Pacific Mexico Hurricane Holes

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

How does one repeatedly break a line?

a line is repeatedly broken when the people staying thru the 'cane on their heavy cruise ketch go fix the broken line more than 2 times during the first half of the storm alone. more after eye passed over. this was done. strings are not hurricane lines.

[JPA Cate]

It is a good question, sailorboy1, and you can see how it all came about. If someone has sized their lines for California winds, those lines are going to be seriously taxed with prolonged winds over 60, let alone the extremely forceful winds of major hurricanes. Zeehad mentioned "big, heavy, ketch"--consider the windage.

It is that the force of the wind increases as the square of the velocity, so that if you have half inch docklines you use normally, you need many more, or new, larger lines for hurricanes. I was a slow learner about this. I thought our 3/4 inch diameter lines were more than adequate, but when we wanted to go into a marina in New Caledonia, they demanded that we have a minimum of four 16 mm lines, for our 36 ft. boat, which displaced roughly 10 tonnes. That was for our 4 "corners" and required by their insurance.

So, check the breaking strength of the dock lines you buy, and buy for the worst circumstances, and back them up with additional lines in case your chafe protection fails.

Ann