Hurricane season prep

[Twist]

We're coming in to season where bad weather can happen. We've been on the water for 25 years so we've seen the worst of it being Isabel with around 8' of storm surge. Back at that time I had a Sea Ray 330 Sundancer at the dock in the photo below with no lift. I just put a couple of spring lines on it and loosened the bow and stern lines and the boat rode the surge up and down with no problem or damage. Now you can see in the photo that I've got a Freedom 275 on a lift and I'm wondering how to best keep the boat if/when it floats up off the lift. I'm thinking drop the lift to put the boat in the water and then center it with a couple of lines on the outside piles and the spring lines again to keep it more or less centered with loose bow and stern lines. Anywho, I'm open to ideas and wanted to think about it before the time comes, and it will come, that I need a solution.

By the way, my kayak/board rack is anchored and I'll bring all that stuff on it up the hill. The dock box can also quickly be released and relocated.

 

[Peter A]

getting the boat floating seems like a good idea to keep it from bouncing on the lift base. Depending on wind and waves will it be banging on the pilings? You would want to keep it off the pilings or you might damage the rub rail? Some really large bumpers?

I was thinking the same last weekend in NJ. My 208i is in the water at Key Harbor Marina in Waretown NJ. Typical NJ slip with pilings forward and a finger pier off a fixed dock. Luckily I have good room in the slip to lengthen the lines. Will upgrade my spring lines to lengthen and for more wrap on the pilings, and deploy fixed bumpers on the finger pier. I’d also take off any canvas.

If we get a big storm and direct hit like Sandy the surge in Waretown was huge maybe up to 10 feet above where I currently sit in the water, that’s for insurance to cover. There is a nice Marlin and a 30’ Freedom across from me, be a shame if they break loose and sink me. I don’t have a trailer so she would have to ride it out

 

[Twist]

The out piles are 12' off the dock piles so the slip is very large for my Freedom 275 at 8.5' wide. If the lift weren't there, I'd put lines fore and aft on the out piles with a lot of slack and then spring lines to keep it off the dock. I'm concerned that even if I bottom the lift I'll still have to remove the vertical guides and outward bench to keep it out of the way. In other words it's going to be a problem to center the boat in the slip.

I guess another approach is to run the lift up as high as it'll go and then throw some lines on the boat to keep if from getting away if it gets floated off the bunks. I've only seen that 8'+ surge once in 25 years here. I'm actually on a "lake" off the Chesapeake that has historically been used as a hurricane hole and is reasonably protected water where the wave action will be minimized. I guess if it looked like it was going to be historic levels of surge I could move the boat out on to a mooring and ride it out.

Still noodling on this and welcome any suggestions for a slip/lift home on the Chesapeake Bay.

 

[Chessie246G]

Personally I would have it hauled. If I remember, youre in Annapolis. Lots of marinas around that will haul and rack for a few hundred bucks. I would sleep better at night for sure.

 

[Twist]

Personally I would have it hauled. If I remember, youre in Annapolis. Lots of marinas around that will haul and rack for a few hundred bucks. I would sleep better at night for sure.

There are several reasonably close by. It would be interesting to know if any of the boatels around here have suffered any damage during a hurricane or severe weather. I'm in a very protected little cove so I'm not too worried about wave action but definitely large surge has to be planned for.

A number of you have suggest hauling it out, I assume on a trailer, and parking it somewhere safe. Unfortunately, I don't own a trailer and most likely would never have much need for one. I could run it back down to the dealer/marina in Deale and I'm sure they'd be happy to put it up on the hard for me. Again, my question would be how often are boats on the hard damaged by severe storms?

 

[Rph1225]

I have had boats on the Chesapeake much of my life, but solidly for the past 10 years. They have all stayed in the water all year and the only time that there are any issues is when the storm comes to land either directly at the mouth of the bay or just south of it. That happened with Isabelle. So far in the past 10 years I never had to move it, but did have to go down every so often and loosen or tighten lines. The more annoying part is when the storm hits north of the mouth of the bay or there is a strong north wind for a couple of days and takes all the water out. Having a lift is great though.

The only thing I ever did was rigged double lines on some bad storms.

 

[Chessie246G]

There are several reasonably close by. It would be interesting to know if any of the boatels around here have suffered any damage during a hurricane or severe weather. I'm in a very protected little cove so I'm not too worried about wave action but definitely large surge has to be planned for.

A number of you have suggest hauling it out, I assume on a trailer, and parking it somewhere safe. Unfortunately, I don't own a trailer and most likely would never have much need for one. I could run it back down to the dealer/marina in Deale and I'm sure they'd be happy to put it up on the hard for me. Again, my question would be how often are boats on the hard damaged by severe storms?

Mine is on the hard, on a rack in the yard. If water gets that high we have a lot more to worry about. Personally, I would not want it on a boatel 3 stories up.

 

[Twist]

They're saying that in Annapolis we've had two of the three worst storm surge events ever recorded where city dock businesses were flooded and the mayor declared a state of emergency. Based upon my experience leaving the boat on the lift during this most recent event, I'm thinking it'll be fine there unless the surge gets to over twice as high as those events. That's happened just once in my 25 years in Annapolis which was during Isabel. Will the weather keep getting worse for these events? Maybe, but for now I think I'm fine with my hurricane prep leaving the boat at my dock on the lift.

It crested a few inches above what is shown in this photo: