Hurricanes and the H37C.

[Ed Schenck]

Do any of you H37C owners have hurricane experience? Specifically I worry about the strength of the Sampson post. Anyone know how that is backed? Its really all that we have short of using the mast. You could extend nylon rode back to a stern winch or cleat I suppose. But wouldn't you need blocks to guide it? And those would be attached to a too weak toe rail.

I came down here to NC for a long weekend of sailing and boat work. So what happens? All the talk is about moving the boats to safe anchorages. And not if, but when. Here they use two anchors attached to 10 foot of cable to cut the mud and set properly. Then as close to 100 foot of 3-strand nylon as there is room for. The favorite storm anchor is the FX and then a "brake" on a shorter rode. So what do I have? All chain rode and a 35 pound plow. That will have to be my bake.

Some of these guys have rode(punny) out five storms in one year! I'm going home to Lake Erie!!

 

[Val]

glass and wood

Not sure, but looks like wood encased in glass. It is more than 2" thick and larger than the sampson post base, but ends at the toerail. I have access to that area since enlarging the anchor locker on my '85.
The sampson post bolts only have normal/small washers and lock washers under the nuts.

Can't help much with hurricane anchoring, no experience.

Sounds like tandem anchors or maybe a dual tandem mooring as described in the following link:

http://www.captfklanier.com/articles/art29.html

The 37c bow is not set up for extreme anything. The chocks are useless. I am thinking of installing cleats on the toerail or much larger chocks and cleats inboard.

I used to use snatch blocks to run the anchor rode back to the winches before I installed my windlass, but probably not a viable storm setup.

 

[ed]

Insure well and worry knot or is it not.

Your enemy is chafe and excess windage, removed everything you can and put it below, put extra chafe gear on the rodes, and let her swing, and she will as you already know. I dont think your concern here should be the post, but it is run back up lines from the post to the winches. If you pull that loose you wont want the boat back anyway.

99% of you concern should be minimising chafe and a long good rode.

too bad your not here in tampa, we dont get hit here - often.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Hurricane tackle.

I am ashamed to tell you how much that pile of ground tackle in the picture set me back. And it does not count thimbles and shackles. So here is what the experts on the dock suggest:

Primary will be the Fortress with one of those 10' cables that you see and the rest 5/8" 3-strand, also pictured. Then 20' of fire hose seen in the picture for chafe. The bitter end will go back to the mast from the Sampson post.

The secondary "brake" anchor will be my current CQR-35 will all chain rode but with one of those cables between the anchor and chain. I will use a 20' snubber of 5/8" 3-strand also with fire hose and going to the Sampson post.

Val is right, the boat needs good cleats and leads. But there is no time for that now. The only question remaining is do I stay with the boat? Tampa Bay I am coming.

 

[Tom]

Lake Erie

is the safest place. Having seen what Katrina did here on the Mississippi gulf coast as a CAT 3 hurricane my opinion is that anchoring a boat in the path of a major hurricane is futile. My H310 was secured in a 40' wide canal on the west side of the Bay of St. Louis by 800' of 1/2" 3 strand 4 miles from the coast and tied to pine trees. When I got back to the boat after the hurricane 5 of 8 lines had broken but by some miracle the boat settled back into the canal. I didn't see any other boats that had stayed put. Even the boats that had been hauled were gone. Looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off.

Don't mean to be a pessimist but your only real defense is not to be in the path of the storm.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Tom and Katrina.

Tom, am I to understand that you were tied off to eight points and without anchors? Most of us would never have that luxury if I can call it that. Experienced hurricane sailors around here advise against anything but two anchors. Three years or four years ago they endured four hurricanes but I do not remember the categories. But they did not lose any boats. The main complaint around here are those who just throw out an anchor and then that boat comes loose and through the fleet. But if/when I am unfortunate enough to have the experience I will report back.

 

[Pete]

Luck of the draw

Katrina was a cat 3 pushing a cat 5 surge. The damage extended far inland from Camille's wrack line, which everyone had thought of as a worst-case scenario.

My boat was about 10 minutes away from Tom's, in a little marina off Lakeshore Drive. I can't remember the name of the marina, or the bayou it was on.

When I got there, my boat was gone. All the boats were gone. The marina was gone. The concrete-block office building was gone. I don't believe there was anything anybody could have done in preparation to save the boats, other than leave.

 

[Sanders]

Tampa, Maybe not...

Ed, Sure enough, if you move to Tampa this summer a big one will just follow you there. I think it is one of Murphy's laws.

Whereever you are, lay on the heaviest tackle you have and leave. The boat can be replaced.

Good luck,

Sanders
'

 

[ED]

hurricane stuff

I already live in tampa so it is too late for me. I just have to live with mother natures wim.

We try to discourage too many people from moving down, but Shenck is already promised me he will make it. I want to race him with my 37c.

But your right about murphy. So maybe i should just be quiet.

A good friend of mine has sunk a big iron cross, made of i beams welded together in the wide canal behind his house. Whe the storm lurks he hook in to it with a double chain rode, reduces all the windage he can and goes to his brothers in Arizona. I think thats really the best plan i know of.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Gulf not looking too good. . . .

this hurricane season. Now there is another one in the Gulf and they named it after me, Edouard. The south coast has got to be a nervous place for sailors. So does Tampa Bay consider itself south or west? When I do finally get there any storm activity will be blamed on Ed A.