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Boat Protection During Hurricane Season

By CAPT. JON ZORIAN, Boca Beacon

It’s time to think about the “what if” regarding hurricane season and our area. This season has been predicted to be active. The question for many Floridians who live near the coast on both sides of the state is just how intense this year’s hurricane season will be and how severely it will affect our state? For those who have boats, there is an added concern that exists beyond family, home and business.

Boats are in extreme danger when exposed to hurricane conditions. The safest thing an owner can do is to remove their boat from the area by getting it inland and away from the severest weather. Generally, going inland reduces the chance for damage by wind or water. If the boat can be trailered, get it out of harms way. Even if a trailer needs to be rented, spend the money and remove your boat from a wet slip, high and dry storage facility or other dangerous location in the path of the storm.

The real potential crisis falls on those who have in-water boats that are too large to be moved by trailer. Damage can be severe and all of us have seen the pitiful pictures of large vessels tossed in piles like toys as the result of hurricane forces. What do you do? If there is time, running the boat in the opposite direction of the storm to another port is ideal.

However, in most cases, there is not enough time to do so as the exact landfall is not predictable until just hours before the storm hits. One could actually be running in the very direction of the hurricane thinking they were running away from it. Safe harborage is a must. If an in-water boat is not in a protected cove or harbor, it should be moved to an area that is not directly on a large body of water.

An ideal spot is to find a residential canal as far inland as possible and make arrangements to tie up there. The inside blind end of the canal works best and the boat should be tied up in the middle, most canals in the state being 60 to 100 feet across. With the stern to the blind end and the bow facing down the canal, the boat should be tied with long ropes to the sides and end of the canal.

The distance from the tie up point and the boat should be far enough so that the ropes will have plenty of flat angle to rise and fall with the extreme tides and storm surge without having to be tied with too much slack. Theoretically, the longer the ropes the easier the boat will move up and down with the water movement. This method is far safer than the boat being tied to a dock that may be torn away during the storm.

Common sense dictates that the boat should be secure and sealed for protection from wind and water, however, do not leave canvas up, as it will be torn to shreds. Prepare the boat in a manner that does not allow for poorly attached accessories to be left for destruction.

Because of the tremendous amount of rain and blowing water, more than one working bilge pump will be necessary with automatic float switches in control and connected to fully charged batteries.

Think ahead about your boat and its protection. Aftermath pictures of hurricane damage showing broken and demolished boats tossed in piles like toys are hard to look at for any boat owner.

Boca Grande and the other barrier islands of Lee County, plus the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, are extremely vulnerable to severe damage if a hurricane where to progress up the southwest coast of the state and turn inland through our area. Let’s hope that this will never occur.