When a hurricane threatens to make a hit your area, there are many precautions you need to take. You have to gather emergency supplies for your family, make arrangements for pets, secure your home, and consider evacuating. If you are a boat owner, then you have even more to worry about. You need to make some important decisions about how and where to keep your boat to give it the best chance of surviving the storm.

Some of what you need to do to get your boat hurricane ready should be done well before a storm is even a possibility. If you keep your boat in a marina, you should learn the marina’s hurricane plan. Don’t assume you can keep your boat there through a storm; many marinas insist that all boats leave the premise when a storm threatens. If your marina allows boats to stay, make sure you have extra lines that can cope with the storm surge on hand. Make sure you have up to date marine insurance and that you know where your policy information is (keep a copy of you policy off the boat in addition to the copy you have on board). Keep a current inventory of all items on your boat for insurance purposes. A videotaped list is even better when it comes time to process a claim. You should also do a little research into the hurricane history in your area. Know the elevation of the place you keep your boat, storm surge patterns, tide patterns, and the history of storm flooding in your area. If you’re new to town, talk to your fellow boaters about their hurricane action plans. If you do a little homework in advance, it will save you from a great deal of last minute panicking down the line.

One other thing you should know in advance is where you are going to take your boat in the event of a storm, if you can’t leave it in the marina. One option is to find a so-called “hurricane hole” in some inland water area. Hurricane holes are paces where you can anchor or moor your boat where it will likely be safe from storm surge and where environmental barriers like tree cover and hills will over some protection from wind damage. Keep in mind that these hurricane holes fill up quickly with boats. You should know where your first choice to leave your boat is, and also have two or more back-up plans. Don’t assume you can just hitch your boat to a trailer and drive it out of town with you. In the case of mass evacuations, where shelters are full and inland hotels are struggling to keep up with demand, parking a boat in the parking lot is simply unreasonable. Further, it can impede other people’s evacuations. For this reason, if you boat needs to move out of town, you should know a location in advance where you can take it.

If you boat is kept on a trailer by your home, when a storm threatens, move the trailer as close to the home as possible. You should secure it to the trailer with extra ties, and then weight the whole thing down as much as possible. Let the air out of the trailer’s tires.  

Whatever you do with your boat, remove any valuables you can as a storm approaches, and make sure you have the legal documents for the boat. Above all else, keep yourself safe first! Don’t attempt to board your boat once the storm begins, and is an evacuation is ordered; never stay behind to keep an eye on your boat. 

 

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