Hurricane Frances 10 years ago

[rsmith]

Hard to believe 10 years has gone by. My house was destroyed and almost lost the boat. Ft Pierce city marina was completely destroyed.

 

[rsmith]

58LRC looks like PellicanYacht club. Anyone know it?

 

[madhatter1]

No hurricanes will ever hit Tampa Bay again. I built a poured concrete house in 06/07 and it has been quiet ever since.

 

[saltshaker]

Wow I can't believe it's been 10 years! I forgot just how big that storm was. That was a rough few years for Fl with so many powerful storms.

 

[dastahl]

58LRC looks like PellicanYacht club. Anyone know it?

That's Turtle hull number 1 of the 58 LRC she did not have much damage from the storm. She was sold a few years later and is now at Harbor Island a few blocks away from the Club. ALso at Harbor Island is Betty B a wonderful 58 and Jabula a pristine stretched 65-70. Skooch spent the last two years there as well but not this winter unfortunately.

Skooch

 

[rsmith]

some more Frances pics

 

[rsmith]

a couple more

 

[rsmith]

I wouldnt recomend anyone else do it but I stayed with the boat. it was forcast to be a cat3 so I had the house boarded up better than I ever had for any other storms weve had. I also boarded up the boat windows and put triple lines on. Cleats wont take 3 sets of 3/4 lines so i secured the backups loosley to the rails.
i would go through the same drill for Hurricane Jeene 3 weeks later to the day and hour.
I rigged fenders and fender boards out of 2x12's which proved more trouble than they were worth. At one point everything got twisted and tangled so I cut it loose and the whole mess drifted off into the night. At the hiegth of the storm my analog wind speed indicator was indicating a steady 90 with gusts to 120, it finaly pegged at 120 before the top of the tower tore off. I found it 3 blocks away. My house had the roof tore off and the last pic is typical of the gutted interor.
Ive got a bunch of video i took during the storm I need to convert from tape to digital.

 

[Avenger]

Man that is just painful to look at.

But a good reminder of what we face when one of those things comes around.