In Part 1 we looked at strategy, now let’s drill down to choosing a place to shelter and then in Part 3 I will share how Phyllis and I prepare once we get there.
Surviving Storms While Coastal Cruising—9 Tips for Anchorage and Harbour Selection
42 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutes
More Articles From Online Book: Heavy Weather Tactics:
- Introduction—We Need A System
- Goals For A Heavy Weather System
- Rogue Waves Are Not Bad Luck
- Just Get a Series Drogue Designed By Don Jordan…Dammit!
- Jordan Series Drogue Attachments And Launch System
- Alternatives to Chainplates For Drogue Attachment…Or Not
- Jordan Series Drogue Retrieval System
- Jordan Series Drogue Retrieval—An Alternative From Hal Roth
- Series Drogue Durability Problems
- Battle Testing a Jordan-Designed Series Drogue—Round 1
- Battle Testing a Jordan-Designed Series Drogue—Round 2
- Real Life Storm Survival Story
- Series Drogues: Learning From Tony Gooch
- Series Drogues: Learning From Randall Reeves
- Retrieval of Dyneema (Spectra) Series Drogues Solved
- Heaving-To
- When Heaving-To Is Dangerous
- Stopping Wave Strikes While Heaved-To
- Determining When Heaving-To Is Dangerous
- Transitioning From Heaved-to To a Series Drogue
- Storm Strategy—Fore-Reaching
- Surviving A Lee Shore
- Storm Survival Secret Weapon: Your Engine
- Storm Survival FAQ
- Companionway Integrity In A Storm
- Q&A: Safety of Large Pilothouse Windows
- Surviving Storms While Coastal Cruising—12 Strategy Tips
- Surviving Storms While Coastal Cruising—9 Tips for Anchorage and Harbour Selection
- Surviving Storms While Coastal Cruising—21 Preparation Tips
- Gale And Storm At Anchor Or On A Mooring Check List
- Summary And Conclusions For Heavy Weather Offshore Section
Please Share a Link:
Point 2 resonates with me, living in a mountainous region in Scotland and having worked yachts up here for many years. One thing that catches out a lot of newcomers when it blows hard in what otherwise appear to be ‘sheltered’ sea lochs with high ground to windward and (worse) valleys. Not only can the katabatic winds be pretty scary, but in (say) a typical frontal shift from SW to NW can funnel the wind down a ‘new’ valley lying to a single anchor the boat may swing into shallow water or even ashore.
This is one of the few times I’ll set a second anchor, taught as I was to always set that anchor in the direction of the expected shift – with many happy results. Also, to set the heaviest anchor and cable in the direction you expect the strongest wind to come from, again – it makes sense.
And – if possible – keep plenty of room between. you and other yachts!
Great article!
Colin
Hi Colin,
Good points, particularly about valleys.
Loch Ranza on Arran has not one but two valleys feeding into its head. We learned a lesson there! Howling winds in the loch, but only F4 just on the outside.
As a frequent visitor to Oyster Bay, I think you get a lot of room to anchor because the mooring balls are as rock solid as they come, at least those used by Oyster Bay Marine Center. I’m not arguing your premise about avoiding moorings in bad conditions, as you have MUCH more experience than I, but the balls in Oyster Bay – and at Block Island – have served us well during big blows.
Great article. Thanks for this.
Hi Brian,
Good to hear. As I said in the article, I’m sure there are many good moorings, the difficulty is for a stranger to figure that out. Sadly I have been lied to far more often than I care to think about. The other problem is that many people, including many mooring field operators, are woefully ignorant about how the loads on a mooring scale with boat length: exponentially.
And a further problem is that often when I have asked a mooring field operator how a given mooring is constructed the answer has been a torrent of abuse along the lines of “don’t tell me my job…yada, yada”.
Great article and tips.
Regarding marinas, we are very lucky with the marina in New Orleans (New Orleans Municipal Yacht Harbor) where we keep our boat that after it was devastated by Katrina in 2005, it was rebuilt with concrete floating docks that move up and down on 2’ diameter steel pilings. The pilings could handle up to a 15’ storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain. The main hazard we have in that marina if affected by a hurricane or tropical storm is being sure neighboring boats secure properly and remove sails and canvas. During Ida in 2021, a boat owner two slips down from us did not take down their RF jib and the force on the furled sail (as well as the oscillations) brought the mast down. The sail was still furled but the sag in the forestay due to the weight of the sail set up the oscillations. I’m amazed when I see hurricane damage in marinas of how many masts are down due to RF sails being left up.
Hi Bob,
Good to hear your marina has done a good job. On roller furling, I will get into that stuff in part 3.
The bottom holding is something else worth considering. It needs to be matched up with the right ground tackle to get a good hookup. I guess in most cases you have to take what is on offer, but if I have my choice, I like a deep mud bottom where a special hurricane rig oversized Fortress on a 10 foot cable backed up by rope rode can dig in. Just know what the bottom is like and match your anchor to it if possible.
Another nice feature is marshlands along the edge of the creek so that if you lost your anchor, say to a tree washing down the creek or a loose boat careening around the anchorage, you have a better chance of washing up on something soft. Of course, a good dense forest behind the marsh to help break the wind is a plus. With these conditions, the 100 boat marina that I was in on the Neuse River in North Carolina saw no serious boat damage in several tropical storms.
To reiterate John’s comments on the dangers of staying in a marina – we always put our boats out in the creek. In one storm, a massive oak tree came down on the marina dock and smashed it part way out from shore. The structural integrity of the dock was compromised and the whole thing came to pieces. If boats had been on it, they would have been lost.
Reading John’s article and the comments makes me understand the range of situations sailors can face, especially cruisers who are far from their home port. We all know the dangers of local knowledge, but if a reliable source is available who can give you a take on which anchorages have good holding, it can be helpful. In combination with all the other factors in the article and commentary, it can give you the best chance of riding out the storm.
Hi Paul,
Actually I have never worried much about holding. Much of the information in cruising guides about holding dates back to CQR and Bruce anchors, and so is no longer meaningful. For example, Great Salt Pond is frequently damned for poor holding, ditto the Bahamas, but we have never had a problem in either. So for a long distance cruiser I think a better strategy is to carry anchors that are effective in a wide range of bottom types. Our Spade holds well in pretty much any bottom type, and we carried a Fortress for soft bottoms, although I don’t think we used it more than a couple of times after we got the Spade, maybe not even that.
Bottom line, most any anchorage that is sheltered enough to consider for a storm, will have good holding, at least with a modern anchor like the Spade.
As to local knowledge of holding, I’m afraid, in my experience, that’s very rare. Many people are willing to opine, few actually know, and the difficulty for the long distance cruisers is to figure out who the few are. Consequently, after some years of being told a great deal of absolute rubbish with absolute certainty, I got the point where I just smiled and nodded, and then did what I thought best.
Hi John,
Lots of good points, some of which I have even learned the hard way. Being someone who really likes watching storms, I have watched many boats on moorings and anchors violating #1 and even in relatively moderate conditions they get into big trouble very easily. Our priorities of excellent swell protection and reasonably sized seem well aligned.
A thought on moorings. Many towns in the US now have their mooring tackle requirements posted online and searching something like “town mooring tackle requirements” will turn them up. While it doesn’t guarantee that the service people follow the regulations, it gives you an idea of how serious the town is, if they allow lightweight concrete blocks, small chain and small pendants, it gives you a clue of their risk tolerance.
Thinking about holding power and different bottoms, I am maybe a little bit more pessimistic. For example, a 40′ sailboat should use a 33lb anchor per Spade’s recommendation and then using your sizing of 2 sizes up, you get a 55lb. Then if we take the holding power to weight of the anchor from Panope’s testing of ~10X for soft mud (not dissimilar to some of the numbers from other testing such as that of Jonathan Neeves), we get an expected holding power of ~550lbs. Comparing this to your recommendation for a hurricane mooring which I would scale to be 3700lbs submerged (I just scaled the 7000 lbs submerged weight by 83^2 /113^2 to bring the recommendation from cat 3 to cat 1) which equates to roughly 3700lbs holding power we get a discrepancy of nearly an order of magnitude. The numbers I used are all a little fuzzy but the difference is big enough to be a little worrying to me. Of course, if we were to look at some of the better bottoms, that same Spade would be expected to have a holding power of 6000lbs+ which is even more than the mooring in most cases. Even the best anchor in that soft mud bottom is going to be doing only a little over 1000lbs holding for that ~55lb sizing which will be dragging before you get to a cat 1.
This issue of the huge range of holding power has long sort of bothered me and I have seen several dragging events that I believe are related to it. At the same time, I think it can be managed, of the people that I know who do this, no one has dragged more than once and most have never dragged probably because most bottoms are decent and most storms are not as bad as your criteria. What I have decided to do is size the anchor large, have an anchor that is good at poor bottoms (this was dumb luck), avoid places that could funnel the wind, avoid rock, kelp and soft mud bottoms (we often sound them with the anchor to check), power set hard, and then be ready to leave the boat if needed which I think is generally pretty well aligned with your recommendations maybe except the bottom type. This has worked well for me over many years but my cruising has been less remote than your and in more forgiving places. I guess my main point is that I would not be comfortable with a 2 sizes up anchor combined with a poor bottom and winds in the 60 knots+ range. So as hard as it is to pick a bottom, I do feel there is value in avoiding the bad ones as one of the tools in addition to picking the right tackle but I am not suggesting we all need perfect sand bottoms every time it blows.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Good points on the mooring to anchor decision, but I think there are a couple of other factors to take intro account:
So in summary, I agree with you in theory, but given the uncertainties in practice and our experience I would still stick with our anchor, unless maybe a guy named Eric, who I trust not to lie to me, offered my his moorning with a Dor-Mor.
And on that note, I once borrowed a mooring from a very experienced friend in Maine on the basis that it had 3:1 scope and a 1000 lbs mushroom. It blew maybe 25 knots and we dragged and damaged another boat that cost me $2000 to fix.
My friend was horrified and had the mooring pulled. Turned out the morning field operator had changed it for a 200 lbs mushroom when he found the shank corroded on the original and never told my friend, even though he knew my friend had a 50 foot sailboat. His excuse “oh, that’s just your guest mooring”.
And that’s just one of my mooring horror stories.
Hi John,
Agreed in general with your points. Hopefully my comment didn’t imply that I am pro mooring over anchoring (I don’t think I have ever used a rental mooring for strong weather), just that the town regulations are one tool you can use if you are considering a mooring. Unfortunately I have had many not great experiences with mooring service providers as well. Years ago I went to set up a new mooring and asked the local guy for the price of a 6000 lb concrete block and he tried to convince me to go with a 2000lbs block which was even less than the 3000lb town requirement which he felt wasn’t necessary to meet as a 2000lb one looks huge and is easier to handle. I ended up providing everything to my own spec (500lb Dor-Mor which he told me was too small and I should swap for a 300lb mushroom which is bigger) and then heard never ending complaints about how my mooring was the hardest to service because of how heavy the chain was until he sold the business and for the first time we have a great mooring guy whose approach aligns well with me (he was happy when we upgraded to the 1000lb Dor-Mor).
One thing that I am not sure on is what to make of the actual holding power in really soft bottoms. Do you know of any good data showing whether soaking an anchor actually improves holding or just setting? I am skeptical that it really helps holding but I am not a soil mechanics expert and haven’t seen data either way. I think Panope does set reasonably slow as the winch setup is quite slow but I shoot for even slower when doing it in a known poor bottom. I have a friend with a mooring in an interesting spot as there is a stream that enters a few hundred feet away and there is 10′ less water there than when he was a kid. When they lift his mooring block, they can tell they are lifting the block when there is still 15′ more chain out than the depth. We played around with a few anchors there >10 years ago and in that location, we couldn’t make much difference in holding power once set provided that we very slowly ramped power and had a rode that was sufficiently stretchy to keep the load from peaking. He did try leaving anchors there for a whole week to soak and at least there we couldn’t tell a difference. This was un-instrumented and before we owned a Mantus which would have been interesting to see the results of but it definitely showed some anchors did better than others and it seemed like the technique was simple as long as you could get the initial set right.
I think there is also a big gap that we can’t ignore between ability to test set and actual loading in something like a cat 1 hurricane. A typical 40’er with a 50hp engine might have on the order of 700lbs reverse bollard pull and a bit over 1000lbs forward bollard pull, the exact number is very dependent on the specific boat’s setup. That 700lbs is a lot less than the ~2500lbs expected load in a strong cat 1. It is also scarily close to the expected holding of a good anchor in a soft bottom. This is a bit of a pessimistic view of the world but I don’t think we can always count on backing down telling us everything if we are really expecting a severe storm but up to maybe 50 knots it is a pretty good method.
Anyways, you may be right and I may be pessimistic but I do try to use bottom in my anchorage selection when we might see really strong weather. For normal things like gales, we are less picky as our anchor is not operating near peak holding and powersetting gives a good check. My definition of poor is also not necessarily the cruising guide version. I too have sat out a nor’easter in the Great Salt Pond and consider it a fine place for that provided it is not in-season when there are boats dragging everywhere due to inappropriate tackle and poor technique.
And you are always welcome to try out the Dor-Mor.
Eric
Hi Eric,
All good points. I agree that there is no support for the idea that soaking the anchor helps, and after a few tests early in my anchoring experience I don’t bother. I also agree that there are soft bottoms that just won’t work, often around the mouth of streams, but I do think that with patience and really good setting technique a good set can be achieved in a lot more places than the cruising guides, or local knowledge, say.
One thing I disagree slightly on is that I think that the setting technique used for all anchor tests is way too quick and that we can improve the real world results a long way with better and more patient technique. The result of this thinking is that I put a lot less weight on test results than most people. (Not criticizing the testers, if they took as long setting an anchor in soft bottom as I do, the tests would never get done.)
I also agree that even a WOT test is no guarantee. That said, we have never in thousands of sets with a Spade dragged once set, so I think that what may be happen is that over time with load on the anchor ramping up as the winds increase it digs in deeper and deeper to the point that it reaches thicker mud under the thin stuff. And of course, if I’m right about this, no anchor test would show it, because they ramp the load up over minutes, not hours or days.
Of course I have no way to prove any of this, other than the no drag record and that retrieval after a storm, even in a supposedly bad holding harbour, has often required getting the rode straight up and down, locking it off with the massive chain brake, and them waiting a few minutes as the surging of the boat slowly dragged it out, sometimes assisted by quite a bit of throttle.
I certainly don’t want to turn the comments to this post into an anchor debate, but I have often wondered if the high tip weight of the Spade and the lack of a roll bar help it to go on digging deeper and deeper until it finds a thicker mud. Then again, one could argue that the fabricated stock would resist that, so, once again, all this is speculation at best.
In summary, our approach to storm prep was that as long as we had the shelter specified in the article above, and our Spade best bower withstood a WOT test, we were happy to stay in a given anchorage and that never failed us.
You may want to research soaking. The US Navy has investigated this re. moorings, there are principles well understood in civil engineering (I worked in New Orleans way down the delta a good bit, and the soil is pudding), and I have run instrumented tests in the Chesapeake bay. The hold typically doubles in soft mud, but the effect will be much, much less in sand or firm clay. The flip side is that yawing that makes the anchor wiggle greatly reduces holding by liquefying the soil. Also well known in civil engineering.
But it is not as simple as just letting it soak. There has to be a soak-set-soak-set cycle. Sometimes wind gusts can do this passively, but additional setting after a soak is more effective.
A downside is that if the anchor is unset by a sharp wind direction change, you are starting over from the beginning and will probably drag.
And you are right, debating which anchor is best is like herding cats. It depends so much on the bottom.
Hi Drew,
I would certainly not claim that soaking is always useless, too many variables. Rather soaking has never done anything useful for me and that I had never found anything that conclusively shows that a repeatable soaking technique will help that much.
The other problem with soaking, in my experience, is that we can spend hours screwing around with it, and then still find that the bottom still won’t yield a safe set, and so have wasted valuable time that could have been better used in finding a better place.
So, in the real world of voyaging I have found it best to try a long slow set and then if that does not work, move on.
I would add that in a soft bottom I use very little setting force, and also let up the minute the anchor moves, and then start again at an even lower force, so I suspect the technique that has often worked for me is very close to “soaking” but quicker—our usual rule is that if we don’t get a decent set in 30 minutes, and/or two attempts, we are gone, no point in beating a dead horse.
All that said, in all our years of cruising with a Spade we have failed to achieve a good set less than 20 times.
More on how we set: https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/03/14/15-steps-to-getting-securely-anchored/
I really cannot overemphasize the importance of staying out of large waves in general, and particularly the big swell, when hunkered down for a storm.
Wind just exerts forces on the exposed parts of the boat. They’re straightforward aero drag forces, easily understood and relatively easy to design for, and relatively small compared to the boat’s weight.
Large waves act on the boat’s reserve buoyancy…. yeah, that extra 30 tonnes worth of buoyancy that a 10-tonne boat carries in the hull above the waterline. The resulting forces are *huge*, on the order of the boat’s weight or more. And the boat’s motion is constrained by a rode or pendant that’s bar-taut under these loads. Sketch out the free body diagram for a boat so tethered, and work out the reaction forces as the swell passes under it, and you end up with some terrifying numbers.
Engineering a system to work with those forces is unbelievably expensive. There’s no way around it – if you’re going to tie up the boat when bad weather is on the way, you *MUST* find a place that is sheltered from large waves and swell. Once you’ve got that covered, wind is (comparatively) easy to secure for.
Hi Matt,
Great comment, but I’m left wondering how high are “large waves & swell” when it comes to anchoring loads? I’m thinking this is probably a non-linear progression. So the margin for error may be less than many think?
Which begs the question, if we are caught out by an un-forecast storm change, when does being anywhere near our anchor system become extremely hazardous, and we should be planning to slip, not recover it?
Have you seen, a table / graph / calculator, approximating anchor system loads for say a 10 tonne boat (do loads increase linearly with tonnage?) plotted against wave height (peak to trough)?
A quick Google search revealed a load calculator from the EU for ships: https://www.ocimf.org/anchoring-systems-environmental-load-calculator that wasn’t very usable for a small craft.
And a small craft calculator: https://anchorchaincalculator.com/
that requires you to manually calculate and input the wave / swell energy.
Neither of these seemed to answer my question, but if one existed or could be created, it would surely be a great companion to this valuable article.
Many thanks,
Rob
Hi Rob,
I hear you on the desirability of quantifying this kind of thing. That said, I actually think that with these kinds of situation that are, I suspect, impossible to quantify, the very process of trying to can be a dangerous way to come at it.
Rather I think it better to just say to ourselves that swell exposure is simply not an option we will contemplate.
Of course the counter argument is “but if we get caught out, having the danger quantified will help us make good decisions”.
But my answer to that is getting caught out in a swell exposed harbour is a seamanship fail that there is no excuse for, particularly given the quality of forecasting we enjoy today.
Of to put it another way, if say Matt was able to (bet he won’t) calculate that a 1 meter swell was safe for a given boat and ground tackle that would seem to allow us to say, “oh, this slightly swell threatened harbour is OK, so we don’t need to travel 100 miles to a better one”.
Sounds logical, but in fact in my view that’s a totally flawed way to think since how would we determine for sure that a given harbour would never have more than 1 meter of swell in a given storm—classic example of piling variables on top of variables.
Bottom line, I tend to stay away from any thinking that will give me a mental excuse not to do the right thing. And the right thing is go as far as it takes to access a zero swell harbour.
I *can* calculate it, at least approximately, but there’s no way I (or any other engineer) would put my seal on the resulting figures and give them to the client. There’s just too much uncertainty, it’d be life-safety critical if anyone were to rely on it, and there are no reliable codes or standards against which to compare it.
Stay out of any place where there’s any risk of waves higher than your gunwales or longer than your waterline, and you’ll likely be on better footing than most folks….
Thanks Matt, great answer. Nice rule of thumb.
Hi Matt,
Very good point on the effect of the reserve buoyancy of the hull. I have to confess I had never really thought of it in that way before. A very useful learning.
Hi John, excellent article and comments thanks.
It always amazes me how much wind AND accompanying waves can bend around a headland as the wind strengthens…especially if there is deep water close in.
We have learned the hard way to bail early, with un-forecasted wind and wave direction changes, often 45 degrees or even more, exposing an otherwise sheltered anchorage. Leaving said untenable anchorage (why is this usually at night?) and out into open water, only to find the wind direction completely as forecast. The only difference being higher wind strength.
So perhaps an extension to Tip 1? Be ready for wind to bend significantly around headlands as the wind strength increases, and the accompanying significant waves / swell, especially if the main deep water channel is in close.
Hi Rob,
Good point, but I would not add it to #1 because, in my view, we should never select an anchorage or harbour that’s subject to swell, even if it’s unlikely to be so affected by the forecaster wind direction.
So, in the example chart at the top of the post, the whole of that harbour is not affected by swell from the north west, but I would still only consider the north west arm because things can change at the last minute and further an underlying swell can run against the wind for a surprising long time.
Thanks John, complete agreement on swell, especially open sea or ocean swell.
My thinking is more on locally created waves from local fetch. Our immediate cruising ground is the Hauraki Gulf, a large playground with numerous sheltered anchorages, all protected from swell by Great Barrier Island and Coromandel. Hundreds of beautiful anchorages to be found, sheltered from forecast wind.
But as the wind strengthens and the waves bend around a headland, your wave fetch may go from a few hundred metres to 1, 2 or even 10 nautical miles caused by this “bending”. Not swell, but still significant wave heights, yes?
Hi Rob,
Good question. As you say, not ocean swell, so far less dangerous, but still a potential problem. Hard to come up with a solid recommendation, other than the classic cop out “use your common sense”. Still, while less than satisfying, that’s probably the best answer since there are so many variables. What I would say is that if expecting force 10 (full storm) or above I would not stay in an anchorage that was open enough for the waves to bend around a headland. Or to put it another way, when the wind gets that strong I don’t want any wave to get to me that has had more than a mile of fetch to build, and half a mile is better.
Look at the shot of the small boat in Great Salt Pond in the post above to see what the wave action looks like with half a mile of fetch, and when I took that shot the wind was down to Force 8 or so.
Hi John, also thinking about the effects of current on anchorage selection.
“Wind won’t hurt us”, but perhaps “wind against current” could in some anchorages?
And being swept slightly side-on to the wind by a strong current, would be more than unpleasant too.
Many seemingly good “cyclone holes” are up an estuary, but can also have 2 knots or more of current at spring tides, plus any effect from tidal surge. Add 60 knots of wind against the current, half a nautical mile or perhaps less of fetch, and I think you could experience waves that could challenge most anchor systems.
I accept such current would be easing the anchor system load, to some extent, but may facilitate more extreme yawing (30 degrees plus), which can challenge a vessel’s anchoring system without too much trouble.
Hi Rob,
A very good point, that I should have had as number 10. Thanks.
At what point does waves become swell? Say your example of Little Harbour. I have a very similar place nearby, but the entrance is a bit wider. Outside, there are a few miles of fetch if there’s a southerly storm. Similar places exist all around here, with various amount of fetch outside the entrance.
Further, on that note I also find the question of how big waves are acceptable to be a very interesting question. Not as a mental excuse, but sometimes it is just impossible to find the perfect place to ride out a storm/hurricane. Personally I have to go to work and can’t take many days to move my boat 150 miles to a new location twice a week in winter. So then you just have to make it work. My local harbour I don’t trust that much. Last winter we had 100+ knots, and even though my boat was not hurt, what I was tied up to was crushed, and most other boats had from small damage to total destruction. I too prefer anchoring if at all possible.
Swell is a result of distant weather systems and will have a longer period to local weather generated waves. Another issue with swell is that it may run at an angle to the local weather generated waves, resulting in additional +/- heights to the local waves (including holes), and there can be more than one swell direction if there is more than one distant weather system. Swell can exist for along time, depending on the speed of the distant weather system, local waves may be short duration in comparison, depending on their weather system.
Shearing of the boat at anchor due to wind, can cause both good setting anchors, as well as less efficient anchors, to reduce their hold. Pretty sure I first came across this reported in Practical Sailor. Waves or swell, could continue this weakening of anchor hold if the boat continues to shear due to wave or swell impact once the wind reduces.
I think there comes a point where leaving a boat moored in winter, and untended, becomes more risky than placing the boat ashore. However, being ashore and secure depends a lot on the yard and many yard practises are questionable and unsatisfactory. Boats ashore do survive violent storms if properly supported in a well designed cradle (a lot of cradles are of an abysmal design for assured stability in very high winds). That is a whole conversation in itself.
Hi Arne,
Adding to Alastair’s excellent answer: I define swell as waves that come from the ocean and have built up over hundreds of miles. So, for example, Little Harbour could never have swell since it’s within the Bras d’Or Lakes, a nearly land locked series of inlets.
That said, see my answer to Rob, and the post above, for a rule of thumb on fetch for all waves.
Also, if tied to a wharf, I want far less fetch, see the Article.
Hi, thanks both Alastair and John (and the other comments). At some point there will just always be a compromise. I don’t trust the local yard to leave the boat on shore (the cradles are not very good, and they won’t let me take my mast down because it “takes too much space and time”). The harbour/marina is pretty rough in the worst wind directions, so I don’t trust it either for really bad weather (even though I don’t have an option all the time), and I have to go to work. But so far I have managed a couple hurricanes and numerous storms. The point is, I simply don’t have the option to always choose a perfect option, so knowing some rules of thumb for how to choose the “lesser evil” can be handy. I have gotten a lot of tips here, that both reinforce my current practice, and will help me make more informed decisions going forward! Thank again! 🙂
I agree with the loading and deflection of anchored pontoon systems in marinas. My own marina, is deepwater and thus anchored, but has 360 degree protection from waves, with just narrow entrance (Scotland). However, last year in a Force 12+, my leg of the marina had a significant bend in it. The long interval is bolted together in sections with rubber buffers between the sections. It held well and the operator does change out moorings and pontoon sections at various intervals. The chains are very substantial as are the concrete blocks which moor the marina.
Another marina, I was based at, (Scotland again) also fully enclosed, but with pontoons secured with piles driven into the seabed, alarmingly twisted in winds over 100 kts. There is a large sea wall around the marina but the combined wind loading on the berthed yachts would have been significant, with the pontoon system buckling to about 45 degrees and then hanging up on the piles as the tide fell, leaving many suspend until gravity or the wind dropping allowed them to fall. Again, not much damage.
The biggest issue I see, afloat all winter, apart from the usual poor mooring line practice and poorly secured sails, is the modern hull form. These high sided, sitting on the water hulls will rapidly heal in violent gusts to an alarming angle. If moored next to a traditional hull shape, sitting deeper in the water, the two boats heal at different speeds. Check that masts and rigging are not in line with your neighbour if hull forms are significantly different to avoid potential clash risks.
Hi Alastair,
All good points. I had not thought of the problem of light high sided boats and the associated rig danger.
THANK YOU! This is an excellent article for me. I have owned my Hans Christian 43T for one year and I am terrified about this hurricane season. My boat is in Alabama and I have no experience with this type storm preparation. I have been advised to anchor in a tight shallow anchorage where many others will ride out the storm. My boat weathered Katrina in Lake Pontchartrain by its previous well-skilled owner. So I know the boat can handle it. Your advice is a great help and very timely.
Hi Terry,
Thanks for the kind words. I know what you mean about being terrified by this hurricane season. Anyone within range of of hurricanes who is not terrified, given how warm the water is, is an idiot.
I just finished part 3 and will publish it next week, so hopefully that will be equally helpful.
Terry, I weathered a tropical storm at Barber Marina at Orange beach in 2018-never again! Should have moved around the corner on the ICW to one of the muddy-bottomed coves on the mainland side. At least you will have a softer landing than smashing into concrete and rocks if things go badly. Then Barber was completely destroyed a couple of years ago, even though it had massive and secure concrete pilings holding new floating concrete docks. Glad we were long gone by that point but sadly several acquaintances who were still there lost their boats.
Reflection of Swell. It can absolutely snake up creeks, as you say, but it is generally reflected back out by a 90 degree turn. My home creek is like that. Boats on the other side of the 90 degree turn have been destroyed by tropical storms, and just around the corner all is (relatively) quiet.
Fenders and Fender boards. If you are going to stay at a wharf you will need serious fender gear, not just marina stuff. The boards should be wide 2-inch lumber, not thin boards or varnished stuff. Put as many fenders behind them as will fit; the storm forces will try to flatten them. At least three for each board, with the end fender secured to the board so that they can’t push out the ends. Tie the boards against side forces and shifting, like spring lines. Make sure the rope will not ecome trapped and chafe.
If the wall is flat but the tide will go up an down a lot, consider vertical strings of fenders. But unless there is something slippery they will tend to stick to the wall and ride up when the tide drops. I don’t know a good cure for that. The best bet is sturdy fender boards on a piling.
Finally, consider that once the wind hits the boat you won’t be able to move anything or add anything. Start with overkill.
Hi Drew,
I agree that a 90 degree turn will stop swell in a creek like those in the Chesapeake Bay that are generally shallow and with muddy banks. However I would not count on a 90 Degree turn if the outside of the turn is steep-to since I have seen swell reflect round the turn in cases like that. A good example is the yacht club in the opening graphic which has been repeatedly hit by swell.
As to fenders, I will cover that in the next chapter on preparation.
Awesome article, thanks. I, like many people, had things a little backwards. I feared the wind the most. Next time a blow is coming, I’ll have my priorities in order. I have a question however. You say not to fear fetch, but swell is the biggest danger. I assume then that you don’t mean the swell caused by too much fetch (short and choppy), but rahter long ocean swell? Thanks.
Hi David,
That’s correct. Chop, within reason, won’t hurt us, but if ocean swell gets to us things will go wrong very quickly.
Awesome, thanks.
One lesson I seem to refuse to learn, and this has been in fair weather fortunately, is that a mooring or anchor spot w/o swell upon arrival at low tide, can be quite different at high tide, if its protection submerges.