[Rhodes22-list] Hurricane Damage

Bill Effros bill at effros.com
Mon Jun 13 14:04:14 EDT 2005


Thanks for taking the time, Bob.  Each of us will face a problem like 
this sometime, we just don't know when.

 From your description, it sounds like the best protection you got was 
from your anchor.  What type of anchor were you using?  How do you set 
it while your boat is in the slip?  Or do you set it first?

I am on a mooring with a 300 Lb. mushroom anchor.  My boat has ridden 
out several storms, and some hurricanes--but not like yours.  All the 
boats in my cove (there are 100s of them, widely spaced) are on properly 
sized mushroom anchors and there is very little boat to boat damage 
during storms.  My inclination is that my boat is safer on the water 
than it is on the land.

Up here, people have special mushroom anchor setting boats.  The anchors 
are pulled periodically and all of the tackle inspected and replaced as 
necessary.  The anchors set solidly in the mucky bottom, and, for the 
most part, stay where they are set.  I have never set additional anchors 
in the face of approaching storms, in keeping with my "ain't broke-don't 
fix" philosophy.

Bill Effros

Robert Quinn wrote:

> Bill:  As always there are lessons learned.  Kathy and I were out of 
> the area when the storms hit but we had done quite a bit before we 
> departed the area in June, several months before the storms.  We have 
> the boat nestled away in a canal not too far from our home behind a 
> friend's home who rents the dock to us.  We had stripped the sails, 
> bimini, stored the dinghy and dinghy motor in our garage, placed chaff 
> guards, made sure that there was nothing lose around (other than the 
> hatch covers).  We had made arrangements with friends to double the 
> lines if anything came up. (We will do that ourselves this year before 
> we leave for points north in July. The doubled lines should be 
> attached to the pilings, not the dock or dock cleats as we pulled one 
> out). Our friends also placed an anchor off the dock to keep the boat 
> from "crashing" into the dock and dock pilings. This worked extremely 
> well for the first storm (Francis).  The anchor was picked up and 
> moved back to the side of the boat after the storm passed through.  
> Everything great thus far.  For Jeannine however, one of our friends 
> was not in the area. The second fellow saw the line dangling over the 
> side of the boat and assumed that the anchor was set.  It was not, so 
> for Jeannine we "kissed" one of the dock pilings causing the rub rail 
> to "shave" a couple of inches off of the piling.  The rub rail - 
> stainless steel, bent but on the positive site the hull was not 
> compromised.  In the process we lost a stanchion base (cracked/broke), 
> the mid-ship chocks were loosened / stripped,  the coveline stripe was 
> scraped off, additionally a nice scratch in the hull. Additionally, 
> the standing rigging was stressed to the point that a spreader 
> cracked.  The spreader had to be welded back together, all the 
> standing rigging needed to be replaced, and all the running rigging 
> was replaced. The rigging issue can to some extent be attributed to 
> the age of the boat (1983) but on the same token I had it surveyed in 
> 2003 and replaced the forestay, Genoa/jib furling drum and swivel.  
> (Lesson learned:  Be sure the anchor is set to keep you off the dock!)
>
> All in all, a very stressful situation; however, we still have a 
> sailboat! There were many, many that were complete write offs.  Our 
> biggest issue was getting work done as there was just so much work out 
> there that those in the boat repair business were forced to go to a 
> first come, first served basis. We had to coordinate between the yard 
> where the boat was hauled, bottom painted, and waxed, the rigging 
> company (Mack Sails in Stuart, who did a great job), and the hull 
> repair people in addition to lining up the parts. We also wound up 
> doing some minor motor work - replaced all of the hoses and tuned her 
> up. We also replaced the transmission and acceleration cables as they 
> were "sticking" periodically (found that the cable housing was worn 
> away at an attachment point).  There items that we wanted to do and 
> the time was right.  We also took the opportunity to pull the hatches 
> to replace the grommets (not a fun experience).
>
> Other than pulling the boat out of the water and putting her on the 
> "hard," I'm not sure that there was much more that we could have 
> done.  Sad to say though that some of the boats that were on the 
> "hard" suffered more extensive damage than we took.  In two nearby 
> yards, boats were knocked off of their stands which created a domino 
> effect - not a pretty site.  The yards are re-evaluating their options 
> as well.  One yard up in Melbourne was 100% successful with their 
> system.  All of the boats on the hard survived as they also had tie 
> down points (spider webbed) set into their concrete yard, similar to 
> how aircraft are secured.  Many yards are trying to duplicate this 
> system.  Other yards in Florida though are going out of business.  The 
> ownership has found that they can sell their yards to development 
> companies anxious to build condos overlooking the water.  This is a 
> major concern of us boat owners.  The state is attempting to come up 
> with some Marine Industry incentives to keep these yards from selling 
> out.  The next couple of years, will indeed, be interesting.
>
> The biggest frustration was quite simply having to wait nearly seven 
> months to get the boat re-commissioned so we could sail.  {:>)
>
> At this point we are considering our options for the 2005 hurricane 
> season. Right now leaving the boat in the same place seems the best 
> bet as the local yards are not yet ready to do the "spider web" trick 
> done up in Melbourne. (The Melbourne, yard by the way, is pretty small 
> and only had m/v housed on their property.)  We have a "qualified" 
> monitor to keep an eye on the boat this season, so we will cross our 
> fingers that the good Lord and Neptune will spare Stuart and the rest 
> of Florida from the devastation of 2004.
>
> Bob on the "NoKaOi"
>
> PS:  It was much easier to"drop the mast" on the R22, put her on her 
> trailer, and tie her down in a safe area.  {:>)
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Effros" <bill at effros.com>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 11:18 AM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Hurricane Damage
>
>
>> Bob,
>>
>> What happened to your boat in the hurricanes?  Could you have done 
>> anything differently to prevent the problem?  Are you doing anything 
>> differently now?  Are there any general lessons to be learned?
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>
>> Robert Quinn wrote:
>>
>>> Wally's suggestion has a lot of merit.  We moved to a larger boat, a 
>>> Tartan 37 keel/center boarder.  While we truly love her, the 
>>> simplicity of the R22 is missed.  We "bareboated" in the Caribbean 
>>> for ten years and did fall in love with the feel of the bigger boat 
>>> with the ability to sail, swim, and snorkel ourselves to the point 
>>> of exhaustion.  However, US waters do not provide as friendly an 
>>> atmosphere.  The Keys are great when the weather cooperates; 
>>> however, the Keys are a three day sail from our home port while the 
>>> Caribbean is a two to three hour flight.
>>>
>>> We still have not made the Bahamas as last year's hurricanes 
>>> necessitated repair work.  We re-commissioned in late April but the 
>>> weather has not been very favorable in our neck of the woods 
>>> recently - three weeks of rainy thunderstorms.  We did get a great 
>>> sail from the St. Lucie inlet down to the Lake Worth Inlet for an 
>>> overnighter three weeks ago.  We then came back up and spent the 
>>> night on Peck's Lake, a little cut in the intercoastal.  It was fun 
>>> as we sailed in the company of two other boats: a sister ship and an 
>>> IP28.
>>>
>>> For simple day sailing though, the R22 is tops. Our plan is to move 
>>> back to the R22 when we feel the T37 becomes too hard to handle.
>>>
>>> Bob on the "NoKaOi"
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wally Buck" <tnrhodey at hotmail.com>
>>> To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 10:18 AM
>>> Subject: RE: [Rhodes22-list] Larger boats
>>>
>>>
>>>> Charter a big boat, keep the R22. I think that is my outlook for 
>>>> the next few years at least.
>>>>
>>>> Wally
>>>>
>>>>> From: "J Cook" <joscook at msn.com>
>>>>> Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>>>>> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>>>>> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Larger boats
>>>>> Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 09:55:48 -0400
>>>>>
>>>>> I know some of the list members have larger boats.  My wife has us 
>>>>> seriously hunting for one, but so far, I haven't been able to get 
>>>>> too excited.  I'm pretty stuck on the R22 design for sailing and 
>>>>> ease of maintenance and storage.
>>>>>
>>>>> She likes the stern swim platforms and all the creature comforts 
>>>>> on some of the newer boats.
>>>>>
>>>>> I like the heavier, older designs with a centerboard or shoal 
>>>>> keel, and solidly constructed.
>>>>>
>>>>> She'd prefer  more of a  floating condominium that could 
>>>>> comfortably sleep another couple for a weekend and go to the 
>>>>> islands for several months at a time.
>>>>>
>>>>> I would be just fine with keeping my R22.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any suggestions on compromise here?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Joseph
>>>>> __________________________________________________
>>>>> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> __________________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________
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>>>
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>
>
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