A Guide For Preparing Marinas and Clubs for Hurricanes Philip Hale says he sometimes stands in his boatyard and imagines it under four or five feet of water. Philip looks at all of the yard's valuable equipment that would be transformed into deadly battering rams by a storm's fierce winds. And he looks at the boats. It's a scene that isn't difficult for Hale to imagine. Other marina owners in areas like Charleston, South Carolina and South Florida who were hit hard by Hugo and Andrew are plagued by the same sorts of questions.
Hurricanes do that to people.
One of the most dangerous mistakes a skipper can make is to stay aboard his or her boat during a hurricane. Several accounts given in claim files indicate that there is little, if anything, a skipper can do to save a boat when winds are blowing 100 mph, tides are surging, and visibility is only a few feet. Consider the case of a 68-year old skipper in Charleston, who together with his grown nephew, took their trawler up the Wando River to ride out Hurricane Hugo in what they thought would be a sheltered hurricane hole. He reported that the boat seemed to be doing fairly well, but later that night the wind picked up to over 100 mph and 15' seas sent the boat crashing completely over. The two men were trapped briefly in a pocket of air underwater when another wave rolled the boat back upright.