Hurricane Lines at Dock

[Idratherbesailing]

Those of us on the Gulf coast have some experience with tying up for hurricanes, so I thought I would pass on a method that let my boat survive Katrina's 15+ feet of storm surge at the dock...with only minor damage (the water rose so much that the bow rammed into the roof over the finger pier walkways). You use NEW 5/8 inch 3 strand nylon, run the lines from the back of the boat to over the bow, and from the bow mooring points over the stern. You need to have about 50-60 feet of line for each line for a typical 30 foot boat. Pad well where lines might chafe if the boat rises. You tie the lines tight, and the 15-20% stretch available in the NEW nylon line keeps the boat centered in the dock and allows for a rise of 10-12 feet before the stretch is gone from the NEW ropes. Most of us used two sets of lines, one set tied tight, and another set with a few inches of slack as backup for the first set. Of course, you have to have good points to tie to off the bow and stern to use this method.
It is imperative that you use only NEW rope as the system works because of the stretch and the lenght of rope. Most boats tied this way in my marina on the lakefront in New Orleans survived, those that didn't were generally sunk by other peoples boats that had broken loose, so help tie up your neighbor's boat is also good advice. The rope, once stretched, loses a lot of strength, so don't use it again for hurricane duty or such. It is also important to not use too large a diameter - 5/8" seemed to work well for boats such as mine, 37 Gulfstar, 20,000 lbs. Might use 1/2 inch for a smaller (less than 30 feet) boat.
Another old hand in the marina showed us this method, and it works well. It will handle the typical 5-7 foot rise from smaller storms very easily.

 

[Patrick17430]

One of the reasons I moved my boat from Galveston to SF was because I was sick of dealing with all the hurricanes. If there is a large storm surge. Everything ends up in the water. Cars, trucks. dumpsters, LPG tanks, containers and whatever else is on land. Here's my experience with Ike... Sadly your boat is only as safe as the boats around you. Its amazing but you know all the boats in your marina that sit with seemingly no owners ? well.. those same people don't even bother to come down and check their boats even before a major hurricane. Their boats get loose and your boat becomes the bottom of the dog pile. If your boat gets through unscathed in a marina its mostly due to luck. Tie it down as best you can and get all bimini's, dodgers, gear and sails down and stored at home, hope for the best and remember, That's why you have insurance. My boat escaped with only a few light scratches on the boot stripe from some boards from a house that was floating in the fairway that had nails sticking out. The boat next to mine had another boat on top of it and was a total loss. Throw a hurricane party. It relieves some stress. Good luck

 

[thinwater]

You use NEW 5/8 inch 3 strand nylon, run the lines from the back of the boat to over the bow, and from the bow mooring points over the stern. You need to have about 50-60 feet of line for each line for a typical 30 foot boat. Pad well where lines might chafe if the boat rises. You tie the lines tight, and the 15-20% stretch available in the NEW nylon line keeps the boat centered in the dock and allows for a rise of 10-12 feet before the stretch is gone from the NEW ropes.

Please clarify.

You tied the rope to a bow cleat, ran it through the stern chock, and on to the piling, one on each side. Then repeat for the bow: tie to the stern cleats, through the bow chocks, and on the dock cleats? I can see the advantage of extra line. I have a cat and when we cris-cross bow and stern lines they are more than the width of the slip and do something like this, but not so much. I can (have) managed an 8-foot surge easily enough. Spring lines also benifit from this logic too, if long enough.

How do you insure that the lines won't jump out of the chocks? Chafe is also a concern, as they are going to move a good bit in the chocks. That is the bit I am less than clear on.

Since much of the east coast sees signifigant tides (4-6 feet) daily, the thinking is not exotic, just an extention.

Thanks for sharing what sounds like a good idea.

 

[Idratherbesailing]

You don't go through the bow and stern cleats, you just let the line lie on the boat deck and over the back and front of the boat....chafe protection is important, the chocks are what usually stresses the rope and breaks it during the storm. Almost all of the ropes I saw broken after Katrina were broken where they go through the chocks..stress concentration points, stretches and provides a hard point, the rope parts there. No chocks, just chafe protection. Visualize the points that need padding as the boat rises in the dock.

 

[thinwater]

So what keep the boat from going to the side?

Perhaps I'm just being thick. I like the idea of long lines, but I'm not visualizing this. I get your point about the chocks and agree.

My normal trick, where possible, is to move the lines higher on the pilings, so that when the tide rises they are angled down no more than they are angled up at rest.