S. Florida Hurricane Plan / Haul Out Contract

The thing is, if you have a storm the magnitude of Sandy. It really didn't matter where you moved your boat, whether you put it on land or whatever. It still got destroyed. The ones on land faired pretty bad. You do the best you can do, secure the best you can, and hope for the best. I don't believe in hauling the boat.....they seem to do better in water, as long as they stay secured. Not sitting up in the air on 8 stands. And, moving the boat is a crap shoot, half of the time where you'd move it to, is the place the hurricane actually hit. Most boats can weather 10' seas all day long, that's what they're designed for. You're not going to see 10' seas on just about any inland water......not even close....so as long as the boat is riding it out, secured properly, and not getting bashed against the dock, chances are it will be fine.

A well maintained boat could freakishly sink at the dock within a 24 hour period with no hurricane......a/c pump blows a fitting.....somehow that shorts/trips the shorepower.....you name it....losses happen...

In 1992, I had a 5,000 sq ft home on Miami Beach and a 30' sport fisher on Key Biscayne. Andrew was called for a direct hit on the Beach. I had to deal with boarding windows, stowing outdoor furniture, lowering water level in pool, raising floor level items such as art and furniture (8 foot surge was called for), relocating cars, buying supplies and water, and finding a hotel room in a safe location. And I was determined to get to my marina to remove canvas and secure the boat, which never happened. Hiring help, either in the neighborhood or at the marina was impossible.

The Holiday Inn near the airport where I stayed ended up being near the eye and had the roof compressors blown off, lost electricity, and we (my 2 children with me + 3 neighbor's children whose parents were on a cruise and couldn't get back to town) were forced by management to hunker down in the hallway, along with everyone else on the floor in the dark and with no ac nor lights.

I returned to the Beach the next morning to find my roof had blown and my house almost a complete total with all contents a total loss. The boat was fine!

My point being that with an impending hurricane, you can't imagine how much prep there is for homeowners. The idea of getting a boat out of harm's way isn't always the practical answer. Nor is track forecasting a sure bet against mother nature.

when my owner jumped from a 44' SF,to a 70' yacht my hurricane problems began...and that was 35 years ago and the insurance deal was not as bad as today.....he told me to tie every line we had from the boat to something,take a bunch of photos and then go home and take of your family and home.....unfortunately most owners (and insurance co.) expect a lot more from a skipper nowdays.....now I don't have that annual problem, but looking back from an outside view, I can tell you the cure all.....MONEY

Excellent description of what it's like to be there and the challenges faced. I will also bet that when it was all over and you realized you and the children were all alive and fine, that relief was the overwhelming emotion in spite of the huge loss. I've talked to people who lost homes. A couple of families who lived side by side in Country Walk. Someone asked how did it feel when you stepped out and you saw you house and all those around you left as just piles of rubbish. The answer one quickly gave was "Wonderful." To this day they are amazed that hunkering down and pulling mattresses over their heads they survived such devastation.

Here is a good example of how not to dock your yacht before a hurricane.