Hurricane Preperations

[soggy_feet]

I'm sure we could get some good advice for those who will be, or are dealing with the full force of Irene, but I'd be interested to know myself how to handle high winds/potential waves with boats on moorings.

I'm lucky enough to be far enough north (Vermont) that I SHOULDN'T have to deal with hurricane force winds, but it's forecast that we should expect somewhere around 40-80mph winds. I live on my boat, a 40ft houseboat, with a low bow.

Sunday morning I'll be pulling everything off deck that I care to not lose, double checking all the chain below water on my mooring, and buying beer and ice.


Anything else you can think of for a boat that's just gotta weather out the storm on the water?

I'm on the southern edge of the bay, so there really shouldn't be much distance for the wind to kick up waves, but as the storm passes, I may have to ditch the mooring, and move the boat to a more sheltered area and wait it out on anchor.


Should be exciting....

 

[scoutboater]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

I'd just make sure that the boat's propulsion system is in good working order in case you do have to 'run for it', and I'd test my bilge pumps and float switches. Might also be a good idea to have a manual bilge pump for backup and stand watch as the storm comes through.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Can't you find a place ashore to stay? All the maritime wisdom says set up your boat to succeed, and then get to a safe place ashore. With the low speeds most houseboats operate at, I'd expect you could not even keep her nose to the wind if you came off the mooring.
There's a nice primer about hurricane preparedness in the Boat US website. They cited multiple anchors, long scopes, shock absorbent line and lots of chain as very good things. One guy set out anchors at 90 degree angles to one another which somehow multiplied the holding effect. Of course they are dealing with storm surges in the teens of feet.
Some of these saltwater boats moor in 20 feet of water so the scope of the rode gets too upright at the worst time when the surge hits. I'd think you might see half of that surge if you get one at all. And that ain't too likely with the amount of land the hurricane will travel over to get to you.
I'd recommend talking to others who have moored in your bay or in one with a similar shape and see how they did in previous events. Do you know any very experienced boaters with bigger boats around where you are? The older they are the more they have seen, I always listen to the experienced ones the most.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

run 2 lines from your moore to the boat. heck, run 4 lines.

A lot of those moorings are in there pretty solid. So I would worry about your ropes breaking before the moore did.

I am worried about my Sailboat on a mooring too. It is in the chesapeke bay, right at the mouth of the susquhana river. I think i might move her to a very well protected cove, instead of leaving her out in the open.

But don't stay on your boat, You can very easily get blown out to sea and die. Sure, you go into i thinking you can just move to shore if something goes wrong. But things don't go as you plan out there, and before you know it you are in the middle of the atlantic.

But i thought VT was land locked, how do you have a bay?

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

I have a few places I could stay, but I'm more worried about the boat. Its a 1973 steel hull, and nobody will insure a steel boat that old. If she goes down, its all on me. I need to be there to do what I can.

The multiple anchor thing is a good idea. And I can always swap out the 10ft mooring pennant for the 35ft spare I have below deck too...

I'm moored in 4ft of water at this point. Started with nearly 10 this spring. Very little draft on my boat, so no concerns there. It's actually helping me at this point, more scope!

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

But i thought VT was land locked, how do you have a bay?

Lake Champlain has lots of bays. It's not ocean weather, but I've been out in 5-6ft waves. The problem is, they hit one right after the other. Its harsh.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

But VT is nowhere near lake champlaign

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

I guess you could argue that the parts that don't get wet aren't near the lake, but I'm pretty sure that when I get out of work tonight, here in Colchester VT, I'm going to drive 12 minutes to the lake, park the truck, hop in the inflatable, and motor out to the houseboat, on Lake Champlain.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=lake+...sspn=0.196937,0.188141&vpsrc=6&gl=us&t=h&z=12

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

But VT is nowhere near lake champlaign

I am about 20 minutes away My boat (which is trailered) is about 50' outside my back door and I am going to wrap some extra (cheap clothesline) rope around the cover to keep everything tight.

Oh I am ready........ see my thank you post here http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=510516

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Hope you stay safe. I would buy a back-up bilge so if you need to replace during storm, if not needed return after it passes.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Im getting nervous now.

Think I'm going to ditch the mooring, add another anchor, and try to find a cove on the north edge of the bay. Winds from the south or east would have been easy to handle. Not so lucky....


.SPECIAL LAKE CHAMPLAIN WEATHER DISCUSSION...
AS OF 427 AM EDT FRIDAY...EFFECTS FROM HURRICANE IRENE WILL BEGIN
TO IMPACT LAKE CHAMPLAIN SUNDAY AFTERNOON INTO MONDAY MORNING IN
THE FORM OF VERY HEAVY RAINFALL...AND STRONG SUSTAINED WINDS OF 30
TO 45 KNOTS WITH GUSTS UP TO 60 KNOTS. ROUGH WATER CONDITIONS
LIKELY WITH LARGE OPEN LAKE WAVES 6 FEET OR GREATER EXPECTED.
WINDS AND WAVES OF THIS MAGNITUDE WILL CREATE HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS
ON THE LAKE DURING THIS TIME PERIOD...AND ALL PRECAUTIONS SHOULD
BE MADE TO SECURE MARINE CRAFT AND OTHER PROPERTY ON THE LAKE.

As for bilge pumps, I have 5. 3 in use, 2 backups, ranging from 350 to 2000gph. Deep cycle is fully charged, cranking battery is on solar right now to top that off (I never use it, just start off the deep cycle).
Fuel tank will be topped off saturday, wastewater will be pumped to lose the extra weight.

I'll pick a cove, email everybody I know and tell them where they SHOULD be able to find me, and try and keep in contact with people with status updates every couple hrs thru the evening/night.

 

[kahuna123]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Please read this. He's seen more stuff than anybody on this forum


http://www.yachtsurvey.com/hurricane_preparation.htm

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Thanks. Good info.

 

[gtochris]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

What do you do in the winter? Surely a houseboat in VT is FREEZING in the winter!

We pulled out boat last night and parked it on it's trailer. I dont want it banging the dock, sinking, or floating over the dock so pulling it out was the easiest.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

It goes in dry-dock in the winter, and I rent a room from a friend.
The boat is too big to haul myself, and it wasn't in the budget to pay to have it put up on blocks for the weekend, and its far too early to call it a season.
I'm usually out here until November.

Btw, the storm is still building, but I found a cove that's working great.
Guess the marinas are getting beat up, but where I'm at, I can't decide if I call them waves, or ripples.

Only complaint is that I overlooked filling my propane tank, so when I went to cook my Bacon and eggs this morning, and got 5 seconds of flame before it sputtered out, morale was destroyed.
Also don't have hot water now.
First season with the on demand water heater, guess it uses more gas than I thought. (Damn those long hot showers!)

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Pretty wild. Had a friend tell me he watched a sailboat drift thru the mooring field, and smash into the docks, and not long after, I heard a pan pan call to the CG from a 70ft 3 deck ship. Three of her four mooring lines had snapped. Not long after, she gave an update that they had to cut the remaining line and try to get out of the Marina. In the process of doing THAT, her port side transmission failed. CG said she was on her own, too rough for them to give assistance, but they did put out an assistance call. If anyone answered, it was a low power transmit because I didn't hear a thing from 5 miles away.
I guess she drifted with the wind, using starboard propulsion only to keep her off the rocks until she could get behind an island. Captains night wasn't over then though, because he couldn't get the anchors to hold.
Radio transmissions started to break up once he got around the island, but the last I heard I took to mean he was going to keep station until conditions changed, or a commercial tow vessel was able to help.
Owner was who knows where, it was only the captain and his wife and son on board

 

[chips ahoey]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

Hope you faired the weather allright. any news on the other vessel? lots of flooding down here in rutland.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

I did ok. Wind does weird things. It unglued one of the 2 GPS pucks I had on the roof of the boat, didn't bother the cheap plastic swivel mount solar panel I had right in front of it for a rechargeable LED deck light.

I cruised down to the marinas to see if there was any damage this morning before going back to my mooring. Moonlight Lady, the 70ft boat, was on the southeast side of Coates Island, tied off to some trees. Guess he got her in there and went home for the night. Didn't seem to be anybody on board, deck lights were still on from last night, and I was there at about 10:30 this morning.
Other than that, a few sailboats came off their moorings and came thru the mooring field before hitting the docks, and a few boats dragged their moorings.
A friend of mine on the dock with a sailboat has 1.5 fenders now. One of his fenders must have popped, and the lower half was torn away from the boat riding up and down against the dock.

I think you guys got it much worse.

I have heard that 2, maybe 3 covered bridges around the state were washed away, the Alchemist brew pub in Waterbury suffered heavy flooding, and will have to start new, and the bar base lodge at Killington was washed off its foundation and collapsed.

Saw pics of a big section of Route 7 washed out down your way too...

New road is ok, but a new covered bridge just isn't the same. Thats a real shame.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Hurricane Preperations

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=14407756

Looks like VT was the final blow dealt before Irene died out. :/