Hurricane Irene

[Tommy]

Steve,

I think I have the factory specs for the 31 cradle, and will try to dig them out for you. Glad your 31 is still standing. The SF that Jim, Runyon and I bought up in Michigan arrived here in NC just in time for Irene. It's great to have good partners; Jim found us space in a new boat house engineered for 140 MPH winds, so I think the new "Buddy Boy" will be OK if the surge doesn't float her around and ding her up.

Tommy

[Hueso]

Guys:

My family and I have been very lucky regarding hurricanes and our boats. I would like to share some of my experience of the procedures taken before the event.

First, check that your insurance policies are up to date.

If you decide to take your boat out of the water and place it in your marina's boat yard, make sure that the next boat to yours is at least 30 to 50 feet apart. Hauled boats will fall to their side with strong winds. Therefore, the farther away the better. Take you drain plugs out! If there is a lot of rain the battery will dry out. Depending on the type of ground, you could hammer down six construction steel rods at least 4 to 5 feet deep around the boat with a semi-loop sticking out so you can tie the boat lines to them. If you think that water will make it inland, don't feel stupid if you anchor your boat's main anchor to the ground. If you do it, leave at least 60 to 80 feet of rope on top of your bow. The boat will be easier to find, if you know what I mean.

Aftermath problem: when hauling your boat at the marina, if disaster strikes, maybe you will not be able to put your boat back in the water in a "while". Insurance, machinery not working and other obstacles may come up. Therefore, be ready to spent more than the initial $300 to take the boat out.

If leaving the boat in a dock, find one that's widder than your usual spot so the boat can navigate freely. Follow Ed's advice, small lines to tie it now along with stronger and longer lines in case the small lines do not withstand the surge. In addition, if you can throw your main anchor, do it. 60 to 80 feet in front of the bow. However, if the bottom is not sand or hard ground, is worth nothing.

If leaving the boat in the middle of a channel, or lagoon, first step is to find out what type of bottom you have. Down here we need to find sand. During Hugo, only one big boat survived in San Juan Bay and it was my best friend's father Bertram 54. He found sand in the Bay by throwing a small anchor and retrieving for survey. When sand was found, he used a 300 plus pound barge anchor tied to a line. Then, in a dinghy, the main anchor was manually set 3/4 from the bow and then the aft anchor at the other 3/4 of the bow. Three anchors. NO NEIGHBORS. The boat navigated through the whole hurricane without a problem and only lost its front railing due to a "free dancing" sailboat that got entangled with it and pulled it out.

For all these procedures, use "Hyena Love's" duct tape tip and tape down your hatches on the deck to keep rain water out of your bilge. That worked wonders during Georges for me.


Good luck and bless you all!

Hueso

[Kevin]

My favorite one is the boat house built to withstand 140-150. The iron work yes......but not the skin. When the skin comes off where does it go? Just sayin! It looks like you guys will fare better than what yesterdays forecast was. 100mph is exponentially better than 120mph. Still gonna be a mess though.

[Russ Pagels]

It's here, heavy rain, the wind is picking up,still have power...Russ

[SteveM]

Tommy, glad to hear you got that boat out and protected. I've been showing everyone your pictures. And YES I will take up on those cradle specs if you can find them.

[Tom]

Good luck guys. I thinks you are in good shape, like has been said, 100 mph is way better than 120 mph.

I do find it interesting on the pulling of boats. You are hard pressed to find a yard in Texas that will pull a boat ahead of a storm. And unless you have prearranged something, marina's will not take newcomers for a storm.

Glad its not us, but not glad its you either. Keep your head down and your glass filled. I'm headed offshore in the morning.- Tom

[Dug]

I like the duct tape over the hatches thing. I gotta do that in the am! Tommy is that the house that was just built on the creek just up from Beaufort?

[Dug]

Wait, so, if I tape the hatches, I get it. But what about the companionway?

[Rawleigh]

Dug: I built a plywood "filler" for the companionway for isabell. It generally follows the conture of the engine hatches. It has weather stipping on it wher it contacts the hatches. I tie it to the engine hatch handles with a big bungee, the duct tape all around it. The hard part is getting out the door after it is put in place. I duct tape where it comes up to the doo also. It is not pretty, but it does keep out a lot of water. I also have been taping th hatches and window tracks. Just remember to get the tape off ASAp afterwards before the sun bakes it on. I learned that in Isabell when I was busy cutting out driveways for a couple of days. I hear that 3M adhesive remover helps.

[Rawleigh]

Local Emergency Manager says they are expecting the real storm to get here earlier than expected @7:00 am rather than early afternoon. Probably good news as that will put most of the storm here before hightidr at 11:00pm. Also calling for ESE winds instead of NE.

[Kevin]

Duct tape will pull off Awlgrip from the primer. I know this becuase........I did the prep work on my paint job so I am not surprised. It is worth it in a worst case sceanrio when you do not have hinges on hatches though. Rain water adds up really fast.

[Tommy]

Dug, that's the one.

[Garry]

Good luck to all you guys on the Atlantic coast with Irene. Hopefully it won't be as bad as being adverstized.

Garry

[IRGuy]

It looks as if we here in Wilmington, NC, dodged a bullet on this one. The eye passed us on it's way north about 2:00AM this morning.. apparently about 80 to 100 miles offshore... now all we have is gusty winds and light rain. I haven't been out yet but will go across town to check on the boat in a little while. The radio/TV says there is some local flooding of some streets, but all the major roads and bridges are open. Power is on and off.. but mostly on. Cable TV (my internet connection) comes and goes with the electric power.

Thanks to all who offered their best wishes for us here.. please redirect them to the people north of us as Irene heads NNE. It is/was worse for them there than for us here.

[Dug]

Tommy,

Awesome spot!!! I hope everyone in that area is ok!!!!

Dug

[JP Dalik]

Russ Pagels called me this morning. They are out of power and the storm has been beating them for 24 hours.

His advice was to treat this one with respect, its a very long storm.

We are out of the water and prepared for the worse.


Good luck guys.

[Capt.Frank]

Well here on the northern outer banks we made it threw another storm, Thank GOD it was only a CAT I 85-95 mph sustained winds, gusts to 115 mph. I finial have internet to day. We got the worst soundside flooding in well over 50+ years. some places over 6'. Like Russel said 24 hours of rain and wind. If it had been high tide on the ocean this place would be a bigger mess. My boat traveled down and back up with the water over 8'. We were very very lucky. Hatteras Island is a mess again. I hope you guys up north made out alright. Going to sleep.

[PeterPalmieri]

While I faired well in the storm. No flooding, no loss of power and the boat is floating. Many did not, we can be thankful it wasn't worse. Some friends on the water have sea water in their house, others are without power or can't get back to their house. It's sad my generator is on it's way to it's third destination of friends and family who still don't have power.

[Rawleigh]

Doug: Are you OK with the flooding??