(Greg) wrote in message ...
There was a lot of eastbound traffic on the Okeechobee
Waterway on Thursday afternoon, and not everyone made it past the
first lock before they closed.

Did you see the guy in the sail boat who was trapped outside the Sanibel
bridge? He didn't have an engine so he wasn't willing to try getting around
Boca Grand pass and down the inside to the river. Last I heard his boat was
smashed on the bridge and he was missing. If he had gone south and holed up in
New Pass or even the cove in Big Carlos he probably would have been fine.
================================================== ============
No, we started out from our house which is about 10 miles upriver from
the Sanibel bridge. Too bad about the guy and boat. There was
another sailboat sunk by the storm about 1/2 mile north of the Cape
Coral bridge. This was a boat that had been anchored there for a few
weeks and had someone living aboard. No idea what happened to them
but it couldn't have been good if they were onboard during the
hurricane.

"Networkin" wrote in message
m...
Boat Survived Hurricane Charley?

Any mooring tips that they could share used during Hurricane Charley?



We here in St. Petersburg dodged a bullet with Charley, and my boat is in a
slip rather than on a mooring, but I'll put in my 2 cents. A few years ago
we had a near pass from a hurricane and many boats at my marina were damaged
from the storm surge and wind/waves. All the failures were not the dock
lines breaking, but cleats getting pulled loose from the boat or dock, I
assume due to shock loads. Then the boats beat them selves to death against
pilings and dock (and other boats). I think people often overdo the dock
lines. I was at a local marine store when we still expected Charley to hit
us and a fellow was wanting 1/2 inch line. The store had sold out of both
1/2 inch and 5/8 inch line. We got to talking and he had a 22 foot boat. My
boat is 26 foot, but relatively light at 3000 pounds. I use 3/8 inch line.
Actually 7/16 inch might be better. For a storm I double up the lines,
leaving the second line slacker than the first so that when the first line
stretches quite a bit the second line comes into play. The line being able
to stretch is very important. Putting on heavier line than appropriate for
the size of boat is the wrong thing to do I think. Also 3 strand nylon
provides better stretch than braided dacron although it does get stiff and
harder to handle.

A side note is that this time I put on a third much longer lines at bow and
stern and fastened to the pilings because I expected that the regular dock
line loops might be pulled up over the pilings by the forecasted 14 foot
surge, which we didn't get thankfully. I don't know that it would have
helped, but couldn't hurt.

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this.


Chuck

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 20:13:41 GMT, "chuck h"
wrote:
A side note is that this time I put on a third much longer lines at bow and
stern and fastened to the pilings because I expected that the regular dock
line loops might be pulled up over the pilings by the forecasted 14 foot
surge, which we didn't get thankfully. I don't know that it would have
helped, but couldn't hurt.

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this.

==================================================

If your pilings are high enough that the deck and rub rail can't ride
over the top in the storm surge, you're in fairly good shape. Next
step is to use long and strong spring lines to position the boat fore
and aft. With solid fore and aft positioning you can hang horizontal
fenders in the right places to absorb the side force against pilings.
I'd recommend doubling up on fenders in case one lets go or moves out
of position.

If you're docked against short pilings you MUST find away to spring
the boat away from the dock using anchors to the side, or spiderweb
lines to an opposing seawall or dock. The damage caused by riding
over the top of a piling is really ugly and difficult to repair
properly. A lot of boats have been totaled that way.