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During hurricane season, fixed docks make me crazy as there is no good
way to either keep your boat from beating itself to death against the
pilings or when the storm surge really goes up impaling itself on the
pilings. What a stupid situation.

ONLY if you only consider the pilings next to your boat. Using just
those, the boats in our marina survived (just) Isabelle's surge that
exceeded normal high tide by about 6 feet. Water was 3-4' above the
docks and usually is 2-4' below. I believe, but am not sure, that it was
called an 11 foot surge. The primary change everyone made was to move
their dock lines from the dock level to the top of the pilings (3' or
so) and sieze them in place with nail driven in above and bent over the
lines.

The pictures of all the boats lined up with no dock or pilings or shore
in sight, just water and a couple of treetops, no visible means of
support, were neat, but .... the water was flat, wind was coming over
the hill, no shock from bucking around.

Got scared by that so started thinking: Our dock lines are set to just
keep us off the pilings and dock in normal conditions, a 4-6 foot range
of tides. There's enough slack to let us slide a good 10' out the open
end. (assume crossed stern lines at the dock, bow out. Spring lines from
the outer pilings keep us off the dock but there's no practical limit to
how far we can slide out.)

What if we add a second set of heavier lines that go one slip further
over to each side, set to keep us in the same locus? Instead of the
stern lines being 15' long, they'd be 35' or so. Bow lines could be
similarly lengthened, but they're naturally quite long. Springs are less
of a problem, since the boat can slide out with impunity as long as it
stays in that "lane".

Discussed it with the guys I most trust. They liked it, so I got 200' of
line and implemented it the next storm scare. Had it tracked in, I would
have freed or cut the normal lines and depended upon the new lines. All
things considered, I think I would have felt safer with that than
hauling, since a few boats and a couple of cars in the parking lot
floated away during Isabelle. Dock boxes probably wound up in the next
state.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

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