So, here goes with what we experienced, what we observed, and what happened. I may have opinions, but I DO NOT HAVE JUDGEMENTS on what people did or did not do, I wasn't in their shoes, I don't know what their particular situation was/is. Of course, we're boaters--everybody has an opinion. It is easy to armchair quarterback, and I'm not intending to do that, but sharing information helps everybody...c'est ne pas?
GET OFF MOORINGS. I realize there is a million reasons that you think your boat will be safer on a mooring than not, and I totally understand. But the fact is for the Keys, mooring fields took a major hit. Boot Key Harbor, Boca Chica, and Key West anchorage/mooring field by Christmas Tree/Tank Island were smacked hard. The mooring may be strong, but the boat won't be, or the line won't be or another boat crashes into you because they didn't prepare. Reportedly boats have been found as far north as Melbourne from Key West. Boats wound up on resort property in Key West, you really don't want that headache. Get off the mooring.
Next biggie. Headsails. Take them off. Don't be this guy:
Every boat we saw, except one, that didn't remove their headsail. The sail was destroyed. Take it down. Save your sail and your sheets. Wrap the halyard around the jib stay. If you had to file a hurricane plan with your insurer and you say you are taking down your head sail and you didn't. You probably won't get paid.
Main Sail-Furling/Stack Pack: Okay. Mixed bag on this one. We decided to not remove our furling head sail because we could get her rolled into the mast pretty darn tight, with little windage and we have an incredibly strong and well-built clew hardware. I added snubbers to the main sheet and outhaul to help offset the load of the winds. That may have helped? No damage to our sail or mainsheet hardware.
However, we did see somebody that left their furling main and the clew hardware failed and the entire clew of the sail was destroyed, not to mention what a pain it will be to unfurl and drop it now. After seeing that, our headsail will most likely come down next time.
Stack packs. Be like THIS guy. If you aren't removing it. You better strap that sucker down. Halyard removed and wrapped around mast. Tie downs every 4-6 inches. SUCCESS. FYI--this boat was pretty exposed in relation to Irma.
I won't name names in order to protect the guilty, but somebody we know didn't secure their stack pack/remove the halyard and in fact left some of the sail up. Result? They lost their mast. Their mast landed on the neighbors fishing boat. That's going to be an awkward conversation at the next neighborhood cookout. Lazy doesn't pay folks--it will just piss people off.
Dinghies: Ours went into the shed. Well, it was already in the shed, but would have wound up their irregardless. Not an option for everybody, I realize. So what to do? Big risk of trying to strap it to your foredeck. I wouldn't want to risk my deck hardware. If you are near a marina, you can most likely have them store it for you. Other than that. Get it off the davits and into the water, tied off well, and tied off for storm surge. Our neighbor (charter boat) dropped theirs, added water to it for weight, but left it tied to the davits. Result: Boat flat and davits destroyed. Or, if not destroyed, really, really screwed up.
Tying off: This is where we got personally bit in the ass somewhat. The forecast was for possibly 10 feet storm surge. Remember that we had to plan with the information we had at the time and get out, no do-overs. As a result, we might have been a bit loose because storm surge only wound up being 3-4 feet. We also had a piling fail and two pilings that were loose. Failed piling + loose lines = Bouncing around in the slip. However, great success in keeping off the sea wall.
When we left we had noticed our neighbor had their boat tied off with a VERY VERY short breast line. That line failed, along with another. So, the moral of the story is: what's the happy medium?
We noticed variations on this theme with all of our boat inspections.
Side note: One of the many things we got lucky on. We nose into our slip and our neighbor backs in. (lots of fun to watch considering its a bareboat charter, but I digress) Because of that our masts were offset. We had boat neighbors lose spreaders because the masts locked up.
Random other things: Toe rail cap rails (usually a stainless steel strip on the toe rail), a lot of those got pried loose when dancing with a piling. Once they were pried loose fiberglass/gel coat/ports started getting damaged. Tim had considered at one point putting a SS cap rail on our teak toe rail. Umm-no. Teak won out over piling.
Cleats on pilings. Some pilings have nails/cleats/whatnot on them. These also wound up doing some damage. A big motor yacht in our marina lost a port over that. Not to mention getting the gelcoat chewed up.
As I get more information from folks on what failed on their boat, I'll probably add another 'just so you know' post.
Until then...stay safe.
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