Damage to boats, marina in downtown Gulfport Florida after Hurricane

[Lee Jerry]

Originally Posted by Chotu

TUESDAY?!?!?? They left Tuesday??

They should have been leaving on Saturday as we did in the game

At a meager 5 knots, one of the participants was already in Pensacola on Tuesday

It's actually worse than that.

They left Charlotte Harbor on the south side of the path but within the probable cone, traveled north ACROSS the predicted path, to Tarpon Springs on the northern side of the probable cone and CLOSER to the latest path (further inside the cone) in that timeframe on a catamaran.



Sometimes all you can do is wonder...

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Mike Vogdes

Have your boat hauled, blocked and shrink wrapped and keep you fingers crossed.

A friend of mine did that for Hurricane Ivan in 2004 near Pensacola because he had no insurance.

He also lived on his boat. It was a Tayana 37 so no easy feat to blow it off it's stands. (displacement 22,500 lbs.)

It was blown off the stands and destroyed along with 100's of other boats.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by thomm225

A friend of mine did that for Hurricane Ivan in 2004 near Pensacola because he had no insurance.

He also lived on his boat. It was a Tayana 37 so no easy feat to blow it off it's stands. (displacement 22,500 lbs.)

It was blown off the stands and destroyed along with 100's of other boats.

ouch. that’s a painful experience.

[Virginia Lee]

I was a believer in moorings, but if the mooring pennant experiences chafe, or one's lines chafe through: game over. (My prior boat was severely damaged at Crandon Marina / Miami when the county's line below the mooring ball failed. She joined a pile up on shore, with the mooring ball attached.) Also, someone else's boat can blow into yours. A glancing blow is bad; tangling is worse.

For run of the mill hurricanes, my current thinking is that a well maintained marina is better than a mooring field. For the storms to hit Titusville FL since my boat relocated there, the anchorage and mooring field saw more catastrophic failures.

If the storm is bad enough, there is nothing that is safe. If the tide lifts you on the dock...

Titusville has limited potential for storm surge, so it is one of the better places. I'm sure there are other areas where locks limit the surge.

The safest place is hauled out and on the hard for hurricane season, which doesn't work for most. Those spaces are hard to come by. I'm extremely lucky to have one. My boat just went through Milton without any problem.

Of course, on the hard, another boat could fall on yours. I think it was Ian (so many storms...) where the neighboring boat's furler partially unwrapped. The boat was shaking on its stands, and I was shaking when my husband went up to cut the line to its jib, which calmed the rocking. (Out of state owner.)

There are some haul outs near Lake Okeechobee that probably have better availability than those on the ICW. They probably aren't live-aboard, not that you want to spend late summer / fall on the hard in central or south Florida.

So -- don't spend hurricane season south! This is a wonderful place to be from December to June.

[Nicholson58]

Where to go? Easy

Enjoy your boat wherever in the winter. We chose eastern Caribbean. Hurricane season in Trinidad, fully outside of the zone and relatively inexpensive with great, affordable trades to do your bidding. Warm clear water, great community, snorkeling, diving, food, hiking.

[Icarus]

Up a creek , deep in the mangroves...if there is one near by.
If a hurricane hits a marina with full force your boat and the marina are toast.

[GordMay]

Flooding is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, which is paid with an entirely separate premium, and overseen at the federal government level.
The Guardian reported [1] that, after Hurricane Helene slammed into the Southeastern United States, less than 1% of homeowners, in some of the hardest-hit areas had NFIP policies. That group includes Asheville, North Carolina, where just 0.9% of homeowners have flood insurance. This means the vast bulk of flood victims will be left uninsured.
Wind damage is typically covered by your standard home insurance policy, whereas flood, in general, is excluded.
For Hurricanes Helene, and Milton, many people filed claims with their property insurance. Those claims most likely will be denied, because it is clearly a flood damage [claim], not a wind damage loss.

In September, the Climate & Community Institute [CCI] published a study*, proposing new policy solutions, aimed at strengthening insurance coverage, for both homeowners, and renters, in flood-prone areas. One of those solutions is Housing Resilience Agencies, which would provide public disaster insurance, and "coverage for oft-neglected sectors, such as multi-family housing providers, mobile home dwellers, and heirs properties.”

* “Shared Fates: A Housing Resilience Policy Vision for the Home Insurance Crisis” ~ by Moira Birss, Climate and Community Institute, et al
➥ https://climateandcommunity.org/wp-c...s_09-25-24.pdf

See Also [excellent explanations]:
[1] “Insurance is failing hurricane survivors: People thought they were covered" ~ by Lauren Aratani for The Guardian
➥ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...=share_btn_url

[NorthCoastJoe]

When you talk insurance what ifs. How long do you think insurance companies are going to keep paying out for trashed boats? They are in business to make money first, so if losses are great they raise rates or get out of that risk area. Try getting fire insurance in California, even with a hardened house, defensible space and a firefighter living in it.

Somehow I think the age of boat insurance is coming to an end for named storms in Florida. If I ran an insurance company I would be thinking too much risk. Insurance is a gamble game, They bet your boat will be safe while they collect the cash.

[kw_martin]

Originally Posted by Lee Jerry

Not only is this NOT unanswerable, but it's an easy one - as Lepke said, you go to sea. You don't need to avoid all effects of the storm, just the worst of it (and as much as you can). 48 hr should be plenty to get you "there" - even at only 5 kt, that's 240 nm away. Even 36 hr or fewer are probably enough. That will get you out of the hurricane force winds and probably storm force (F10) as well; maybe not tropical force, but your boat should be able handle those no problem.

Consider this, at sea whatever happens is generally up to you (and mother nature). Anywhere else, no matter how well you prepare, you are also relying on the preparation (or just bad luck) of others. As described above, any manner of issues are out of your control - other boats breaking free, flying debris, docks coming loose, storm surge...

No, it's not always possible for everyone to take their boat out to sea for whatever reason, but that wasn't the question. The question was "where is the best place." The answer is at sea. It's really, as they say, a no brainer.

Here's a question (which I don't know the answer): how many boats were lost at sea from Hurricane Helene versus how many that were lost in other methods? I expext the former is somewhere between 0 and a handful whereas the latter is definately in the hundreds and possible the thousands.

This seems to me to be well thought out advice from someone with experience. Still my thoughts are generally plastic can be fixied. It's a bit more difficult to fix bodies? (Aside: my wife suggest I go to sea?)

[mocha]

As someone who has just survived TWO Hurricanes is TWO weeks at Gulfport Municipal Marina, overall not a great experience.

Quick question, if you do all you can to protect your boat from Mother Nature's wrath, and you slip mate doesn't take the responsibility as a serious commitment - and his leech line wraps around my Genoa and furling track,
and his sail completely unfurls from his minor wrapping with Genoa sheets
and my boat a bit beat up = bent furling track, ripped sail, broken back stay, bent life line stanchions? Does he bear any financial responsibility?

I am well insured with Progressive and have already filed a claim, but as with most marine insurance, there is a hefty named storm deductible of about $2k.

See attached

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by mocha

As someone who has just survived TWO Hurricanes is TWO weeks at Gulfport Municipal Marina, overall not a great experience.

Quick question, if you do all you can to protect your boat from Mother Nature's wrath, and you slip mate doesn't take the responsibility as a serious commitment - and his leech line wraps around my Genoa and furling track,
and his sail completely unfurls from his minor wrapping with Genoa sheets
and my boat a bit beat up = bent furling track, ripped sail, broken back stay, bent life line stanchions? Does he bear any financial responsibility?

I am well insured with Progressive and have already filed a claim, but as with most marine insurance, there is a hefty named storm deductible of about $2k.

See attached

Considering I see a jib on the furler on both of those boats, I'd say neither of you did your due diligence. Any hurricane strength storm means the jib must come off the furler and be stowed below before the storm.

[mocha]

so let's say you were in LA,
and got back in time to take care of the boat the best you could when it was gusting over 40, but thanks for the reply

[Lee Jerry]

This was posted in another thread, but I thought it fit well here (emphasis mine):

We have lived aboard in the Caribbean for eight years. Our insurance, typical, covers named storms only out of water, tied down, sails removed but only in several named marinas. In water, you are on your own. Those who remain in water stay with their boats and move them out of the path. This requires getting 30-50 miles from the direct path or more. NOAA gives 4-5 days warning and the customs and immigration officials are pretty relaxed about yachts avoiding storms. We can be in Trinidad from most of the eastern Caribbean in two days. Do the research well ahead and know where to relocate your asset. When Irma hit Barbuda at Cat 5, boats sheltering 35 miles south in Jolly Harbor, Antigua saw peak winds around 40.

Keeping a boat in harms way, especially in the water and hoping for being made whole by several insurance adjusters is a losers game.