Hurricane Measures

[Samuraidog]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Samurai.

Hurricanes can be survivable, at sea. And, you're right - it would be horrible.

Just curious, but how could one survive on a sailboat in the thick of a hurricane in the middle of the ocean?
Not that I'd want to try it, but the forces seem like they'd be beyond anything a sailboat could handle. Am I wrong?

What would be the strategy? Lower all the sails, lock the rudder in place, hunker down in the cabin, and just hope for the best?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Samuraidog

Just curious, but how could one survive on a sailboat in the thick of a hurricane in the middle of the ocean?

Not that I'd want to try it, but the forces seem like they'd be beyond anything a sailboat could handle. Am I wrong?



What would be the strategy? Lower all the sails, lock the rudder in place, hunker down in the cabin, and just hope for the best?

Everything you say, and a drag device, and pray.
A well built, well prepared boat would be hard to sink, many survive the worst storms, of course many don’t to.
Best case I’d assume you would be like a peanut in a can.
You know many people have survived being shot in the head, but I’m certainly not signing up for that either.

[BrotherT]

Surviving hurricanes at sea is not certain for multiple possible reasons, but recommend you read Adlard Coles: Heavy Weather Sailing for the accumulated wisdom of sailing in the navigable quadrant of the track for the best chance of survival from those who have survived.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by BrotherT

Surviving hurricanes at sea is not certain for multiple possible reasons, but recommend you read Adlard Coles: Heavy Weather Sailing for the accumulated wisdom of sailing in the navigable quadrant of the track for the best chance of survival from those who have survived.

This is a must read for anyone living the life. I met the Pardeys at a boat show years ago. They have been live aboard most of their lives. Their presentation on storm tactics teaches may boat dependent options for riding out a storm. They also say that they never sailed in a hurricane over their long careers at sea. This is due to planning to never be where the storms occur in storm season. I believe this is the only survival plan one should follow.

We sailed from the Great Lakes in 2016 out the St Lawrence and through Nova Scotia and the east coast on the way to the Caribbean. We got tossed by Mathew in Newport at anchor with 48 knots of wind. We sailed into Bar Harbor against 50 knots and 25 foot seas. We were anchored at Annapolis for another near miss. We experienced 35 knots for three days on the transit from Hampton to Virgin Gorda (fortunately from behind). I can assure you that avoiding storms is the only sane option. We keep Roxy in Trinidad each hurricane season and plan our island hopping by the best weather windows. The boat is never headed back to the east coast.

Storm Tactics by Lin and Larry Pardey

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/sto...RoC4OkQAvD_BwE

[thomm225]

Here's some heavy weather action. You can think tactics on a small sailboat all you want but in some cases it won't matter much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhpePNUHUQ0

[Nicholson58]

Our boat’s original owners sailed in hurricane Grace for days. Newport to Bermuda. They were presumed lost. They finally made it in with no head sails and the Bimini was gone. They were written up in Sail Magazine 1991. Only Cat 2, It was no picnic. It changed direction several times, keeping the boat in the cross hairs for about three days.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Grace

[thomm225]

Tami Ashcraft also sailed/made it thru a hurricane but her husband was washed overboard and lost at sea. She then sailed 41 days alone to Hawaii (1983) on a makeshift rig

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tami_Oldham_Ashcraft

the book: [edit]
2002 : Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea by Tami Oldham Ashcraft

The movie: Adrift 2018

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6306064...?ref_=tt_ov_vi

[Samuraidog]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Our boat’s original owners sailed in hurricane Grace for days. Newport to Bermuda. They were presumed lost. They finally made it in with no head sails and the Bimini was gone. They were written up in Sail Magazine 1991. Only Cat 2, It was no picnic. It changed direction several times, keeping the boat in the cross hairs for about three days.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Grace

Thanks for your reply. What about the mast and other rigging? Was the boat capable of being sailed immediately after the storm? What did they do during the storm? Heave to? Were they injured? Sorry, but I've got lots of questions, as this is fascinating to me.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Samuraidog

Thanks for your reply. What about the mast and other rigging? Was the boat capable of being sailed immediately after the storm? What did they do during the storm? Heave to? Were they injured? Sorry, but I've got lots of questions, as this is fascinating to me.

I think in conditions like your thinking, there most likely will be no rig, your boat is a life boat and any kind of ability to navigate may be based on your ability to rig something up.
Hopefully though your EPIRB is still transmitting and or you have another and rescue will be coming when wx permits.
Assuming your in a part of the world where rescue services exist.

Mono hulls may well be rolled, possibly several times, that was my peanut in a can reference. Often if your rolled the rig doesn’t survive.
I don’t know about Multi’s

A good mono is a Weeble, they wobble but can’t fall down, and if reasonably water tight, tough to sink.

[dadster3]

I couldn't find the post but I seem to recall someone asking about riding out a hurricane at anchor. There is a vid on YouTube that shows how UMA survived hurricane Matthew, a cat 4, a couple of years ago.



It is in the "Sailing UMA" series, episode 54. Here is the link to episode 55 to get you in the ballpark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02jZgsPzmNg

[Group9]

A really good friend of mine rode Katrina out at anchor on his sailboat in Saint Louis Bay. The only thing that saved him was his anchor catching on a cable while dragging. He watched houses float by, along with lots of other boats from a nearby marina, and lots of trees and debris, all just missing his boat.

You couldn't make him ride another one out on his boat with a gun to his head.

[thomm225]

If you watch the video above, those ships that we never see moving much at all in big wind are taking waves over the top and being knocked about

A normal sized sailboat would be like a tin can in the surf.

They would get beat to hell and then after the mast came down it would start to beat on the boat and maybe puncture a hole in it until it sank

Those boats that do last thru a hurricane are most likely far away from it

There's no sailing thru it especially the ones that are the norm these days Cat 4's and 5's plus

[4deckdave]

One option to avoid a serious storm is too find a sheltered bay and sinking your vessel, then raising it after the storm passes.
This was my captains choice many years ago when he couldn't find space in a marina in north Florida. We took down the rigging, securely anchored the boat on the leeward side of an island, and after removing all items that were not secure - the boat was sunk.
This 30 foot sailing vessel did jot have an inboard and was strictly a racer so it had an outboard motor that was also removed. We went back and used air bags to raise the vessel at high tide and pulled it back to shore for a through cleaning and rigging.
An odd choice but still a way to avoid total destruction.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by owly

For a live aboard, on the east coast, the lumbering monster that is Dorian has the potential of a major home wrecker, but this seems to be an annual event.

turns out Dorian was not a monster for most of the US. this is what you should keep in mind even though NOAA and the Weather Channel will have you planning for the worse case with all hurricanes. I am not suggesting you don't prepare for a storm but that the odds of you being seriously affected by one are actually very minimal

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by gonesail

turns out Dorian was not a monster for most of the US. this is what you should keep in mind even though NOAA and the Weather Channel will have you planning for the worse case with all hurricanes. I am not suggesting you don't prepare for a storm but that the odds of you being seriously affected by one are actually very minimal

Only the weather system steered the hurricane away from the US East Coast (including Florida) just enough otherwise it would have been hammered by Hurricane Dorian

If you are 1000 miles inland ..........the odds of you being seriously affected by a hurricane are actually very minimal