one to the forward midship cleat, one to the aft midship cleat. Those eight lines keep the boat secure fore-and-aft, and side-to-side at the stern.

I then run two more to the forward piling which go to the bow - their only purpose is to locate the bow in the slip.

I center her up.

If I lose a bow piling I'm screwed. But all that's loading those is my boat. The next boat over is loading the OTHER SIDE's piling.

[jim rosenthal]

I wish all of you folks the best luck down there...we do not get many hurricanes this far north, but I recall last year and Isabel vividly. It was a harrowing experience, and we did not nearly get the worst of it, not by half. FWIW, I agree with not hauling a boat. There was an extraordinary story up here, quite well verified, about a waterman who, seeing the water rising in the parking lot where his 40' Chesapeake Bay workboat was hauled on stands, waited until it floated off the stands, fired it up, and motored it out over the parking lot (and around all the floating boats), out into Eastern Bay and home to the Wye River, I think it was. If you are in a slip, and the wind is not too terrible, you have a chance of surviving the storm surge. If you are hauled out, and the surge is high enough, it's all over but the crying.

[MarioG]

Theres a good article in the latest issue of Passagemaker magazine on this subject. The couple favored not hauling, used many good ideas to safe guard their boat with good sucess. The article also has an extensive check list of what to do. A must read...

Mario

[Genesis]

... the biggest problem, assuming you have a brain and choose a reasonable location yourself, is the numb-nuts that is also in the same place and wrecks you.

This is why, if a marina's pilings can be trusted, they "win" over a mooring. Its not so much that you have a spiderweb of lines to keep you located (although that certainly helps) - its that you have a LOT of timber to keep the idiot who DOESN'T properly secure his boat fended off from yours, and that increases your odds.

We have a reasonable number of holes around here, but in any good blow someone gets loose in all of them. One pinball in the machine will wreck all of the rest of you if contact is made in 125mph+ winds. If that earstwhile guy ends up in your cockpit, you're sunk for sure.

If I could be reasonably certain that I was the only boat in a given hole, or that EVERY boat in the hole was properly secured, I'd run away every time. Unfortunately you cannot get that guarantee; ergo, most of the time when something takes aim on us I'm going to stay put.

[PascalG]

if your slips do not have finger piers or mid piling, AND assuming the other slips next to your are empty, (a lot of IFs...)... one option is to tie the boat paralel to the dock across multiple slips spreading the load over numerous clears and pilings and offering maximum clearance on both sides. that was one plan I considered in my prev marina...


Absolute last resort if I'm ever trapped could be to wait till the last minute and tie the boat in the middle of the fairway... if everybody is gone and conditions outside are such that no one woudl attempt to leave... it's an option...

pascal
miami, fl
70 53MY