himacanes

[captjohn360]

ahoy mates i just returned from the eye of the storm.i went to grand bahama to secure my boat for the onslaught of francis phew! i got there 24 hrs, before the storm and started to strip the boat. sails, dingy,all lines rigging and solar panels.i put down 800 lb block of concrete and tied a 3/4 in nylon rode to anchor chain comeing from my windlass. than as a after thought i doubled it to a bridle from my bow cleats on each alma. than i ran 3/8th in chain from one side of the canal to the other, securing my mooring in the center. that saved my boat. out of 8 boats in the area only 2 made it mine and another catamaran. 2 sank and the others ended up on other parts of the canal wall thank full to be back. jt

[Alan Wheeler]

Good to hear of your success.
This posses and interesting question!. Your boat survived due to diligence and effort. I wonder if the other surviving Cat had a similar caring skipper. And I wonder if the vessels that did not survive, were due to owners just being very "ho hum" about the saftey of their boats. A "she'll be right, the things insured" attitude. I may be wrong, but it would be interesting to know. I don't think a poll would work on this question though.

[Wahoo Sails]

we lost no vessels in our marina during Charley or Frances, and overall the damage to vessels was minor .... but .... ya just gotta wonder about anyone that would tie off a 42' sport fisher with 3/8" line! Stories continue to come in to me each day, yesterday heard from a fellow with a tri, tied off to the mangroves and set 4 anchors, said the boat was riding just fine .... till a 19' flats boat that had come loose, hit it doing about 30 knots, and holed the port ama. Another acquaitaince from Port Charlotte said that a neighbor went from his house to his boat on the canal during Charley, to adjust the lines ... they don't know what struck him, but he was found dead.
As for insurance ... you have to hear the stories to believe them! Have had 3 customers tell me that their insurance company is claiming that they were canceled (without reason or notice) the month before .... clearly trying to weasel out of paying. Another told me this "since the eye of the hurricane did not pass directly over your boat, you were not damaged by a hurricane ... it was wind damage, and although you are insured against hurricanes, you are not insured against wind damage". The boat was about 8 miles from the eye, and wind speeds were over 120 mph.
Just to add insult to injury, after Frances left, the following weekend we had 4 boats struck by lightning in a 20 minute span of time ... all suffered damage, one with a hole blown out the hull.
L S/V Eva Luna
Bob

[svJasmine]

of these insurance carriers!

Rich

[captjohn360]

i dont know if the other boats were lost from lack of dilligence or complacency. i think more from under estimating the forces of a storm of that magnitude.the other cat was mored with a pile of huge chain from a oil tanker. the others used 55ga drums filled with concrete, not enugh! jt

[harryrezz]

Glad y'all made it througth OK.
We were just plain lucky! We used to moor our boat in a well protected anchorage behind Hog Island on the southern tip of Grenada. Two years ago we moved her to a little commercial (as opposed to "yachties") boat yard on Carriacou - one island farther north. When Ivan the Terrible came through he totally DESTROYED Grenada. Of the 30 or so boats which were in our old anchorage only three survived! In a new marina just around the corner the entire marina is gone - along with most of the boats.
We even know of a yard where over 120 boats were on the hard - and they all fell like dominoes! We sustained no damage whatsoever - nor did any of the other boats where we are. What is it they say about real estate?? Location,location, location!

[goingsoon]

Good to hear a success story. Saw a picture of boats prepairing for a huricain in Florida and it looked like they were useing a chain to rope to chain mooring line system, has anyone used this method of securing your boat and does it work?

[captjohn360]

going soon.. chain from mooring to line for shock, to chain through hauser hole for chafeing. works great jt

[goingsoon]

Alrighty, thanx jt. I have found the thread on heavy weather anchoring so I think the next question will go on to that thread.