Tropical Storms
Tropical Storm Hanna is on her way. As I write this, she’s just off the coast of South Carolina and expected to make landfall. She’s expected to give us 20 – 55 mph winds (depending on the current forecast) and a 2 – 4 ft. tide surge.
First notice I received that I needed to consider doing something about my boat was from the marina. They have a list of owners who want their boats hauled out immediately in case of a hurricane. That means they’ll be the ones getting first dibs on the space available. Since Hanna wasn’t (isn’t) expected to be that strong, there wasn’t going to be an automatic haul-out. But they would take it out of the water if I wished. I didn’t think it was necessary.
Next notice was an email from my insurers, BoatUS, who suggested I read about Named Storms in my policy. Okay. Here goes…
The applicable deductible amount showin on the Declarations Page will be subtracted from each loss. It will not apply in the event of a total or constructive total loss.
However, in the event of any loss caused directly or indirectly by a storm named by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and if your bot is located in the state of VA, FL (and about 1/2 a dozen other states)
…. blah blah blah….
Basically, the deductible is bigger if NOAA deems the storm namable. You can reduce that amount if you have the boat on dry land and it’s lashed down and the sails are removed.
What to do, what to do.
Next I heard from Dave, who suggested I add extra lines to hold my boat, lashing down the boom, and removing the sails. Of any advice I receive, I tend to put Dave’s first.
So, Thursday night, I headed over and talked with some of the other owners who were preparing their boats for the storm. They were tying down their roller furlers, rather than removing the jibs, and doing the same to the mainsails. I did the same. I also lashed the boom to the aft port and starboard cleats. I put all the fenders out. At one owner’s suggestion, I put a line from the transom (I’m parked transom in) to the cleat on the slip a couple away from mine. He said there wouldn’t be anyone around to trip over it (hope he’s right!). So I did that, too.
Now to wait a couple of days and hope it all works well!