Preparing your boat for a hurricane

Boat owners are advised to move their boats out of area marinas in the event of a hurricane evacuation.

Most boaters tie their boats to sheltered “hurricane holes” around the state. Hurricane holes are low-lying tidal creeks with high banks, often sheltered by trees.

One of the worst things a boater can do is leave a boat on a trailer on land because it’s very likely to blow over. Marinas urge that no one stay on a boat during a storm.

Hurricane holes

Mooring or anchoring your boat before a hurricane approaches, especially in a harbor of refuge that isn’t crowded, is a good bet for the safety of your boat.

You should use two storm anchors at an angle off either side of the bow (facing the wind direction if known) and a third storm anchor directly in front of the bow.

In either case, it’s important to have plenty of scope — at least 10-to-1 — and a lot of heavy, oversized chain at the anchor. A 10-to-1 scope means that if the water is 10-feet deep and the top of your bow is four feet above the water surface, you need at least 140 feet of line out.

A hurricane hole should be far enough inland to provide shelter from high winds and tidal surges, but not so far as to be difficult to reach in a short time.