sailboat in hurricane

A Complete Guide To Sailing In A Storm

Sailing in a storm can be a challenging experience but with the right preparation and techniques, it can be navigated safely in most instances.

While it's best to avoid storms when sailing, there are times when storms cannot be avoided.

To sail in a storm:

• Prepare the sailboat for a storm
• Monitor the weather conditions
• Adjust the sailboat to stabilize the vessel in the storm
• Maintain communication with the coast guard

The number one priority when sailing in a storm is safely navigating through the water during these bad weather conditions.

1. Prepare The Sailboat For A Storm

The first step of sailing in a storm is to prepare the sailboat for storm weather conditions.

To prepare a sailboat for a storm:

• Check the rigging & sails : Assess the rigging and sails overall condition. Ensure they are in full working order with no issues with maneuverability or rips in the sails. There should be a storm sail onboard too in preparation for sailing in the storm
• Ensure safety equipment is onboard : Ensure there are liferafts, life jackets for everyone onboard, life buoys, heaving lines, sailing jackets, flashlights, flares, VHF radios, chartplotter/GPS, first aid kits, and fire extinguishers
• Remove the boat canvas/bimini top : In preparation for sailing in a storm, remove the boat canvas/bimini top to prevent it from getting damaged or destroyed or causing injury to passengers onboard ‍
• Ensure loose items are tied down : Any loose items like lines on the deck should be tied down and secured before sailing in a storm. Loose items can become dislodged and damaged or cause injury to passengers onboard if they are not secured during a storm
• Ensure the sailboat's engine is in great condition : Ensure the sailboat's motor is in perfect condition with sufficient oil and fuel to operate during the storm

Preparing the sailboat for a storm will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. This timeframe will vary depending on the size of the vessel and the amount of equipment needed to be purchased and installed onboard.

In preparing for sailing in a storm, there is certain sailboat equipment needed. The equipment needed for sailing in a storm includes a storm sail, heaving lines, sailing jackets, life jackets, life buoys, liferafts, first aid kit, Chartplotter/GPS, fire extinguishers, VHF radio, and flares.

The benefits of preparing the sailboat for a storm are a sailor will be prepared for any issues caused by the storm and a sailor will have the necessary safety equipment to help keep everyone onboard safe during the storm.

One downside of preparing the sailboat for a storm is it can be costly (over $500) especially if the sailor does not have all the right equipment needed to withstand the stormy weather. However, this is a small downside.

2. Monitor The Weather Conditions

The second step of sailing in a storm is to monitor the weather conditions regularly.

To monitor the weather conditions:

• Connect to the VHF radio weather channel : Connect to channel 16 on the VHF radio as this channel provides storm warnings and urgent marine information for boaters
• Use a chartplotter : Modern chartplotters will have marine weather data for boaters to monitor the weather conditions and check windspeeds, rainfall levels, wave height and other relevant marine weather data
• Check a marine weather forecast provider website : If you have internet access on the sailing trip, connect to a marine weather provider for marine weather forecast information in your area

In sailing, weather conditions are considered a storm when the wind speed is 28 knots or higher and the wave heights are 8ft or higher. Other characteristics of stormy weather when sailing is poor visibility with visibility ranges of under half a mile (0.8km or less) and heavy rain with a precipitation rate of at least 0.1 inches (2.5 millimeters) per hour.

It can take approximately 3 to 6 hours for a storm to fully develop when sailing. However, for larger storms, it can take over 2 days for the storm to fully develop.

Monitoring the weather should be done every 20 minutes when sailing in a storm to get up-to-date information on potential nearby locations with better weather to sail to.

The benefit of regularly monitoring the weather conditions is a sailor will be more prepared for the weather that lies ahead and the sailor will be able to make adjustments to their sailing route to help avoid the bad weather.

3. Adjust The Sailboat To Stabilize The Vessel

The third step of sailing in a storm is to adjust the sailboat to stabilize the vessel.

When sailing through the storm, reef the sails to reduce the stress and load on the mast and sails, attach the storm sails, turn the vessel until the wave and wind direction are blowing from the stern of the sailboat, i.e. the wind is blowing downwind. Carefully tack the sailboat slowly until the boat is in the downwind position. Pointing the sailboat downwind is not recommended if the sailboat is near land as it could cause the boat to run into the land.

Alternatively, if the storm is very bad, sailors can perform a "heaving to" storm sailing maneuver.

To perform the heave-to storm sailing maneuver:

• Turn the bow of the boat into the wind : This involves turning the sailboat so that the bow faces into the wind. This will cause the boat to lose forward momentum and begin to drift backward
• Adjust the sails : Depending on the size and configuration of your boat, you may need to adjust the sails in different ways. In general, you will want to position the sails so that they are catching less wind and are working against each other. This will help to slow the boat's drift and keep it from moving too quickly
• Adjust the rudder : You may need to adjust the rudder to keep the boat from turning too far or too fast. In general, you will want to angle the rudder slightly to one side to counteract the wind and keep the boat on a stable course
• Monitor the boat's drift : Once you have heaved-to, you will need to monitor the boat's drift and make small adjustments as needed to maintain your position. This may involve adjusting the sails, rudder, or other factors as conditions change

The heaving to maneuver is used to reduce a sailboat's speed and maintain a stationary position. This is often done in rough weather to provide the crew with a stable platform to work from or to wait out a storm.

This sailing maneuver will adjust the sailboat and should stabilize the vessel in the storm.

The benefits of adjusting the sailboat position in a storm are it will help to stabilize the boat, it will improve safety, it will reduce the crew's fatigue as the crew will not be operating with a boat at higher speeds, it will help maintain control of the sailboat, and it will reduce stress on the sailboat and the rigging system.

Depending on the size of the sailboat, how bad the weather conditions are, and a sailor's experience level, adjusting the sailboat to stabilize it in the storm should take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

4. Maintain Communication With The Coast Guard

The fourth step of sailing in a storm is to maintain communication with the coast guard.

This is particularly important if the storm is over Beaufort Force 7 when sailing is much harder.

To maintain communication with the coast guard during a storm:

• Understand the important VHF channels : During sailing in a storm, be aware of VHF international channel 16 (156.800 MHz) which is for sending distress signals
• Ensure there are coast guard contact details on your phone : Put the local coast guard contact details into your phone. These contact details are not substitutes for using the VHF channel 16 distress signal or dialing 911. These contact details should only be contacted if all else fails

Contacting the coast guard takes less than 1 minute to complete and they are fast to respond in case of an emergency caused by the storm.

The benefits of maintaining communication with the coast guard during a storm are it will help improve safety, the coast guard will be able to provide real-time alerts, and it will provide navigation assistance as the coast guard has access to the latest navigation technology and can guide you through the storm's hazardous areas such as shallow waters or areas with a strong current.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sailing In A Storm

Below are the most commonly asked questions about sailing in a storm.

What Should You Do If You're Caught Sailing In A Storm With Your Boat?

if you're caught sailing in a storm with your boat, you should reef the sails, attach the storm sails and tack the vessel slowly until the wave and wind direction are blowing from the stern of the sailboat.

Should You Drop An Anchor When Sailing In A Storm?

Dropping an anchor can be a useful technique to help keep a boat steady during a storm. However, whether or not to drop an anchor depends on a variety of factors including the size and type of the boat, the severity of the storm, the water depth, and the type of bottom (i.e., mud, sand, or rock).

If you are in a smaller boat that is being pushed around by the waves, dropping an anchor can help keep the boat oriented in a particular direction, reducing the boat's drift. Additionally, it can help reduce the risk of capsizing or being thrown onto a rocky shore.

However, if the storm is very severe with high winds and waves, the anchor may not be enough to hold the boat in place, and it may put undue stress on the anchor and the boat's attachment points. In such a case, it is usually better to try to navigate to a sheltered area or to deploy sea anchors that can help reduce the boat's drift.

It is also essential to be careful when anchoring in a storm as it can be challenging to set the anchor correctly and the wind and waves can cause the anchor to drag.

Is It Safe To Sail In A Storm?

Sailing in a storm should be avoided due to the lack of safety. However, experienced sailors can sail in storms up to Beaufort Force 7 if required. Beaufort Force 8 and higher storms are extremely dangerous to sail in and should be avoided at all costs.

How Do You Improve Safety When Sailing In A Storm?

To improve safety when sailing in a storm, wear a life jacket, hook everyone onboard up to a safety line or harness so they don't fall overboard, reef the sail to improve the sailboat's stability, and understand where all the safety equipment is onboard and how to operate it in case of an emergency.

What Type Of Storm Should Not Be Sailed In?

A sailor should not sail in any storm but especially a storm from Beaufort Force 8 to Beaufort Force 12 as it is considered to be too dangerous.

Can You Sail Through A Hurricane?

While sailors have successfully sailed through hurricanes in the past, sailing through a hurricane should be avoided at all costs. Sailing in hurricane weather is too dangerous and could result in loss of life.

What Are The Benefits Of Sailing In A Storm?

The benefits of sailing in a storm are:

• Improves sailing skills : Sailing in a storm will force sailors to improve their sailing skills and increase their ability to handle rough seas
• Exciting experience : For some sailors, the thrill of navigating through a storm can be an exhilarating experience that they enjoy. The adrenaline rush and sense of accomplishment of successfully sailing through a storm can be incredibly rewarding
• Greater appreciation for the power of nature : Sailing in a storm can provide a unique perspective on the power of nature. It can be humbling and awe-inspiring to witness the raw force of the wind and waves and this can lead to a greater appreciation for the natural world

It's important to note that these potential benefits should never come at the expense of safety. For the majority of sailors, it is smarter to avoid sailing in a storm and instead wait for the bad weather to pass.

What Are The Risks Of Sailing In A Storm?

The risks of sailing in a storm are:

• Boat sinking/capsizing : With high winds over 28 knots and waves and swells at heights over 8ft, there is a risk of the sailboat capsizing and sinking
• People drowning : High winds and high waves during a storm can cause people onboard to fall overboard and drown
• Loss of communication : Bad storm weather can cause the sailboat's communication system to stop working making it much harder to signal for help if needed
• Boat damage : Storm weather can damage the boat including the sails, mast, rigging system, lines, Bimini top, etc.
• Poor visibility : Sea spray, large waves over 8ft, and heavy winds over 28 knots can reduce the visibility to under 500 meters in some instances making it difficult for navigation
• People being injured : People onboard can get injured due to the increase and sharp movements caused by the storm

What Should Be Avoided When Sailing In A Storm?

When sailing in a storm, avoid:

• Getting caught sailing in the storm in the first place : Ideally, a sailor should avoid sailing in the storm in the first place by checking the weather radar and instead wait for the weather to clear before continuing their sailing trip
• Increasing the sail area : Increasing the sail area in a storm should be avoided as it can cause the sailboat to become more unstable and increase the risk of capsizing
• Not wearing a life jacket : Life jackets should be worn at all times when sailing but especially during a storm. Avoid not wearing a life jacket in a storm as there is no protection if someone falls overboard
• Not wearing the appropriate gear to stay dry : Sailors should avoid not wearing the appropriate foul weather gear to stay dry when sailing in a storm
• Not connecting the crew to safety lines/harness : When sailing in a storm, all crew on the boat deck should be
• Not understanding the safety equipment : Sailors should avoid not understanding the safety equipment onboard

How Do You Avoid Sailing In A Storm?

To avoid sailing in a storm, check the weather forecast regularly when going on a sailing trip to know when and where not to sail as the weather gets worse in these areas. If a sailing trip involves passing through a storm, wait in an area where there is no storm until the weather clears up in the storm area before continuing on the voyage.

What Are The Best Sailboats For Sailing In A Storm?

The best sailboats for sailing in a storm are the Nordic 40, Hallberg-Rassy 48, and the Outremer 55.

What Are The Worst Sailboats For Sailing In A Storm?

The worst sailboats for sailing in a storm are sailing dinghies as they offer little protection from the dangers of stormy weather.

What Is The Best Sized Sailboat For Sailing In A Storm?

The best-sized sailboats to sail in a storm are sailboats sized 30ft. and longer.

What Is The Worst Sized Sailboat For Sailing In A Storm?

The worst-sized sailboats to sail in a storm are sailboats sized under 30ft. as it is more difficult to handle rough weather and choppy waves in these boats.

Service Locator

• Angler Endorsement
• Boat Towing Coverage
• Mechanical Breakdown
• Insurance Requirements in Mexico
• Agreed Hull Value
• Actual Cash Value
• Liability Only
• Insurance Payment Options
• Claims Information
• Towing Service Agreement
• Membership Plans
• Boat Show Tickets
• BoatUS Boats For Sale
• Membership Payment Options
• Consumer Affairs
• Boat Documentation Requirements
• Installation Instructions
• Shipping & Handling Information
• Contact Boat Lettering
• End User Agreement
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Vessel Documentation
• BoatUS Foundation
• Government Affairs
• Powercruisers
• Buying & Selling Advice
• Maintenance
• Tow Vehicles
• Make & Create
• Makeovers & Refitting
• Accessories
• Electronics
• Skills, Tips, Tools
• Spring Preparation
• Winterization
• Boaters’ Rights
• Environment & Clean Water
• Boat Safety
• Navigational Hazards
• Personal Safety
• Batteries & Onboard Power
• Motors, Engines, Propulsion
• Books & Movies
• Cockpit Confessions
• Communication & Etiquette
• Contests & Sweepstakes
• Colleges & Tech Schools
• Food, Drink, Entertainment
• New To Boating
• Travel & Destinations
• Watersports
• Anchors & Anchoring
• Boat Handling
• ← Safety & Prevention

Where To Keep Your Boat During A Hurricane

Advertisement

The best predictor of whether your boat will survive a hurricane is where it's kept. The most important consideration should be location.

Boats that are hauled out are far less likely to be damaged during a storm than those left in the water. Using straps is effective at keeping boats from toppling over or floating away.

Going back as far as Hurricane Alicia in 1983, our BoatUS Hurricane Catastrophe Team (CAT) professionals have spent thousands of hours working to identify and recover damaged boats. They've seen firsthand what works and what doesn't when a boat is prepared for a hurricane.

When asked where CAT team members would take their own boats if a hurricane warning were posted, most agreed: They'd have it hauled ashore. For many boat owners and marinas, hauling boats is the foundation of their hurricane plan. Some farsighted marinas and yacht clubs have evacuation plans to pull as many boats out of the water as possible whenever a storm is approaching and secure the rest in the largest available slips.

How To Choose The Best Marina For A Hurricane Or Storm

Securing A Boat Ashore

Some types of boats must be pulled if they're to have any chance of surviving. For instance, smaller open boats and high-performance powerboats with low freeboard will almost always be overcome by waves, spray, and rain. This is true even if the boats have self-bailing cockpits. Fortunately, most of these boats can be placed on trailers and transported inland.

Boats ashore should be stored well above the anticipated storm surge, but even when boats are tipped off jackstands and cradles by rising water, the damage they sustain in a storm tends to be much less severe than the damage to boats left in the water. Windage is also a consideration. If nothing else, reduce windage as much as possible (see Find And Fix Potential Breaking Points ). Make sure your boat has extra jackstands, at least three or four on each side for boats under 30 feet, and five or six for larger boats. Jackstands must be supported by plywood and chained together to stop them from spreading. To reduce windage, some ambitious boat owners on the Gulf Coast have dug holes for their sailboat keels so the boats present less windage. Smaller sailboats are sometimes laid on their sides.

One technique that has proven very effective involves strapping boats down to eyes embedded in concrete. At least two marinas in Florida and one in Puerto Rico have used straps with excellent results. One of the Florida marinas strapped the boats to eyes embedded in its concrete storage lot. The other Florida marina and the one in Puerto Rico built heavy concrete runners (similar to long, narrow concrete deadweight moorings) beneath the boats to anchor the straps. (Straps made from polyester work better than nylon, which has more stretch). Even when the wind has been on the beam and water has come into the storage area, the straps held and boats stayed upright. An alternative tried at other marinas has been to use earth augers screwed into the ground to secure the straps. Results with the latter technique have been mixed; some have held while others have been pulled out. All things considered, any attempt to anchor a boat on shore is worth the effort.

Securing A Boat In The Water

Any boat in the water should be secured in a "hurricane hole," which means a snug harbor protected on all sides from open fetch and unrestricted storm surge. (Don't even think about riding out the storm at sea unless you're the skipper of an aircraft carrier!) The trick is deciding which harbors will still be safer if a hurricane comes ashore and which ones will be vulnerable. Storm surge — high water — is a major consideration. A storm surge of 10 feet or more is common in a hurricane, so a seawall or sandy spit that normally protects a harbor may not offer enough protection in a hurricane.

Another consideration is rocks. Crowded, rock-strewn harbors are picturesque but not a good place to keep your boat in a storm, particularly if your boat breaks loose. If you plan to anchor, choose your bottom well for holding your type of boat with your type of anchors. Also, water can sometimes be blown out of the harbor, leaving boats stranded briefly. If this happens, your boat would rather settle onto anything but rocks.

At A Fixed Dock

Members of our BoatUS CAT Team estimate that as many as 50 percent of the boats damaged at fixed docks during hurricanes could've been saved by using better docklines — lines that are longer, larger, arranged better, and protected against chafing. If you decide to leave your boat at a dock, you'll need to devise a docking plan that's liable to be far different than your normal docking arrangement. By the time preparations are completed, your boat should resemble a spider suspended in the center of a large web. This web will allow the boat to rise on the surge, be bounced around by the storm, and still remain in position.

Lines should be extra long to allow for surge. Double lines up where possible. (Illustration: Erich Stevens)

Take a look at your boat slip and its relation to the rest of the harbor. For most boats, you'll want to arrange the bow toward open water or, lacking that, toward the least protected direction. This reduces windage and keeps the strongest part of the boat — the bow — facing the storm. If your boat has a swim platform, especially one that is integral to the hull, you'll need to take extra care that the platform can't strike anything. Boats have been sunk when their platforms were bashed against a bulkhead.

Next, look for pilings, dock cleats, trees — anything sturdy — that could be used for securing docklines. Avoid cleats that do not have sufficient backing. Just bolting them through dock planks will probably not suffice. Not all pilings are sturdy, though. Old wood pilings that are badly deteriorated should obviously not be relied on in a storm. The same is true of older concrete pilings, which seem to be more susceptible to snapping in half (and sometimes landing on boats) than their more pliant wood counterparts. Many of the boats that were wrecked in Hurricane Charley had been secured to concrete pilings that couldn't stand up to the lateral stress and twisting. And at least one marina in Pensacola had almost all its concrete pilings fail. All things being equal, wood is a better choice unless the concrete pilings are relatively new.

If you don't have a slip, tie extra-long lines to pilings or cleats to allow for the surge, which could be 10 feet or more. Use anchors or long spring lines to keep the boat from striking the dock. (Illustration: Erick Stevens)

Lines should also be a larger diameter to resist chafe and excessive stretching. On most cases, you should use ½-inch line for boats up to 25 feet; 5/8-inch line for boats 25 feet to 34 feet, and 3/4- to 1-inch lines for larger boats. Chafe protectors (see Find And Fix Potential Breaking Points ) must be on any portion of the line that could be chafed by chocks, pulpits, pilings, and so on. To secure lines to hard-to-reach outer pilings, put the eye on the piling so that lines can be adjusted from the boat. For other lines, put the eye on the boat to allow for final adjustment from the dock.

How to Tie Up Your Boat For A Hurricane Or Storm

At A Floating Dock

Because they rise with the surge, floating docks allow boats to be secured more readily than boats at fixed docks. There's no need to run lines to distant pilings because the boats and docks rise in tandem. Floating docks only offer protection from the surge, however, if — a HUGE if — the pilings are tall enough to accommodate the surge. In almost every major hurricane, there have been instances where the surge has lifted floating docks up and over pilings. When that happens, the docks and boats, still tied together, are usually washed ashore in battered clumps.

If you plan to leave your boat at a floating dock, it's critical that you measure the height of the pilings. Will they remain above the predicted storm surge? Pilings that are only 6 or 7 feet above the normal high tide probably won't be safe. When floating docks have been rebuilt after hurricanes, the new pilings have almost always been much taller, up to 18 feet tall, and are far less likely to be overcome by surge than the 6- to 8-foot pilings that they replaced. Taller pilings are much more "stormproof."

Canals, Rivers, and Waterways

Whenever canals, rivers, or waterways are available, they serve as shelters — hurricane holes — and may offer an alternative to crowded harbors and marinas if you have no alternative. Your mooring arrangement will depend on the nature of the hurricane hole. In a narrow residential canal, a boat should be secured in the center with several sturdy lines ashore (the "spider web") to both sides of the canal. This technique was common to most of the boats in canals that survived recent hurricanes. Conversely, boats that were left at docks without the benefit of lines to both sides of the canal didn't fare any better than boats at marina docks.

The boat should be facing the canal's entrance and be as far back from open water as possible. Besides sheltering the boat, being away from the entrance should help with another consideration, which is the need to maintain a navigable waterway. Securing boats in residential canals is possible only if you make arrangements with the homeowners whose trees and pilings you'll be using to secure your boat. This can be difficult if your boat isn't normally moored in the canal. If your boat is already in the canal, getting other homeowners involved in planning for a hurricane increases the chances that your boat (and theirs) will survive. This is important because all it takes to wreak havoc in a narrow canal is one or two neglected boats coming loose.

In wider canals and waterways, boats should be secured using a combination of anchors and lines tied to trees ashore. More lines and anchors are always better. Try to find a spot that is well away from open water and that has tall banks, sturdy trees, and few homes. Moor your boat away from the main channel. Other considerations: A hurricane hole that ordinarily takes an hour to reach may take two hours or more to reach when winds and seas are building, bridges will likely not open as frequently once a hurricane warning has been posted, the bridges may be locked down for evacuation by vehicle, or the hurricane hole may be crowded when you get there. Plan on moving your boat early.

At A Mooring Or At Anchor

Mooring in a sheltered location can also be a good alternative to exposed harbors and/or crowded marinas. A boat on a mooring can swing to face the wind, which reduces windage, and can’t be slammed into a dock unless the mooring or anchor drags. The first question, then, is, will your mooring hold? As a result of numerous moorings being dragged during hurricanes and northeasters, a study by the BoatUS Foundation, Cruising World magazine, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that a 500- pound mushroom buried in mud could be pulled out with 1,200 pounds of pull (supplied by a 900-hp tug); an 8,000- pound deadweight (concrete) anchor could be pulled out with 4,000 pounds of pull. A helix mooring, however, could not be pulled out by the tug, and the strain gauge recorded 12,000 pounds of pull — its maximum — before a shackle burst apart from the strain. Scope in each case was slightly less than 3:1.

Helix moorings were found to hold better than other types of moorings, withstanding more than 12,000 pounds of strain.

The holding power of a mushroom or deadweight mooring anchor can be increased by extending the pennant's scope, which has as much to do with the holding power of a mooring as it does the anchor itself. (Additional scope, while always advantageous, appears to be less critical with helix anchors.) Studies have found that when the angle of pull increases to 25 degrees, a mooring's holding power begins to weaken precipitously. So in shallow harbors, where a scope of 3:1 can be had with, say, 20 to 30 feet of chain, the advantage of scope is all but eliminated in a storm by a combination of a large tidal surge and the high, pumping motion of waves. Note that in a crowded harbor, scope must be increased uniformly on all boats.

Finally, when was the last time your mooring's chain was inspected? Chain that is marginal in the spring won't be sufficiently strong at summer's end to stand up to a hurricane. A harbormaster should know how long your chain has been in use and whether its condition could be iffy. If you have any doubts about your mooring, the chances of it failing can be reduced significantly by using one or two additional storm anchors to enhance its holding power and to decrease the room your boat will need to swing.

As with moorings, conventional storm anchors rely on scope — at least 10:1 if possible — to increase holding power. Heavy, oversize chain is also recommended; 50/50 is probably the optimum chain-to-line ratio. In theory, a riding weight, or sentinel, placed at the chain/ line juncture will lower the angle of pull on the anchor and reduce jerking and strain on the boat. During a hurricane, however, its value will be diminished by the extreme pressure of wind and waves, and a sentinel (and the weight of the chain) should never be relied on to compensate for lack of scope. To absorb shock, an all-chain rode must have a snubber (usually nylon line) that is 30 percent of the rode's length. Without the nylon line, the surging waves and intense gusts are much more likely to yank the anchor out of the bottom.

BoatUS CAT team members have consistently found that boats using single working anchors were much more likely to have been washed ashore. Conversely, more and larger anchors (suited for the type of bottom) increased a boat's chances of staying put. One CAT team member says he's impressed with the number of boats that ride out storms successfully using two large anchors with lines set 90 degrees apart. With this technique, one rode should be slightly longer than the other so they won't become tangled should they drag. Even more staying power can be had using the tandem anchoring technique — backing each anchor with a second anchor. Using tandem anchors allows the first anchor to dig a furrow so that the second can dig in even deeper. A study done by the U.S. Navy found that the use of tandem anchors yields a 30% improvement over the sum of their individual holding powers.

One more important note: Chafe gear is essential on any line, but it's especially important on mooring and anchor lines. Recent storms have given dramatic evidence that a boat anchored or moored is especially vulnerable to chafing through its pennants. Unlike a boat at a dock, which is usually more sheltered and secured with multiple lines, a boat on a mooring is more exposed to wind and waves and will typically be secured with only two lines. Lines on the latter will be under tremendous loads and will chafe through quickly if they aren't protected.

Trailerable Boats

A trailer is, or should be, a ticket to take your boat inland to a more sheltered location away from tidal surge. But your boat won't get far on a neglected trailer that has two flat tires and rusted wheel bearings. Inspect your trailer regularly to make sure it will be operable when it's needed.

If you take your boat home, you may want to leave it, and not your car, in the garage. A boat is lighter and more vulnerable to high winds than a car. If this isn't practical, put the boat and trailer where they'll get the best protection from wind, falling branches, and other hazards. Let some air out of the trailer tires and block the wheels.

Increase the weight of lighter outboard boats by leaving the drain plug in and using a garden hose to add water. (Rain will add a lot more water later.) This has the added advantage of giving you emergency water (not potable) if the main water supply gets knocked out by the hurricane. Place wood blocks between the trailer's frame and springs to support the added weight. On a boat with an inboard or sterndrive, remove the drain plug so the engine won't be damaged by flooding.

Secure the trailer to trees or with anchors or augers. Strip all loose gear, bimini tops, canvas covers, electronics, and other items and then lash the boat to the trailer.

Boats On Lifts

When asked, "Where wouldn't you want your boat to be in a hurricane?" just about all of the BoatUS CAT team members consistently say they wouldn't want their boat to be on a hoist or lift. Damage to boats on lifts has been high and has included boats being blown off cradles, bunk boards breaking (and spilling the boats), boats grinding against lift motors and pilings, boats being overcome by the storm surge, and boats filling with rainwater and collapsing lifts. The boats that do survive were typically subjected to only a slight surge, and the lift had been secured so that the boat and its cradle couldn't be tossed around by the wind, and the boat was covered to reduce the weight of rainwater.

Whenever possible, boats on lifts or davits should be stored ashore. If the boat must be left on its lift, remove the drain plug so the weight of accumulated rainwater won’t collapse the lift. If the tidal surge reaches the boat, it will be flooded, but leaving the plug in place is likely to result in more serious structural damage. Tie the boat securely to its lifting machinery to prevent the boat from swinging or drifting away. Some boats survived on their lifts when their owners used heavy straps to attach them to well-secured cleats on the dock. Plug the engine’s exhaust outlet and strip the boat. Make sure cockpit drains are free of debris.

Boats On High-Rise Storage Racks

In Hurricane Wilma alone, three large steel storage racks with thousands of boats collapsed. Typically, older storage racks are more vulnerable than ones that were constructed in the past few years. On newer buildings, the supports will be free of rust and the "loosening" effect of previous storms. Newer ones are also more likely to have been built to a higher standard with more and heavier structural supports to withstand higher winds. A marina owner should know how much wind a steel building was designed to withstand. If not, or if there is any doubt about the structure’s ability to stand up to an approaching storm, boats on storage racks should be placed on trailers and taken elsewhere.

Is Your Marina Stormproof?

Here are eight things to look for when it comes to selecting a hurricane-safe marina:

A marina should have a comprehensive hurricane plan that outlines who does what when a storm approaches. Slipholders may have to sign a pledge to secure their boats properly, whether ashore on in the water, which can prevent your boat from being damaged by someone else's. A "hurricane club" (often with a deposit) can guarantee you'll be among those hauled out first.

2. Protection From Wind And Waves

Open water is the biggest enemy of boats in a marina during a storm. Look for tall breakwaters and small openings to the big water outside. Smaller breakwaters may be underwater during a surge. Bulkheads should be tall and sturdy and not in need of immediate repair. High banks around the marina can help keep the worst of the wind at bay.

3. Floating Docks

These should have pilings tall enough to keep the docks from floating away during a high surge (even a Category 2 will have surge of 6 to 8 feet or more). Cleats should be heavy and well-attached.

4. Fixed Docks

These should be sturdy without loose pilings or rotting wood. Taller pilings make it easier to attach longer lines to help with surge. Cleats need to be thru-bolted through substantial structure in wood docks. Loose planks can be carried away in the surge, making accessing your boat after the storm harder and more dangerous. For all docks, larger slips allow more room for movement without banging into the dock.

5. Haulout Facilities

If your marina can't haul your boat (boats are nearly always safer ashore), you'll need to move your boat to another one, which may be hard to do when a storm threatens.

Higher ground for hauled boats mean less likelihood of being toppled by high water or even washed away. The best marinas have anchors in the ground that boats can be strapped to.

7. High-Rise Storage

Only those built fairly recently are designed to withstand real hurricane force winds. Most built in the last few years are, but ask your facility.

8. Marina Office

Buildings should be on high enough ground to survive the surge, otherwise management may take months to clean up, access records, and operate again.

Related Articles

The truth about ceramic coatings for boats.

Our editor investigates the marketing claims of consumer-grade ceramic coatings.

Fine-Tune Your Side Scan Fishfinder

Take your side-scanning fishfinder off auto mode, and you’ll be spotting your prey from afar in no time

DIY Boat Foam Decking

Closed-cell foam flooring helps make boating more comfortable. Here’s how to install it on your vessel

Click to explore related articles

Charles Fort

Contributing Editor, BoatUS Magazine

Charles Fort is BoatUS Magazine's West Coast Editor. He often writes local news items for BoatUS Magazine's Waypoints column and contributes to Reports, in-depth tech features in every issue written to help readers avoid accidental damage to their boats. He is a member of the National Association of Marine Surveyors, he's on ABYC tech committees, and has a 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard license. He lives in California.

BoatUS Magazine Is A Benefit Of BoatUS Membership

Membership Benefits Include:

Subscription to the print version of BoatUS Magazine

4% back on purchases from West Marine stores or online at WestMarine.com

Discounts on fuel, transient slips, repairs and more at over 1,200 businesses

Deals on cruises, charters, car rentals, hotel stays and more…

All for only $25/year!

We use cookies to enhance your visit to our website and to improve your experience. By continuing to use our website, you’re agreeing to our cookie policy.

• New Sailboats
• Sailboats 21-30ft
• Sailboats 31-35ft
• Sailboats 36-40ft
• Sailboats Over 40ft
• Sailboats Under 21feet
• used_sailboats
• Apps and Computer Programs
• Communications
• Fishfinders
• Handheld Electronics
• Plotters MFDS Rradar
• Wind, Speed & Depth Instruments
• Anchoring Mooring
• Running Rigging
• Sails Canvas
• Standing Rigging
• Diesel Engines
• Off Grid Energy
• Cleaning Waxing
• DIY Projects
• Repair, Tools & Materials
• Spare Parts
• Tools & Gadgets
• Cabin Comfort
• Ventilation
• Footwear Apparel
• Foul Weather Gear
• Mailport & PS Advisor
• Inside Practical Sailor Blog
• Activate My Web Access
• Reset Password
• Customer Service

• Free Newsletter

Ericson 41 Used Boat Review

Mason 33 Used Boat Review

Beneteau 311, Catalina 310 and Hunter 326 Used Boat Comparison

Maine Cat 41 Used Boat Review

Tips From A First “Sail” on the ICW

Tillerpilot Tips and Safety Cautions

Best Crimpers and Strippers for Fixing Marine Electrical Connectors

Thinking Through a Solar Power Installation

Getting the Most Out of Older Sails

How (Not) to Tie Your Boat to a Dock

Stopping Mainsheet Twist

Working with High-Tech Ropes

Fuel Lift Pump: Easy DIY Diesel Fuel System Diagnostic and Repair

Ensuring Safe Shorepower

Sinking? Check Your Stuffing Box

The Rain Catcher’s Guide

Boat Repairs for the Technically Illiterate

Boat Maintenance for the Technically Illiterate: Part 1

Whats the Best Way to Restore Clear Plastic Windows?

Mastering Precision Drilling: How to Use Drill Guides

Giving Bugs the Big Goodbye

Galley Gadgets for the Cruising Sailor

Those Extras you Don’t Need But Love to Have

UV Clothing: Is It Worth the Hype?

Preparing Yourself for Solo Sailing

How to Select Crew for a Passage or Delivery

Preparing A Boat to Sail Solo

On Watch: This 60-Year-Old Hinckley Pilot 35 is Also a Working…

On Watch: America’s Cup

On Watch: All Eyes on Europe Sail Racing

Dear Readers

Chafe Protection for Dock Lines

• Inside Practical Sailor

Choosing the Perfect Hurricane Hole

Florida boaters should brace now for ian, projected to become a major hurricane wednesday..

With Tropical Storm Ian entering the Gulf of Mexico and the projected path bringing storm force winds to the Florida Keys by as early as Monday night, boaters there should be activating their hurricane strategy. If this strategy involves moving to a more protected “hurricane hole” they should plan to be safely secured there at least two days before the arrival of storm force winds in their area. Current projections show Ian becoming a hurricane a landfall somewhere along Florida’s West Coast near Tampa Bay late Wednesday night, but this is subject to change.

Waiting too long can bring conditions that will make it much more difficult to secure the boat. And you want to be sure to allow plenty of time for evacuation, if needed. The storm’s intensity can change as it moves up the Gulf, but current projections show Ian to become a major hurricane by the time it crosses the island of Cuba. Boaters in Florida and the Gulf States should monitor updates on Ian at the National Hurricane website.

Keep in mind that there is no guarantee your boat will survive a hurricane, even in the most protected hurricane hole. In a direct hit, your preparation may only mitigate the damage. It is up to the captain to choose a location that will best avoid a direct hit, and offer good protection should the storm swerve in your direction.

No matter how much protection you have, it is not worth the risk to stay on your boat during a hurricane. I’ve done that— as have many cruisers who’ve survived to tell the tale—but I would not do it again. Ultimately, if you’ve done your homework and preparation, there is not much more you can do when the eye-wall arrives.

The problem with staying aboard, even in an ideal location, is that you will find it hard to resist the urge to go on deck when things really get nasty, and the risk of flying projectiles is very real. Two men who stayed on a power boat during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 were swept overboard. During my own brush with Super Typhoon Paka in Guam , a cruising sailor was seriously injured when he tried to tend to his lines at the height of the storm. Going out in the storm for any reason puts you at much higher risk of getting hurt or killed.

Hurricane Preparedness

First and foremost, check with your insurance policy to see if anchoring or shore-tying your boat in a hurricane hole will negate coverage. Some policies stipulate that you stay in a marina ( a risky option ), on a hurricane mooring, or most commonly – haul completely out of the water, a choice which comes with its own unique risks. My own policy is simply a liability policy to cover any damage my boat might cause, so, like many sailors in Florida, my own boat is self-insured. Her survival depends on my preparation. And my hurricane hole.

This article addresses three typical hurricane hole types – storm moorings, creeks and canals where shore-tying is possible, and well-protected waters where you must rely on your own ground tackle. If none of these options appeal to you, see our reports on hurricane storage ashore and preparing for a storm in a marina . This blog focus on selecting a hurricane hole. It does not address the gear, or procedures for securing your boat in the hurricane hole. For that, you can turn to one of our many reports on preparing your sailboat for a tropical storm .

Other Practical Sailor resources include our e-book on Hurricane Preparedness , which cover the topic from every angle, as well as our e-book on Anchors , which includes dozens of anchor tests in various bottoms and specialty ground tackle for storms.

Mooring Fields

Many islands throughout the world have fields of hurricane moorings in coves or harbors that are nearly surrounded by land or breakwaters to protect against breaking seas. These can provide effective protection, especially in smaller, steep-to islands which are not so susceptible to storm surge. In places like Guam, where Typhoons commonly bring 120 mile-per-hour winds at ground level, the hurricane refuge’s mooring system is a four-point system that allows closely spaced boats, and keeps catamarans from going para-gliding. Other refuges use single-point moorings which allow the boats to weathercock toward the wind.

Although not technically regarded as hurricane moorings, the single-anchor elastic mooring systems (lines, buoy, and anchors) found in Florida and other states are often tested to withstand the winds loads (not waves) of a tropical storm. In September 2017, this strength requirement was throughly tested by Hurricane Irma in Boot Key Harbor in The Florida Keys . Although most of the mooring anchors and downlines held, chafed mooring pendants resulted in the loss of many boats.

There are many downsides to a mooring field. The most worrisome risk is that another boat will break free and bear down on yours. This a big concern in any hurricane hole, but mooring fields that pack boats like sardines increase the chance of this. The images take after Hurricane Irma raked the charter fleet in the British Virgin Islands show how this can end.

To conserve space, some mooring fields limit the length of the mooring pennant, the line you supply between the boat and the mooring. As Practical Sailor’s study on hurricane moorings showed, an extra-long mooring pennant protected from chafe is often a key to survival. Using high-quality, new, or nearly new rope for mooring  pennants also increases the odds of survival. If another boat collides with yours– all bets are off no matter how many precautions you took.

The upside of a tested and monitored mooring field is that the equipment has been tested to a published working load limit (WLL). Having a screw-type embedment anchor that has been pull-tested offers confidence in areas of poor holding (rock, grass, soft mud, mud over limestone – etc.) where your own anchors might not hold well. Regardless of how new or reputable the mooring field is, you should carry out a thorough inspection of your own mooring well before the start of hurricane season.

A well-protected creek or canal where you can shore-tie is my preferred type of hurricane hole. Securing the boat with a multiple lines to trees ashore is a usual approach in these areas. You can often add anchors (including ground anchors for ashore) – but the holding is often extremely poor in the creeks or canals.

The advantage of such a location is that you have multiple points to tie into, and if you get pushed onto shore, the mangroves provide a relatively soft landing for your hull. Canals with seawalls do not share this advantage, but a well-fendered boat will have better survival odds.

The disadvantages to this approach are many. Your boat is physically closer to shore and the hard stuff that can hole your boat. Most mangrove areas are routinely inundated by storm surge, reducing much of your protection against the wind and swell. Chafe is an ever-present risk. Some big trees lining canals have weak root systems and are likely to topple.

The canal or creek that is used as a hurricane hole can also increase the risk of a storm surge pile-up. Boats are usually spaced at regular interval along the creek, so if lines part on one of the boats, it can be pushed up or down the creek onto other boats—potentially starting a chain reaction similar to what happens in a mooring field.

Being the first to arrive at a spot well upstream will reduce your vulnerability to this, but it also puts you first inline for downstream debris which can increase the load on your shore-ties.

Another problem in some creeks is that your spider-web of ropes will block traffic up and down the creek, so out of courtesy, you may have to tend your lines, or wait to set them until the approaching storm has put navigation to a stop. On a related note, if there are drawbridges between you and your hurricane hole, operators may stop or limit openings due to high winds and to allow for evacuation by car, so plan accordingly.

If your canal or creek is adjacent to private property, you may be sued for any damage your boat causes. The laws dealing with this are complicated and vary by state, so you’ll want to do your homework. Check with the regulatory agency charged with navigation enforcement in the area, and double-check your insurance policy.

In addition, many of these areas are in protected environmental areas, so, you might also be fined and held liable for environmental harm if you’re found to have neglected your responsibility. Again, if you have any doubts, check with the agency in charge of enforcement in the area. In general, when storms threaten, the law allows individuals take all necessary measures to protect their property, so long as this is not unduly endangering others or their property.

The hurricane strategy of anchoring in a well-protected lagoon, cove creek, or estuary is a common in many areas of the country and in the Caribbean. These hurricane holes have been a savior for cruisers stuck in the hurricane belt during high season. They also yield some of the most dramatic images of post-storm damage. The hurricane holes used for anchoring are very similar to the mooring field option, with the added risk of having your anchor drag. There might be a slightly lower risk of collision from a stray boat – it will depend on the number of boats.

Your success in this type of hurricane hole will rely greatly on how well you and your neighbors set and manage your ground tackle. Some boaters like to make their own “hurricane mooring” using multiple anchors. If it is a river or creek, the influence of floodwaters and strong tides is an added danger. Storm debris can quickly wrap around a rode and dislodge your anchor.

Prepare Now

Which type of hurricane hole, if any is best for you? Clearly this will vary by location. You may have very few options within easy reach. Or you might have several. Whatever you choose, the time to start preparing is now, well before hurricane season.

Dedicate some time early this summer to take a dry-run to your chosen spot. Strip the boat and deploy the gear as you would use it. This will give you a clear picture of how much time you need.

Despite the advanced warnings for named storms, there never seems to be enough time to make all the necessary preparations. And once the weather starts to deteriorate, setting storm gear becomes difficult and exhausting – if you can reach the hurricane hole at all.

Your chances of survival will depend greatly on the path of the storm. There is a big difference in a direct impact and a glancing blow. Ideally, you should have two or more spots chosen. This allows you flexibility to stay out of the hurricane’s direct path. Most cruising guides in tropical areas identify popular hurricane refuges, but local sailors often know some off-the-beaten track places where the risk of collision with another boat is lower.

For a complete guide to preparing your boat for a hurricane, where ever you are, Practical Sailo r’s new four-volume “ Hurricane Preparedness Guide ” ebook explores in-depth the gear and best practices for securing your boat in a hurricane hole, on a mooring, or in a marina. Provided detailed explanations of the specialized equipment, and anchoring and mooring techniques proven to keep your boat safe when you have no choice to “weather the storm” in harbor, it deserves a place on every voyaging sailors digital bookshelf.

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

On watch: this 60-year-old hinckley pilot 35 is also a working girl.

Everything you say here makes perfect sense and reflects my experience of decades of cruising and living aboard in hurricane prone waters. Yes, I stayed onboard for a class 1+ hurricane. And NO I would not do it again. I also had the total loss of my live aboard cruising boat/home. Note: I lost my beloved boat but not by beloved Wife’s life nor mine! You just don’t mess with class 5! Or any hurricane. The best strategy by far is any way possible, get the heck out of the way! I adopted a strategy in the E Caribbean that worked. Every hurricane season we sailed south to Trinidad. They are south of the hurricane belt. I had friends that would go to well known “hurricane holes” Like Simpson Bay St Maartin. I was in Trinidad when hurricane Lewis hit St Maartin and surrounding area. Thousands of boats lost and hundreds of lives of sailors many who were never found. The loss of my boat was terrible as I had put years of sweat, blood and money into her. A year later we were fully alive and well to continue our cruising life in another boat. Had we stayed on board, like so many, we would have died and the boat would not have mattered one iota.

Fred Read’s comment is valuable, especially “get the heck out of the way!”. Leading from this, to offer an alternative to yachtsmen (under sail ; I have no idea how to deal with this situation without sails) who have no suitable bolt-hole ; could you add some advice about sailing around the edges ? With modern weather information giving hour-by-hour advice about the storm’s progress towards the boat, would it be possible to wait for the wind to strengthen and start to back northwards (northern hemisphere, it’s the other way round down south of course) ; then use the strengthening wind to sail out to sea, and head south under only a storm headsail/jib ? Plan a route which gives sea-room, particularly if there are surrounding islands or coastlines. Keep the wind broadly astern over the port quarter, and sail around the fringe of the rotating storm by continually heading slightly to port. Be prepared for very large waves, but given a well-prepared and seaworthy boat, with a crew who can adapt to such frightening seas, would it be possible to sail around ‘behind’ the storm and so come back to port, eventually, after it has tracked through ? Of course, there’s the risk that the storm’s direction of travel (I don’t mean the wind direction) could change. Take a spare GPS chart-plotter, plus a spare handheld GPS, and paper charts of the extended region. If you allow your position to be governed by the wind direction (as above) any shift in the storm’s direction of travel should be apparent as your position advances, and navigation allowances made as necessary. To those who enjoy sea-sailing this could be a very rewarding experience, and it removes the boat from most of the threats which you list in your excellent-as-always article. Keep the VHF on channel16 and transmit a position report every half hour, both to inform others and to reduce collision risk (visibility will be low). Unless I’ve overlooked some major stupidity in this suggestion, it’s one which would appeal to me. I should add that it’s probably suitable only for liveaboards, or for those with time to spare and live ashore very near to their boats. I hope this helps someone, but I realise that most boats will have to accept the risks of the best-available mooring and hope that the insurance will pay up !. Rob Neal.

In answer to Rob, as a former CG pilot who rescued a delivery crew from a 40ft sailboat during the 1991 Halloween Hurricane (later changed to the Perfect Storm), most modern boats are built well enough to survive a hurricane in the open ocean. In general, the crew isn’t. Severe seasickness, bruises and possible broken bones, dehydration, and significant degradation of your mental capabilities should be expected during the normal 3-4 days of hurricane passage. And in general, CG (or anybody else) rescue during the hurricane isn’t practical – the odds of your boat remaining intact are substantially better than your chances of a successful helicopter hoist – which will have to be done after you jump overboard because the swinging of the masts and rigging make threading the hoist to the deck impossible.

I liken the mental challenge of a hurricane in a sailboat to the more severe “Naked and Afraid” challenges, but with no tap out available if things go really wrong. Some are mentally strong enough, many are not.

Great article.

Rio Dulce, Guatemala ………. hauled out…………… with me safe in Antigua ahore in my opinion is safest place to be with threatening hurricaine in W Caribbean. Then, I would worry about a earthquake.

Actually, one of the better articles on hurricanes and hurricane holes, made even better by the replies. As a California, now Washington, sailor, I do not know much about hurricane holes, except what I have read over the years.

To me, the biggest missing piece of information is the location of such holes in places where they are needed and to be found. For example, know of no hurricane hole guide to the Carribean let alone any place therein. Ditto mainland Mexico, and the Gulf Coast. Need I mention Florida? My general feeling is the locals know, but letting the information out may increase the danger that results from overcrowding the already overcrowded.

Starting and updating a guide to hurricane holes sounds like a wonderful thing for someone with knowledge to accomplish.

And I forgot to mention the Pacific, or more specifically the west coast of Mexico and central America, as well as the islands all over the place there.

I won’t be the only one hoping that my preparations are adequate. I’m in Largo, Fl in a bay off the ICW. The bay is 11′ deep, about half a mile diameter. 8 other boats well-spaced but some not well tended. I have a 60 lb. anchor on 180′ of 5/16 chain and snubber. I stripped the three booms (Dickerson 36 ketch) and sails and stowed them below. A devout atheist, I try not to pray.

LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply

Log in to leave a comment

Latest Videos

What’s the Best Sailboats for Beginners?

Why Does A Sailboat Keel Fall Off?

The Perfect Family Sailboat! Hunter 27-2 – Boat Review

Pettit EZ-Poxy – How to Paint a Boat

Latest sailboat review.

• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell My Personal Information
• Online Account Activation
• Privacy Manager

• BOAT OF THE YEAR
• Newsletters
• Sailboat Reviews
• Boating Safety
• Sails and Rigging
• Maintenance
• Sailing Totem
• Sailor & Galley
• Living Aboard
• Destinations
• Gear & Electronics
• Charter Resources
• Ultimate Boat Giveaway

How to Moor your Sailboat for a Storm

• By Ed Eisenberger
• Updated: October 2, 2015

Hurricane experts are predicting an above average hurricane season in the Atlantic. As sailors, there’s nothing we can do to change the outcome of these predictions. But we can be prepared. Planning for the safety of your boat and where it will survive best is a lot like the real estate business: location, location, location. And learning how to moor a sailboat should should come well before the storm.

Where to keep your boat

A secure marina may not be the most hospitable location during a hurricane. There are several important considerations. Does the dockmaster have an established hurricane plan in place? If not, will you be required to evacuate? The physical characteristics of the marina, its surroundings as well as the layout, construction and design of piers and slips all play an important role in the safety of your boat. And despite your best planning efforts, your neighbor may not have been so diligent in his. Loose boats in a marina wreak havoc.

If you plan to keep your boat in a marina, you’ll need to consider your boat and slip design as well as the harbormaster’s configuration. Many marinas designate that alternate slips be vacated when a storm approaches. Others require complete evacuation.

Assess the condition of the marina docks. Are cleats firmly attached? Are the pilings solid? Can the physical condition of the docks, piers, pilings and cleats withstand the tremendous forces involved in hurricane conditions? Many years ago, a vicious low-pressure system carrying storm force winds swept through Sausalito, California, completely severing several finger piers from the main dock. The entire assembly, complete with boats, was swept intact into San Francisco Bay.

If your boat is to remain at a dock, you’ll need to devise a docking plan radically different from your normal arrangement. For most boats, consider pointing the bow toward open water if possible. If not, try to point the bow toward the least protected direction. Unlike boats at anchor or on a mooring, a boat lashed down in a marina cannot turn to face oncoming wind and waves, which may come from totally opposite directions during the course of the storm, radically redirecting the forces on a vessel.

The key to your docking plan should be long lines — the longer the better — to accommodate the predicted storm surge. A good rule of thumb: Storm lines should be at least as long as the boat itself.

Using longer lines will require using other boat owners’ pilings and cleats, and vice versa. Lines may have to be run across marina waterways to facing pilings or to anchors placed in channels. That requires extra planning with other boat owners and marina management. By the time you’ve completed docking your boat, it should resemble a spider in the center of a web.

Your efforts should prevent your boat from moving laterally and at the same time allow it to rise and fall during storm surge. Storm surge may raise your boat completely above adjacent pilings. If your boat isn’t held securely in place, it may be impaled when the surge recedes. Make sure the dock lines cannot slip off the tops of the pilings.

Severe storm surge may completely submerge docks, pilings and cleats. Floating docks present a different set of problems. Storm surge may lift them high enough to slip off their pilings and float away. Many marinas are protected by breakwaters or jetties. They may be totally submerged by storm surge, exposing your normally secure marina to increased fetch, open ocean surge and high waves.

Canals, rivers and waterways are usually better alternatives to marinas, although many of the same problems exist. And each requires a different approach. In canals, try to secure your boat in the center, tying the boat to both sides using the spiderweb technique. Move as far up the canal as possible; the boat will be better protected from storm surge and you reduce the possibility of blocking access to other boats. In wider canals and waterways, secure your boat to anything available: trees, secure pilings and anchors. The more lines and anchors, the better. Again, use lines as long as possible.

One successful technique involves using prebuilt chain and line assemblies. Secure one end of each assembly to a cleat, piling or tree on shore, the other to heavy shackles on one end of the chain. On the boat side of the chain, another shackle and heavy line attach to your boat’s deck cleats. This arrangement makes each line individually adjustable from the deck. Adjust the lines until each length of chain exerts an equal pull on the boat. This prevents the boat from being blown far enough in any direction to come in contact with other boats or objects on shore.

In a blow, the boat is forced to lift the chain. As the wind subsides, the chain settles back down, re-centering the boat. This arrangement also allows for significant amounts of storm surge while keeping the boat centered, because all chain assemblies must be lifted simultaneously. Additional weights (such as lead ingots, barbell weights, and so on) can be added to the catenary of the chain to increase its effectiveness.

Hurricane holes also offer an alternative to crowded marinas. In an ideal hurricane hole sturdy, tall trees and root lattices tend to protect the boat from high winds, in addition to providing excellent terminal points for dock lines and anchors.

Sturdy moorings in protected harbors are also a good alternative to crowded marinas or canals. A boat on a mooring can swing freely to face the wind, reducing windage, and it can’t be slammed into a dock unless the anchor(s) or mooring drags. Several questions arise: What constitutes a sturdy mooring, and will it hold in a hurricane? Other considerations in a harbor are the depth of water and the type of bottom. The proximity of other boats is also a concern.

Considerable testing of the holding power of anchors in all types of bottoms has been conducted by West Marine, BOAT/U.S., numerous anchor manufacturers and Cruising World . Most effective were the fluke-type anchors such as Bruce, CQR and Danforth, which bury themselves under load. Mushroom and dead-weight anchors drag with relatively little effort. A mushroom anchor that isn’t sufficiently buried has almost no holding power. During the “Storm Of The Century” in March 1993, which pushed 90-knot winds through my anchorage in Key Largo, Florida, a 40-foot yawl dragged a 10′ x 10′ x 12″-thick slab of concrete 75 yards.

One particularly effective arrangement is to use three burying-type storm anchors with chain rodes, deployed 120 degrees apart and connected together using a heavy swivel. This mooring arrangement was one of the few that held during Hurricane Bob’s onslaught.

In all mooring and anchoring arrangements, remember to increase scope to allow for storm surge — 10:1 if possible. Use heavy, oversized chain and oversized line in an approximate 50/50 ratio for the bow line. If you are using all-chain rode, use a sturdy snubber approximately 1/10 the length of the rode. The addition of a sentinel (riding weight) to the rode will lower the angle of pull on the anchor and reduce jerking and strain on the boat. Remember that additional scope requires additional swinging room.

Depth and bottom type must also be considered. Normal depths may be altered radically during the approach or departure of a storm. Allow enough scope for storm surge. Conversely, if depths are minimal, your boat may go aground if the wind blows the water out of the harbor. Are there rocks? Your boat may survive the storm only to be torn apart as the storm recedes.

Test the holding ground. Anchor pull tests show that the best holding grounds are hard sand, soft sand, clay, mud, shells and soft mud, roughly in that order. Note that burying-type anchors in an ideal bottom may be impossible to retrieve after a storm.

There is one additional alternative: storing your boat ashore. A study by MIT after Hurricane Gloria found that boats stored ashore were far less likely to sustain damage than those kept in the water. For many boat owners, hauling their boat is the foundation of their hurricane plan.

Boats stored ashore should be well above the anticipated storm surge levels, which is sometimes difficult because most marinas and yards are at or near existing water levels. The same study, however, stated that boats tipped off their jack stands during a storm surge still suffered less damage than their waterborne counterparts.

If you haul your boat, make sure the boat has extra jack stands. Add a layer of plywood between the jack stand pad and the hull to distribute the weight. Chain the stands together. Some smaller sailboats can be laid on their sides to eliminate the risk of being blown or floated off their stands.

How to secure your boat

No matter where you’ve decided to keep your boat — in a marina, at a dock, in a canal, hurricane hole or on a mooring, there are several additional points to consider: chafe, cleats and chocks, and windage. Hurricane-force winds exert tremendous strains on boat’s hardware.

Wind force, and the damage it causes, increases exponentially. A doubling of wind speed increases the force on your boat four times. For example, a 20-knot wind exerts a force of 1.3 pounds per square foot; doubling the speed to 40 knots quadruples the pressure to 5.2 pounds per square foot.

Chafe protectors are essential on all lines, wherever you keep your boat. Unprotected lines will chafe and sever within minutes under the rigorous conditions of a hurricane. Boats on a mooring are particularly vulnerable because the boat is usually held in place using only two pennants; the enormous forces generated are concentrated on only two lines.

Depending on your boat, wave surge may increase loading by 1.5 times the values shown. These same forces are transmitted to the mooring; make sure all eye splices have thimbles to reduce wear at the attachment point on the mooring.

Nylon line is well known for its ability to stretch under loads. Under severe loading, however, friction from stretching increases the internal temperature of the line to the point of meltdown. Heat from increased chafe accelerates the wearing process. Normal chafing gear is totally inadequate under hurricane conditions. Chafe protectors must be strong and longer. Remember, you’ll be using longer lines, increasing the percentage of stretch over a given distance. You can make your own protectors using heavy canvas (rubber or neoprene hose may cause trapped heat to melt line). If your chocks will accommodate two layers, add a second layer over the first. Heavy-duty canvas can be purchased through industrial vendors. Check with your local fire department — they sometimes discard used fire hose, which can be fabricated into high-quality, low-wearing chafe protectors.

Secure the chafe protectors to the docking lines. Canvas protectors can be sewn or tied to the line in a similar fashion.

Lines should also be larger in diameter to resist chafe and excessive stretching. Generally you should use 1/2-inch line on boats up to 25 feet, 5/8-inch line for boats 25 to 34 feet and 3/4 to one-inch line for larger boats. Double up on critical lines. Use chafe gear wherever the line comes in contact with anything such as chocks, pulpits, pilings or trees.

Longer, larger and more numerous lines will require larger cleats and chocks. In addition, the extra forces exerted during a hurricane will require stronger attachments of the cleats to the deck. Determine the size of lines you’ll be using and, if necessary, add bigger cleats to accommodate them.

Beef up your dock cleats by adding backing plates if your boat doesn’t already have them — unbacked cleats may pull out of the deck under heavy loads. Use stainless steel plates. Make sure you use the largest size screws that will fit through the mounting holes in the cleats. Use cleats with four mounting holes for added strength. Don’t overload a single cleat — two lines per cleat should be the maximum. If your docking plan calls for more lines than there are cleats available, install additional cleats. Check windlass mounting points as well. The windlass should be mounted solidly with appropriately sized hardware and backing plates.

Boats with keel-stepped masts can also use the mast as a line termination point. Don’t run a line attached to your mast through a deck chock — the extra line length between the mast base and the chock will allow excessive stretch between the two points, increasing chafe at the chock.

Reducing windage

Remove everything to reduce wind resistance: Biminis, antennas, deck-stowed anchors, sails, running rigging, booms, life rings, dinghies and so on. Besides reducing windage, you eliminate the probability of these items being damaged or blown away.

Remove furling headsails. Even when furled, they offer a sizable amount of wind resistance and additional load on the headstay. And despite your best attempts to secure properly the furling line, the ravages of hurricane force winds most likely will unravel your efforts, allowing the sail to unfurl during the storm with disastrous consequences.

Arrange your halyards to reduce flogging and damage, both to the fittings on the halyard and to the objects in their path. One method to eliminate halyard slapping and windage is to tie all halyards off to a common messenger line and run the halyards to the top of the mast, reducing the number of lines exposed to the wind from as many as three or four to only one. Tie the messenger off on a rail.

Preventing water damage

Rain during a hurricane flies in every direction including up. Remove all cowl ventilators and replace with closure plates or tape off the vents using duct tape. Make sure Dorade box and cockpit drains are clear of debris. Close all seacocks except those used for drainage. Put bung plugs in unused thru-hulls and one in the exhaust to prevent water from flooding your engine. Deck drains and pump discharges located near the waterline can back flow when wind and waves put drains underwater.

Use duct tape and precut plywood panels to cover exposed instruments. Examine all hatches, ports, coaming compartments and sea lockers for leaks. Use duct tape to seal them off. Make sure that all papers (magazines, books, catalogs) are high enough in the boat to prevent them from getting wet if the cabin is flooded. Wet paper can turn into a pulpy mush, clogging bilge pumps. Prepare two lists: one listing all items to be removed from the boat prior to moving it to where it will ride out the hurricane and another listing all equipment needed to prepare your boat for the blow.

Electronics are particularly susceptible to water damage; if they can be removed from the boat quickly, add them to the list, along with clothing and other personal effects. Other items that should be removed include: outboard engines, portable fuel tanks, propane tanks, important ship’s papers and personal papers, as well as any other essential personal effects.

What to bring aboard

The list of items to be taken aboard include everything you’ve assembled beforehand to prepare your boat. Many times, the extra “hurricane only” items will be stored ashore — a well-organized list ensures nothing is missed when the hurricane package is taken aboard: extra lines, chafing gear, fenders, anchors, swivels, shackles, duct tape, bung plugs — all the items identified during your planning session. Include a dinghy or some other method for getting ashore after you’ve secured your boat.

Make sure your batteries are fully charged. If needed, take additional batteries aboard to boost available capacity.

Moving your boat before a storm

If you’re planning to move your boat prior to a hurricane, take the boat there on a trial run, noting how long it takes as well as any problems you might encounter under actual emergency conditions. Are there any bridges? Many communities require drawbridges to be “locked down” when a hurricane watch is issued. During Hurricane Andrew, many boat owners were prevented from moving their boats to more protected locations because bridges were locked down.

If you plan on moving a trailerable boat out of the hurricane area, get out early. Many communities prohibit cars with trailers on the road after issuing a hurricane watch. Before the season arrives, inspect your trailer for defects and fix them.

During your test run, make a diagram of how your mooring/docking lines will be arranged. Note any additional equipment you’ll need to secure your boat and add it to the list.

Time is of the essence

Many of the above items will require a substantial amount of time to complete, considerably more than can be accomplished when a hurricane threatens your area. Chandleries will run out of gear quickly when a hurricane looms. After developing your survival plan, purchase and assemble the gear you need to implement it.

Finally, leave early! Waiting to take action until a storm’s imminent arrival is inviting disaster. A hurricane warning is issued when sustained winds exceeding 64 knots are expected within 24 hours. Hurricane-proofing your house or evacuating the area will take precedence over boat safety. Winds may rise quickly. Securing a boat in 35-knot winds is extremely difficult; it’s impossible in 45-knot winds.

A hurricane watch is issued when hurricane conditions pose a threat to a specific coastal area within 36 hours. Drawbridges may be locked down after a watch is issued. You may find your secluded hurricane hole or protected canal inaccessible or already filled with boats.

Start moving as soon as you feel a hurricane watch is probable. Don’t rely on emergency services for assistance. Many harbor and marine patrols remove their vessels from the water or sequester them prior to the onset of storm and hurricane force winds.

After you’ve secured your boat, double-check everything. Turn off all electrical power except the bilge pumps. Test bilge pump switches and pump intakes for debris.

Don’t stay on your boat! Fifty percent of all hurricane-related deaths occur from boat owners trying to secure their boats in deteriorating conditions. Develop a well-thought-out hurricane plan, be prepared to implement it in the shortest possible time and, when completed, leave the boat to its own survival. There is absolutely nothing you can do when hurricane force winds are screaming across the deck.

It’s been decades since William Redfield’s serendipitous discovery of the rotary motion of tropical storms. And the cirrus clouds first observed by Father Benito Viñes still race across a clear, blue, tropical sky ahead of an approaching hurricane. His early warning system has been replaced by weather satellites and advanced computer forecasting systems. Scientists can now predict, with reasonable accuracy, the approximate number of tropical storms and hurricanes that will form in a given season. Watchful electronic eyes constantly beam down updates of their wanderings as they relentlessly gnaw and churn across their expansive ocean feeding grounds.

But the best efforts to predict the path or the intensity of a storm at a given moment still escapes even the best scientists and the most advanced computers. Vilhelm Bjerknes, an eminent meteorologist, accurately describes the physicist’s present attempts at hurricane forecasting: We are in a position of the physicist watching a pot of water coming to a boil. He knows intimately all the processes of energy transfer, molecular kinetics and thermodynamics involved. He can describe them, put them in the form of formulas and tell you a great deal about how much heat will boil how much water. Now ask him to predict precisely where the next bubble will form.

Related Books:

Complete Book Of Anchoring And Mooring , Second edition, by Earl Hinz

A Guide To Preparing Boats And Marinas For Hurricanes , free from BOAT/U.S.

Preparing Your Boat For A Hurricane , Sea Grant College of the State University of Florida

Ed Eisenberger is an independent marine electronics consultant and the electronics manager for West Marine in Key Largo, Florida. He lives aboard and sails his 41-foot ketch, Wandering Star, from which he keeps a close eye on the weather.

• More: Cruising News , DIY Sailboat Projects , How To , hurricane
• More How To

Grease the Wheels of Your Boat: A Guide to Proper Lubrication

A Bowsprit Reborn: A DIY Renovation Story

Rigging Redo: Our Switch to Synthetic

Top Tools for Sailboat Cruising: Must-Have Gear for 2024

From Paradise to Medical Emergency: A Bahamas Nightmare Turns Lesson Learned

Free Medical Advice: The Unwarranted, Unprofessional Edition

Gatekeepers of the Waterway

• Digital Edition
• Customer Service
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Email Newsletters
• Cruising World
• Sailing World
• Salt Water Sportsman
• Sport Fishing
• Wakeboarding

How to Secure Your Sailboat for a Hurricane

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

June 15, 2022

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to secure your sailboat, if you have not planned for it already you are in a bad spot.

While moving your sailboat ashore is the best way to secure your sailboat for a hurricane, you will have to prepare it regardless by removing as much gear as possible, moving it if possible, and using as many lines and anchors as you can as well as installing fenders.

Deciding which of the three options you choose to do, making your sailboat as lean as possible and removing valuable property and documents is a given. Beyond that, if you cannot move your sailboat to a covered facility on high ground, moving to inland waters or at the very least using extra lines and anchors at the marina will be your only other options. Each choice has their own considerations to be made and will depend largely on the circumstances of the storm and your personal situation. Therefore, no matter which one is best for you, the best plan is one formed well before a storm forms.

Universities and insurance companies are two entities that are not likely to work together but they have when it comes to securing boats and sailboats because it is a public safety matter. Through studies done by several universities and from research conducted by insurance companies, they have all reached the conclusion that moving ashore is the best way to guarantee minimal damage to your vessel. Each of the talking points as well have been thoroughly studied through decades of research into storms, their impacts, and how people weathered them with minimal damage.

Table of contents

Basic Prep Work

No matter what course of action you choose to take, it is important to note that you will have to prepare your boat by securing as many things as possible and removing as much equipment as possible. For instance, any gear left on the decks or in the pilothouse that could become a missile hazard should be removed or locked inside of a locker. If gear like this is left out, it could not only damage your sailboat but potentially hurt someone else inadvertently. It is also advisable that any property of value such as electronics, personal belongings, galley equipment, and important documents should be removed from the vessel ashore for safekeeping.

Speaking of documents, you should not leave any sort of paper on the vessel that could get lost or damaged in the storm. Some of the types of documents you should have before the storm hits include:

• Insurance policies
• Marina or pier lease agreement
• Registration
• Recent photos of the sailboat
• Contact information for Marina Manager

If you do not have all these documents in one place, it is strongly suggested to do so. By keeping all these documents in a secure location ashore, you make filing an insurance claim that much harder by not being prepared. Additionally, you should take frequent pictures of your sailboat, but especially before a hurricane hits you should take time-stamped photos to prove the condition of your sailboat if the worst happens.

Another item to consider besides removing missile hazards, personal property, and important documents is your navigation equipment and radios if you can. No matter what kind of sailboat you have, you probably spent a pretty penny on navigation equipment since after all safety of navigation is tantamount to having an enjoyable experience on the water. However, if you are able to remove such equipment to bring ashore, you would not only be saving yourself thousands of dollars in replacement costs if damaged but also preventing electrical fires.

No matter where you move your sailboat, if you can remove the sails and secure them ashore that would also be the best course of action. However, removing sails, even for experienced mariners, is time consuming and tedious. In the hours before a storm, sometimes we are not afforded that luxury. In this case, tying down your sails with plenty of line is the best course of action.

Moving Ashore

Removing your sailboat from the water is the only guaranteed way you can ensure your boat does not get damaged at all. By taking it to a covered facility like a shed, warehouse, garage, or anywhere else it can fit between four walls and a roof would prevent debris from hitting the boat, other boats from crashing into it, or from the boat taking on water.

If you do not have a covered facility to take the sailboat to, or if your marina does not offer one, you could also securely anchor the sailboat to the ground using pad eyes and lines. It is also important to note that when taking a boat ashore, you would need to take it to an area of high ground that would be above the predicted storm surge. Simply removing the boat from the water and putting it in your backyard at your beach house would not be a good idea.

It would also not be a good idea to put your sailboat in a sailboat lift or davit. While these devices are fine for storing your boat at home during normal conditions, hurricanes are anything but normal. With strong winds and heavy rain, it is quite likely your sailboat would tip over since it would be more exposed than before.

But before you rush over to your marina and pluck your sailboat out of the water there are a few things you need to consider. First of all is the timing. Having the time to be able to go to the marina and recover your sailboat takes a long time. If a storm suddenly changed direction and is going to make landfall near you, you would have to prioritize protecting yourself and your home versus your boat.

Another obstacle here would be the availability of a trailer. You might not have a trailer, have one that is too small, or not have a vehicle that pulls a trailer. In any of these cases, especially if you have little time, moving your sailboat ashore would not be an option.

As a general rule, if you wish to move your sailboat ashore, you would need to this preferably days in advance if you thought a storm would make landfall near you. By preparing in advance, you would be more likely to find a trailer, vehicle, and shelter for your boat if you did not have any of these than if you were trying to scramble at the last minute.

Additionally, as part of your lease agreement, insurance policy, or both, you might be required in the event of a hurricane to move your sailboat at a minimum out of the marina and potentially stipulating it be ashore. To prevent you from accidentally breaking either terms, read these documents carefully and ask well ahead of time any questions about what you are supposed to do before a hurricane.

Moving Further Inland

If you cannot move your sailboat ashore, moving it to a more protected area is your next best option. Some examples of protected areas would include places like going upriver, going into small creeks, and canals. Keeping your sailboat moored in the marina would be the least favorable option since it would be more exposed than other waterways further inland.

When securing your sailboat further inland, it is important to note that you would still have to do all the same preps as before minus taking the navigation equipment off since you would need this to get where you are going. Once you get to where you want to moor, you need to find good anchor points. As is common in hurricanes, often the lines will not fail but the cleats on the pier will.

Therefore, it is imperative that you use good anchor points such as trees, bollards, and anything else that would not break easily. Additionally, dropping multiple anchors into the water will ensure that your sailboat will not go anywhere.

Despite its advantages over staying moored in a marina, mooring in a river or canal does have its drawbacks. The first one would be the timing again. With rising tides, stronger currents, and heavy winds, getting to where you want to go will take longer than it usually takes. Therefore, if you want to make it there in time, you will have to leave sooner to beat the hurricane to be able to navigate, moor, and evacuate safely.

Another factor about timing is the fact that you might have to deal with drawbridges and other obstacles. Depending on the tides, certain bridges might have too low of clearance to get under them. Other obstacles could be heavier boat traffic or poor visibility that all inhibit safe navigation and prevent you from getting where you want to go.

The second drawback to moving further inland is draft. While your sailboat might have enough draft to get you where you normally go, with adverse weather the tides are likely to be thrown off greatly. Because of this, depending on the size of your sailboat, you might not be able to access the waterways you did previously.

Staying Moored

If you decide to keep your sailboat in its current berth, you are taking the greatest risk. If done properly and with the right lines, keeping it where it is currently moored will be safe only if two conditions are met. The first condition would have to be the seawall that protects that marina. If the seawall does not cover the storm surge, then the marina’s water level will increase and potentially sweep your boat away.

The other factor to consider is the height of the pylons of the pier. If the pylons are say fifteen feet high but the storm surge is going to be twenty feet, you would need to move your sailboat somewhere else since if the storm surge raises the water level above the pylons your boat will probably crash up and over the pier or into other vessels.

If your marina does have a high enough seawall or the pylons on the pier allow enough room to compensate for the storm surge, you can successfully moor your sailboat to the pier and greatly decrease the amount of damage your sailboat might take.

The most important thing you can do to secure your sailboat is to use the right lines the right way in the right configuration. Oftentimes, even experienced mariners can do the wrong thing either through losing knowledge or complacency which is something you do not want in regards to your lines. Below is a list of common issues for lines that were done incorrectly for storms:

• Not long enough
• Not the right size
• Too worn or damaged
• Tied versus spliced

When making up your lines for a hurricane, you need to make sure they are a bit longer than usual. Because of the greater possibility for an abnormal tidal shift, you need to prevent as much tension on the lines as possible. Though you do not want to make the lines extremely long where they do not hold any tension, you do need them to account for more slack to hold that tension over a greater range of depths than normal.

Mariners should also use the right size of the line when mooring your sailboat. By using a line that is too small, you might not have enough strength in the line to keep your boat on the pier. On the other hand, if your lines are too large, you might not be able to completely tie them to the cleats.

Before a hurricane comes, it would also be wise to change out your lines to new ones, especially if they are worn or damaged in any way. Though they would not be guaranteed to part, lines that are damaged do not have nearly as much strength as newer lines. However is this is not possible, you may put chaff guards on them to reduce friction as they feed through the chalks. If you do not have these, you can make homemade ones out of rags or t-shirts since anything would be better than the bare line.

Splicing your lines is another way to bolster the strength of your lines. As a general rule, tying knots in your lines reduces its strength by half. When you splice the line, it reduces the strength by a nominal ten percent. By either splicing the lines or replacing lines with knots in them you can retain the strength of the line.

Once you have securely moored your sailboat to the pier, there are a few other ways you can keep your sailboat from breaking free. One of these ways is to put out as many anchors as you can. Putting out three anchors on the bow, stern, and leeward side will offer the most protection.

Speaking of leeward, another way you can minimize risk to your sailboat is by moving its bow into the prevailing winds. Of course, this might not be available to you depending on if you know where the wind is coming from and your pier heading, but if you are able to freely adjust your berth this could be an option.

Lastly, as a last-ditch effort to protect your sailboat in case a line parts, a cleat breaks, or tide pushes it away is to install fenders on your sailboat. By installing fenders, you can help prevent damage to your sailboat and limit damage caused to other vessels.

Related Articles

I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

by this author

Emergencies

Most Recent

What Does "Sailing By The Lee" Mean?

October 3, 2023

The Best Sailing Schools And Programs: Reviews & Ratings

September 26, 2023

Important Legal Info

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.

Similar Posts

How To Choose The Right Sailing Instructor

August 16, 2023

Cost To Sail Around The World

May 16, 2023

Small Sailboat Sizes: A Complete Guide

October 30, 2022

Popular Posts

Best Liveaboard Catamaran Sailboats

December 28, 2023

Can a Novice Sail Around the World?

Elizabeth O'Malley

4 Best Electric Outboard Motors

How Long Did It Take The Vikings To Sail To England?

10 Best Sailboat Brands (And Why)

December 20, 2023

7 Best Places To Liveaboard A Sailboat

Get the best sailing content.

Top Rated Posts

Lifeofsailing.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. (866) 342-SAIL

© 2024 Life of Sailing Email: [email protected] Address: 11816 Inwood Rd #3024 Dallas, TX 75244 Disclaimer Privacy Policy

Better Sailing

Can a Sailboat Survive a Hurricane?

Are you about to set sail but you check the forecast and learn that your boat is in the path of an impending hurricane? So, what exactly do you have to do? Slack the lines, and seek for a hurricane hole where you can ride out the storm? On the other hand, if you don’t have time, you may have no choice but to tow the boat. Or perhaps you believe you’re safe on the dock and your only option is to double the dock lines and pray for the best. All sailors must be able to properly prepare for a storm, but what is the best technique? In this article, I’m going to analyze this subject as well as answer if a sailboat can survive during a hurricane. So, keep reading!

Hurricane Information

A hurricane, sometimes known as a cyclone or typhoon, is a tropical rotating storm in the North Atlantic Ocean. They also occur in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of 74 mph or higher. Hurricanes only form over warm tropical oceans, usually above 27°C (81°F). You might also wonder when hurricanes strike. Hurricanes are known to strike the Northern Hemisphere during the months of June and November. Hurricanes, on the other hand, are more common in the Southern Hemisphere between December and May. The ‘hurricane season’ for a certain region is defined as the time of year when hurricanes strike that area.

Strong winds spiral inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. And, they can be up to 600 miles across. Each hurricane lasts about a week and travels at 10 to 20 miles per hour over open water. Hurricanes gain energy and heat by interacting with warm ocean waters. The evaporation of seawater boosts hurricanes’ strength. In the Northern Hemisphere, hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise around an “eye,” while in the Southern Hemisphere, they rotate clockwise. The calmest area of the storm is the center, or “eye.” There are only low winds and pleasant weather in the center. Heavy rain, strong winds, and enormous waves can cause damage to buildings, trees, and automobiles when they arrive on land.

Hurricanes only form over extremely warm ocean water, at 80 degrees Fahrenheit or more. The atmosphere (air) must cool down quickly as you go higher. In order to force air upward from the water surface, the wind must also be blowing in the same direction and at the same speed. Above the storm, winds blow outward, allowing the air below to rise. Hurricanes are most common between the latitudes of 5 and 15 degrees north and south of the equator. The Coriolis Force creates the spin in a cyclone, but it is too weak near the equator to create storms.

Although hurricanes and cyclones occur all around the world, some locations are more vulnerable than others. When a hurricane strikes the North Atlantic, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean Sea, are likely to be affected as well. Hawaii and the western coast of Mexico will be affected if it occurs in the Eastern Pacific. Typhoons that form in the western Pacific are more likely to strike Japan, China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Cyclones from the Indian Ocean regularly hit Southeast Asian countries, including the Indian subcontinent. Tropical cyclones in the southern Indian Ocean might hit Madagascar and countries along Africa’s east coast in the Southern Hemisphere. Cyclones that originate in the southeastern Indian Ocean are more likely to hit Australia’s northern coast.

Plan Ahead and Know the Facts

Actually, if you receive a hurricane warning, you usually only have 72 hours to prepare. As a result, having a plan in place before a hurricane strike is crucial. One of the greatest solutions is to find a hurricane hole away from the storm. But, this requires planning and the capacity to jump on your boat and relocate it. And any time you decide to get in the water, you must rely on every boat upwind of you to stay put. And, this can be risky. You must be quite cautious about where you choose to be. And, if the wind direction does not match the forecast, you may find many boats upwind of you that you did not expect to see.

The truth is that you are completely reliant on others. While taking your boat to a hurricane hole to ride out the storm is an option for some, there are two major considerations. Firstly, you must have enough time to move your boat and place your anchors before the storm hits. And, you must trust the other boaters who are holed up with you. If these issues are a problem, you may need to consider other solutions. Hauling the boat is one apparent option. Having the boat out of the water significantly improves your chances of survival. If something goes wrong when the boat is on the hard, the damage is most likely repairable.

When a boat is damaged in the water, it usually sinks. Again, this will require planning and time. But, carrying your boat is usually easier than heading to a storm hole. Also, most boatyards will be able to help you if you get in line early enough. However, being hauled out does not guarantee your safety. You must still prepare the boat for the approaching storm. You should remove all canvas, sails, bimini tops, and other accessories, as well as everything else off the deck, and make sure the boat is watertight.

>>Also Read: Why Do Boat Insurance Companies Require Hurricane Plans?

What to Do To Avoid Hurricanes

In an ideal situation, you should relocate your boat and sail away from the hurricane. Keep in mind that the hurricane’s center has winds of 200 mph or more. Also, note that the wind increases less the further you sail from the hurricane’s center. So, if you sail 50 to 100 miles away, you’ll be in a safer location.

One thing about storms is that you know what is their direction at least a week ahead of time, so you’ll have plenty of time to get out before the hurricane arrives. This ensures that both you and your boat are safe and secure. During severe storms, the second option is to seek shelter in a hurricane hole. Hurricane holes are bays and harbors, or deep, narrow coves or inlets covered by trees. They provide the finest spots to tie off your anchor lines and prevent the wind and waves. The finest hurricane holes are uncrowded areas that are far enough inland. They’re able to avoid wind and surges while still being close enough to be easily reached from the land. Hurricane holes exist in places like Guatemala, the Caribbean, Cuba, and Haiti. It’s of great importance to locate a protected hurricane hole in the area where you will be sailing ahead of time.

Secure the Boat with Anchors

The anchors and anchor rodes are subjected to severe forces during strong storms and hurricanes. So, you have to choose a reliable anchor. Helix Anchors are one of the best on the market, according to BoatUS, since they screw into the water surface. Note that Helix Anchors are far more powerful than Mushroom or other forms of anchors. They can hold between 12,000 and 20,000 pounds of weight that cannot be wrenched free. To have sufficient protection from the hurricane’s enormous wind surges, it’s critical to employ several anchors. You can also use Setting Tandem Anchors or anchors in several directions. If you have two large anchors, space them about 90 degrees apart in the direction of the expected wind.

Reduce Windage

Whether your boat is at anchor, moored, docked, or even hauled out, decreasing windage is critical. This is because it reduces stress on the boat and its attachment points. Even when the boat is at anchor or moored, it virtually never rests precisely head to wind. You can almost always be sure it won’t be facing directly into the wind if you’re at a dock, tied to mangroves, or in a boatyard. Note that the narrower the boat’s profile, the less surface area for the wind to hit it. Overall, the rig is less stressed, and the boat heels less. This will also reduce chafing on lines, and lower the load on the anchor, mooring, dock, or whatever else the boat is linked to. Keep in mind that you have to remove canvas, dodgers and biminis, dinghy, and the genoa as well. Remove and stow the mainsails as well.

Plan Wisely

Always stay informed on hurricanes and heavy storms wherever you sail. Use resources like Boatus.com and Global Weather Tracker to acquire the most up-to-date information on hurricanes. If you intend to haul or relocate your boat, make sure to notify your marina operator ahead of time. It is common knowledge that boats kept on land are far safer than those kept in the sea. In addition, it is important to understand the insurance policy as well as the marina contracts. For example, prior to a storm or hurricane, it is usual for insurance companies to reimburse up to 50% of the cost of carrying or transferring your vessel.

If your boat must be in the water, you have to relocate it to a hurricane hole or other location with the least amount of storm damage. Canals are ideal hiding spots since they allow you to tighten lines on both sides of the boat, preventing it from moving and wobbling. When a storm or hurricane looms, you have to take the necessary precautions ahead of time. Plan ahead of time and think of where your vessel will best survive the storm. Prepare a hurricane hole where you may dock your boat throughout the storm. You can minimize the risk of damage by picking the most storm-safe position well before the forecast predicts the hurricane, according to insurance claim files.

Bear in mind that the captain’s seamanship is the most important factor. In other words, if he or she is far from land or other hazards and knows how to steer the boat through the hurricane or storm. A large and seaworthy sailboat that is mostly for cruising rather than racing is also much better to have.

How To Prepare for Hurricanes

If you’re going to stay on a dock, you’ll want to go to a marina with large pilings. Nowadays, and especially in vulnerable hurricane areas, many marinas are working to raise piling heights. The boats are better placed where they can be contained in the marina, as compared to those on the hard who can be hoisted up and swept away by the surge. Many marinas and boatyards are implementing a new approach that is a variation of the classic method. This method refers to hauling out and tying down the boat using construction-style tow straps tied to firm points on the ground. This keeps the boats in their jack stands regardless of how high the storm surge reaches.

Many marinas now have hardpoints to which straps can be fastened. This secures down the boats when they’re on the hard. And the standard has been that boats are either stored in storm-resistant storage structures or are tied down. If the boats don’t lift off the jack stands then the water level isn’t high enough to flood the boats. For sailors hauling out their boats, this combination of hauling the boat, sealing it tight, and tying it down appears to be the best solution.

Finding a hurricane hole is one possibility, but you’ll need the time to do so and be continuously mindful of other vessels around and their capacity to hold their ground. You can keep your boat lashed to the dock at the marina, but if the storm surge becomes too high, your boat may float away. You can tow the boat, but you must ensure that it’s well-secured so that the rain doesn’t flood it. Bear in mind that you must contend with the potential of a storm surge sweeping your boat away.

Again, sailors must be aware of everything. In other words, ensuring that everything is watertight, clearing everything off the deck, and stripping all canvas. When you do that leave the boat on the hard tied down to several hardpoints and physically anchor it to the pavement. This will keep it secure and give you the best chance of making it through the storm.

Being Onboard During the Hurricane

Keep in mind that you are on your own during the hurricane. There is no one to assist you, and you will be unable to assist others. Of course, you have your crew but still, everyone has to take care of themselves before assisting others. Because the status of the boat and the storm might alter in just a second, make sure you have everything you need on hand and ready.

Note that you should wear appropriate gear. During the hurricane, it will be damp, rainy, and possibly cold. Wetsuits, waterproof shoes, or boots are a must during a storm. If you’re on the deck, make sure you’re wearing a life jacket and harness. Using your snorkel masks is quite practical because it is much easier to keep watch and breathe during a severe storm.

Don’t omit to check your anchor lines and chafe gear for safety on a regular basis. Make sure they’re in good working order and don’t have damages. High waves and rain will fill your boat with water, so keep in mind that you might need to use the bilge pump occasionally. Keep an eye on the deck as well as the radar or GPS during the storm. Lastly, consider if you’re dragging or whether another boat is dragging towards you.

Can Sailboats Survive Hurricanes? – The Bottom Line

Bear in mind that it is not just the sailor who must adapt to a hurricane, but also the infrastructure for protection that has to improve. And it’s a problem that we’ll almost certainly see more of in the future. Based on rising sea levels and storm concentration, we’re fairly confident that surges will become a more essential feature of storms. Moreover, if global warming continues at its current rate, sea levels and storm strength will grow, making this a bigger problem.

When hauling your boat and preparing for a hurricane, there are a few things you should do. Firstly, remove everything on your canvas, including sails, coverings, biminis, and seat cushions. Make sure your boat is completely watertight by closing all hatches and sealing any leaks. There is going to be a lot of rain, so you must be well-prepared. If possible, use tow-straps to secure the boat to hardpoints on the ground. Furthermore, turn off all of your boat’s electronics and disconnect the batteries. In case your boat fills up with water, you’ll want to do everything you can to avoid damages to the electronics. If you have a propane burner, turn it off and disconnect and remove the tank. And, this applies to any additional oil cans, gas cans, or other combustible items from the boat.

I hope that this article has answered your questions and provided all the adequate information you need to know about hurricanes. I wish you all safe & pleasant voyages!

Peter is the editor of Better Sailing. He has sailed for countless hours and has maintained his own boats and sailboats for years. After years of trial and error, he decided to start this website to share the knowledge.

Related Posts

Atlantic vs Pacific: Which is More Dangerous for Sailing?

Why Do Sailboats Lean?

How Does a Boat Sail Upwind? Unveiling the Mechanics of Against the Wind Sailing

How Does Sailing Work? The Physics of Sailing

• Buyer's Guide
• Destinations
• Maintenance
• Sailing Info

Hit enter to search or ESC to close.

• Forum Listing
• Marketplace
• Advanced Search
• All Topics Sailing
• General Sailing Discussions
• SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

What sailboats could survive a full blown hurricane at sea?

• Add to quote

What sailboats are the most seaworthy? Boats that can withstand 30+ foot ocean waves?  

Does "full blown" mean Category1? Or Category5? Read "Fastnet, Force 10" to get some idea how boats do at sea.  

The Westsail 32 in the book/movie The Perfect Storm survived. But, survival also depends on how well the boat was maintained. That same Westsail in poor condition may have had a different ending.  

A 30 foot wave at sea and and a thirty foot wave on your local beach are not the same thing. A thirty foot wave at sea only occasionally breaks and when it does, only a portion of it becomes white water. Don't get me wrong, the energy in that portion is still formidable and can do damage but it isn't like the breaking wave that hits land. Mostly you sail over thirty foot waves at sea without incident. Another thing to consider is surfing. In my opinion allowing you boat to surf swells of 30 feet is playing Russian Roulette - eventually one will kill you. I won't elaborate here. We sailed through a storm with 80kn and 30+ feet. We got knocked down twice by breaking waves as described above but we safely "sailed" over hundreds more. We sustained more damage from the wind than from the sea. We have a 44ft GRP sloop. Was that a "full blown hurricane"? No because it only lasted two days. But in terms of wind speed and wave size, yes it probably equaled a Cat 1. Would you survive a Cat 5? I don't think so.  

I presume you are looking for a neat list. Do you want that in alphabetical order or by LOA? Color?  

Big ships often fair worse than a small sailboat in extreme conditions. Whereas a large ship may span a few waves and beak her back, a strong, small sailboat would be much like a cork, if watertight. I have survived 2 hurricanes at sea in sailboats. The first was just west of Fiji, probably a high cat 1, but it was before satellites so it may not be a "full blown" storm in your mind. We were capsized 3 times and sustained a lot of damage, but she got us back to a safe anchorage, so I guess she was a pretty good boat, considering she was 65 when she went through it. The second storm was in the western Indian ocean and because we were beating, we escaped the full force of the storm, but it was still 45 to 60 knots for 10 very difficult days as the darn thing chased us across the ocean. That boat was Brown 37' trimaran, which handled quite a few "heavy weather" experiences very well, including 1200 miles up the Red Sea in northerlies. Once again, it would very much depend on the choices made by and the experience of the captain (certainly NOT the case in the hurricane (cyclone if you prefer) off Fiji, as I made some very bad choices, but as they say, "hindsight is 20/20"); good choices increase the survivability in any situation, especially at sea, in heavy weather.  

In general, and your sea miles may vary: NO sailboat is guaranteed to survive a hurricane. There are no guarantees at sea, except that the sea has a good chance of finding its way through weaknesses in either boat or crew. Any small boat skipper who intentionally challenges a hurricane would seem likely to be either a fool, harboring a death wish, under terrible pressure, seriously unlucky, or extraordinarily delusionally over-confident. Theoretically, a boat could be designed for having a maximum probability of surviving hurricanes, but it might have to be so over-built that it would be a pig in normal conditions. (glossing over some discussion of Westsails and such like) There are boats built to sail in heavy conditions, and one could do a lot with flotation, water tight compartments, over-built rigs, high-strength impact-resistant hulls, more-or-less bulletproof steering systems, control lines led to sheltered locations, etc. If one were wealthy. But, a thirty-foot breaking wave can simply overpower most smaller craft, depending on how it catches a boat and how well the crew is able to anticipate and respond. With good voyage planning and weather routing and an efficient boat, a smart and not-too-unlucky crew can avoid most of the really heavy weather. What's sometimes harder to avoid and to manage is the really light stuff.  

What sailboat could survive a full-blown hurricane at sea? A fortunate one.  

Read God Forsaken Sea by Derek Lundy. Be prepared for some terrible gut wrenching descriptions.  

Me too. I cant remember ever hearing about a battleship or an aircraft carrier going down due to rough weather. And, the food is good.  

maybe not breaking it's back.. but my father rememebers seeing the intrepid with her flightdeck even with the water... and he was on an LST. The carrier sailors joked that people on his ship should have gotten Submarine pay as they spent most of the time under the waves. From what he tells of the story, they were taking 50 degree rolls.. LSTs are only supposed to take 40 before the capsize. I know of the Westsail that survived the perfect storm.. and a few Alberg 37s that survived some serious weather. Two that went through the Fast Net Gale with minimal damage and one that wound up beached with only scratches from a hurricane  

The USN would disagree with the idea that warships are safe in a typhoon. In 1944 a number of ships were capsized and lost in Typhoon Cobra. Typhoon Cobra (1944) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia There are too many variables to say which boats would survive a hurricane. In a class 5 hurricane in the dangerous quadrant, essentially NO sailboat would be likely to survive. Currents, types of wave action, proficiency of the captain and crew, equipment on board, strategies for dealing with big seas, and whether you've pissed off Neptune...all variables making huge differences in ability to handle bad weather. It's not just the boat. An Alberg 35 survived the Fastnet storm by just taking sails down and going below with bare poles.  

smurphny said: The USN would disagree with the idea that warships are safe in a typhoon. In 1944 a number of ships were capsized and lost in Typhoon Cobra. Typhoon Cobra (1944) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... Click to expand...

Read "Rescue in the Pacific". Great book, not a hurricane, but a nasty storm none-the-less. All but one of the 'boats' survived it. It was the people that didn't.  

OK, fine. Then I won't go to sea in a warship. That settles it.  

I think it was one of Michner's books, maybe Tales of the South Pacific , that has a great fictional/historical account of this storm and what it must have been like to come upon the tragic sight of the wrong side of a destroyer from the deck of a sister ship.  

Might have been. Will have to search around and find where that section came from. It was a really haunting description, in the middle of a raging storm, of one warship looking out ahead and coming upon one that had capsized. Really presented a vivid and disturbing scene that has stuck with me.  

Make all the boat lists you want , but the thing that most makes a boat seaworthy is the person sailing her. There's no magic pill to get you through 30 foot seas. The best regarded blue water vessel ill managed at sea isn't worth spit . Conversely , a lessor boat skillfully handled might make a miracle .  

• ?            
• 176.1K members

Top Contributors this Month

Please verify you are a human

Access to this page has been denied because we believe you are using automation tools to browse the website.

This may happen as a result of the following:

• Javascript is disabled or blocked by an extension (ad blockers for example)
• Your browser does not support cookies

Please make sure that Javascript and cookies are enabled on your browser and that you are not blocking them from loading.

Reference ID: cdccd386-6510-11ef-9fe2-c86eb7a2e132

Powered by PerimeterX , Inc.

The Worldwide Leader in Sailmaking

• Sail Care & Repair
• Sailing Gear
• Find A Loft
• Sail Finder
• Custom Sails
• One Design Sails
• Flying Sails
• New Sail Quote
• 3Di Technology
• Helix Technology
• Sail Design
• NPL RENEW Sustainable Sailcloth
• Sailcloth & Material Guide
• Polo Shirts
• Sweaters & Cardigans
• Sweatshirts & Hoodies
• Accessories
• Summer Sale
• Shop the look
• Mid & Baselayers
• Deckwear & Footwear
• Luggage & Accessories
• Spring Summer '24
• North Sails x 37th America's Cup
• Sailor Jackets
• SALT X North Sails
• NS x Slowear
• T-shirts & Tops
• Sailor Jacket
• Sustainability
• North Sails Blog
• Sail Like A Girl
• 37th America's Cup
• Icon Sailor Jacket
• Our Locations
• Certified B Corporation
• North SUP Boards
• North Foils
• North Kiteboarding
• North Windsurfing

SAIL FINDER

SAILING GEAR

COLLECTIONS & COLLAB

COLLECTIONS

WE ARE NORTH SAILS

ACTION SPORTS

Popular Search Terms

Organic cotton

Scuba fleece

Drawstring hood

Utility pocket

Stand collar

Sorry, no results for ""

Subscription

Welcome aboard.

We want to make our emails as relevant as possible for you.

Interests saved

Something went wrong, please try again

Welcome to North Sails

Stay up to date with the latest North Sails news.

Receive a 10% discount code for your first apparel order. Excludes sails and SUP’s. See our Terms and Conditions .

Yes, I agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.

HOW TO SAIL SAFELY THROUGH A STORM

Tips and tricks to help you get home safe.

Compared to the quick response and sudden nature of a squall , sailing through a storm in open water is an endurance contest. In addition to big wind, you’ll have to deal with big waves and crew fatigue.

Sailing in Waves

Sailing in big waves is a test of seamanship and steering, which is why you should put your best driver on the helm. Experienced dinghy sailors often are very good at heavy air steering, because they see “survival” weather more often than most cruisers.

Avoid sailing on a reach across tall breaking waves; they can roll a boat over. When sailing close-hauled in waves, aim toward flat spots while keeping speed up so you can steer. To reduce the chance of a wave washing across the deck, tack in relatively smooth water. A cubic foot of water weighs 64 pounds, so a wave can bring many hundreds of pounds of water across the deck.

Sailing on a run or broad reach in big waves is exhilarating, but be careful not to broach and bring the boat beam-to a breaker. Rig a preventer to hold the boom out.

Storm Sails

If reefing isn’t enough to reduce power, it’s time to dig out your storm sails — the storm trysail and storm jib. They may seem tiny, but since wind force rises exponentially, they’re the right size for a really big blow. Storm trysails are usually trimmed to the rail, but some modern ones are set on the boom. The storm jib should be set just forward of the mast to keep the sail plan’s center of effort near the boat’s center of lateral resistance. This helps keep the boat in balance.

Storm Strategy

The first decision before an approaching storm is the toughest: Run for cover, or head out to open water for sea room? With modern forecasting, a true storm will rarely arrive unannounced, but as you venture further offshore the chances of being caught out increase. While running for cover would seem the preferred choice, the danger lies in being caught in the storm, close to shore, with no room to maneuver or run off.

Two classic storm strategies are to try to keep away from land so you’re not blown up on shore, and to sail away from the storm’s path — especially its “dangerous semicircle,” which is its right side as it advances.

Storm Tactics

Storm tactics help you handle a storm once you’re in it. There are several proven choices, all of which aim to reduce the strain and motion by pointing one of the boat’s ends (either bow or stern) toward the waves. No one tactic will work best for all boats in all conditions.

Sail under storm jib and deeply reefed mainsail or storm trysail. This approach provides the most control. Sails give you the power to steer and control your boat in the waves.

Run before the storm with the stern toward the waves, perhaps towing a drogue to slow the boat. This tactic requires a lot of sea room, and the boat must be steered actively. Another concern is that you will remain in front of an approaching storm, rather than sailing out of its path.

Heave-to on a close reach with the jib trimmed to windward. Heaving-to can be an excellent heavy weather tactic, though some boats fare better than others.

Deploy a sea anchor while hove-to or under bare poles. A sea anchor is a small parachute set at the end of a line off the bow. A sea anchor helps keep the bow up into the waves so the boat won’t end up beam to the seas. One concern is the load on the rudder as waves push the boat aft.

Another alternative is lying ahull, simply sitting with sails down. This passive alternative is less reliable than the other tactics, as you lose the ability to control your angle to the waves and may end up beam to the seas. Furthermore, the motion of the boat rolling in the waves without the benefit of sails can be debilitating.

Want to order a storm trysail or storm jib for your boat? Contact a North Sails Expert here .

How to Heave-To

Wouldn’t it be great if, during a heavy air sail, you could just take a break, and relax for a bit? Imagine a short respite from the relentless pitching and pounding: a chance to rest, take a meal, or check over the boat in relative tranquility. Well, you can. The lost art of heaving-to allows you to “park” in open water.

To heave-to, trim the jib aback (i.e., to the wrong side), trim the main in hard, and lash the helm so the boat will head up once it gains steerageway. As the jib tries to push the bow down, the bow turns off the wind and the main fills, moving the boat forward. Once the boat begins to make headway, the lashed helm turns the boat toward the wind again. As the main goes soft the jib once again takes over, pushing the bow down. The main refills, and the rudder pushes the bow into the wind again.

The boat won’t actually stop. It will lie about 60 degrees off the wind, sailing at 1 or 2 knots, and making significant leeway (sliding to leeward). The motion will be much less than under sail, and dramatically more stable and pleasant than dropping all sails and lying ahull. You will also be using up less sea room than if you run before the storm at great speed.

Achieving this balance will require some fine tuning, depending on the wind strength, your boat design, and the sails you are flying. Also, fin-keeled boats do not heave to as well as more traditional designs.

In storm seas, some boats will require a sea anchor off the bow to help hold the boat up into the waves while hove-to.

Alternate Storm Strategy: Don’t Go

If conditions are wrong, or are forecast to worsen, don’t go. If you can avoid the storm, then do so.

If you’re at home, stay there. If you’re mid-cruise, button up the boat, make sure your anchor or mooring or dock lines are secure, and then read a book or play cards. Relax. Enjoy the time with your shipmates. Study the pile of Owners’ Manuals you’ve accumulated with each piece of new gear. Tinker with boat projects.

Put some soup on the stove, and check on deck every so often to make sure the boat is secure. Shake your head as you return below, and remark, “My oh my, is it nasty out there.”

If your boat is threatened by a tropical storm or hurricane, strip all excess gear from the deck, double up all docking or mooring lines, protect those lines from chafe, and get off. Don’t risk your life to save your boat.

Misery and Danger

Although everyone will remember it differently years later, a long, wet, cold sail through a storm can be miserable. As the skipper, you need to make the best of it: watch over your crew, offer relief or help to those who need it, and speak a few words of encouragement to all. “This is miserable, but it will end.”

Take the time to marvel at the forces of nature, and at your ability to carry on in the midst of the storm. Few people get to experience the full fury of a storm. It may not be pleasant, but it is memorable.

While misery and discomfort can eventually lead to fatigue, diminished performance, and even danger, do not mistake one for the other. Distinguish in your own mind the difference between misery and danger. Don’t attempt a dangerous harbor entrance to escape misery; that would compromise the safety of the boat and crew, just to avoid a little discomfort.

Interested in a new sail quote or have questions about your sails? Fill out our Request a Quote form below and you will receive a reply from a North sail expert in your area.

REQUEST A QUOTE

GET IN TOUCH

BROWSE ALL SAILS

FIND YOUR SAIL

Featured stories, 37th america's cup preview with ken read, pressure, performance & expectations, #nsvictorylist: newport bermuda race 2024.

• Refresh page

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

The Boat Galley

making boat life better

Hurricane Prep: Your Lines

Published on October 19, 2017 ; last updated on December 24, 2020 by Carolyn Shearlock

Unless you’re hauling out for a hurricane, the lines you use to secure your boat are vitally important.

In Hurricane Irma, in Boot Key Harbor (Marathon, FL) where the eye hit as a Cat 4 storm, over 150 boats were ripped from their mooring balls. Of 226 moorings, only 2 failed according to the marina manager. But only 54 had boats on them by the end of the storm. Taking a wholly unscientific look at a number of the mooring balls missing boats, it was clear that many boats’ lines had parted; a lesser number had intact lines with cleats ripped from the boat.

Whether it’s dock lines, anchor snubber lines, mooring lines or even lines to tie your boat into the mangroves, they are what will keep your boat in place . . . or not.

Lines can have three problems: the line itself breaks in the absence of chafe; the line chafes through; or the line insufficiently absorbs shock and puts an excessive load on an attachment point (for example, pulling a cleat out of the deck or the anchor out of the bottom).

What I’ve learned over the years (short version here, keep reading for an explanation of each):

• New lines beat old lines.
• Three-strand beats double-braid; nylon beats polyester and other fibers.
• Quality pays off.
• Right-size beats too-large or too-small.
• Splices beat knots.

There’s a final point, too: You have to protect the lines from chafe.

New Lines Beat Old Lines

Sun, salt, and repetitive work take a toll on lines, significantly reducing their breaking strength. The exact amounts vary by line size, material, and how the lines have been used, but a 50% reduction in two years’ use is not out of the question.

We always keep a brand-new set of lines on hand for hurricane use, and once they are used in hurricane-force winds, we retire them. You can see the brand-new primary lines we used for Hurricane Irma in the photo at the top of this article; our backup lines (center) have been previously used.

3-Strand Beats Double-Braid; Nylon Beats Polyester and Other Fibers

For many boating applications, we want low-stretch lines. And at first glance, low-stretch seems like the way to go to keep your boat where you put it.

However, stretch in the line is actually good as it prevents shock loading on the attachment point, absorbing much of the force in the line itself. This results in far fewer cleats, winches and other attachment points being literally ripped out of the hull or dock. If you’re anchoring, stretch in your snubber lines keeps the anchor from being ripped out of the bottom, setting your boat adrift.

Nylon line has more inherent stretch than other commonly-used line fibers and a 3-strand line has about double the stretch as similar size/fiber double braid. So we opt for 3-strand nylon.

Quality Pays Off

High-quality line has greater abrasion resistance, due to coatings used in the manufacturing process. We use New England Ropes Premium Nylon 3-Strand, which claims 5 times the abrasion resistance of other lines when wet (in the waves and rain of a hurricane, the line will certainly be wet). Abrasion resistance is not only important in the context of chafe but also fiber-to-fiber within the line as it stretches and contracts.

With time, this coating wears off (according to a Practical Sailor article , which also makes logical sense), which is a major factor in older line’s lesser breaking strength.

I know, I know. If you are buying a spool of line for tying into mangroves, it’s expensive. But losing your boat — or even a 20% deductible for a named storm — costs far more. We buy our lines from West Marine:

• New England Premium Three-Strand Nylon By-the-Foot  (up to a full spool of 600 feet)
• New England Premium Three-Strand Nylon Dock Lines (eye spliced in one end, varying lengths)

The Right Size

Using the right diameter line is also important. Too small a line and it won’t have sufficient strength or mass to resist chafe. And while stretch is generally good, too small a line will stretch so much that it will build up heat internally which also leads to line failure.

Larger line has a greater breaking strength and won’t have as much heat buildup. However, too large a line won’t stretch but will shock load the attachment points, which can rip cleats or winches out.

For our hurricane lines, we use one size larger than our everyday lines — with our Gemini catamaran, that means using 5/8″ line instead of our usual 1/2″. With the heavier winds and waves of a hurricane, this still stretches to absorb the shocks of gusts and waves while providing a little extra strength and abrasion resistance.

Splices Beat Knots

In Practical Sailor tests (and I’ve read similar things in other tests), knots reduce the breaking strength of line by about 30% (conventional wisdom says 50% but it depends on the knot used), whereas splices reduce the breaking strength by about 10%. Obviously, with hurricane forces, you want every bit of breaking strength available to keep your boat secured. So that favors splices.

The reality, however, is that splices won’t work everywhere (such as tying a boat into mangroves or to pilings), and they are time-consuming to do. One solution is to buy dock lines with pre-spliced eyes or to prepare lines in the off-season. Where you have to use a knot, my research says that bowlines and rolling hitches will preserve more of the line’s breaking strength than most other knots.

Our personal experience is that for connecting two lines to form a longer line, using two rolling hitches is better than two bowlines or a sheet bend (this was not in a controlled testing environment but in post-hurricane actual usage — creating a longer line to refloat grounded boats — so I cannot say that it is always better).

Further Resources

Over the years, I’ve read considerably on lines and hurricane prep. I cannot begin to list all the resources, and I will say that some contradict others and some of the recommendations just do not seem practical in real-world conditions.

I prefer simple solutions that do not involve fancy rigging, special knots or hardware in order to work properly.  And that leads to my recommendation for brand-new, high-quality 3-strand nylon lines one size larger than everyday lines, and spliced wherever possible instead of knotted . Other people may make different recommendations.

Here’s a good article if you want to read more:

• Used Nylon Three Strand Rope
• Deciding To Haul Out For A Hurricane – No Regrets
• Making a Hurricane Plan for your Insurer
• Why Did Barefoot Gal Survive Irma?

And check out our other courses and products

Find this helpful? Share and save:

• Facebook 609
• Pinterest 117

Reader Interactions

Thomas McCaffery says

October 25, 2017 at 12:05 pm

Good comment on sheet bends. The knot is actually intended for joining two ropes of dissimilar diameter so that a smaller line can be used to pull a larger line such as sending a towline to another boat.

Liah Hunter says

January 29, 2018 at 10:50 pm

I’ve also heard it’s worth dropping out a couple of anchors just invade the mooring does fail, just make sure the boat can still swing so its bow into the wind!

Also making sure the lines won’t wear through the boat is important! We came back to our old boat once after a storm (relatively minor) to discover the mooring chain had jumped out the feeder and sawed almost through the bow!

Carolyn Shearlock says

January 30, 2018 at 9:25 am

Most mooring fields prohibit having anchors down while on the mooring, as they will foul and chafe the mooring. The argument is that the anchor rode is likely to make the mooring fail.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Each week you’ll get:

• Tips from Carolyn • New articles & podcasts • Popular articles you may have missed • Totally FREE – one email a week

SUBSCRIBE NOW

• Questions? Click to Email Me
• Visit Our Store

Video shows moments before superyacht went down in storm off Sicily

Newly released video captures a luxury superyacht being battered by a violent storm before it suddenly sank off Sicily with 22 people aboard Monday.

The grainy images obtained by NBC News and other outlets were recorded on closed-circuit television not far from where the Bayesian was anchored, about a half-mile from the port of Porticello, on Sicily’s northern coast .

The yacht's 250-foot mast, illuminated with lights and lashed by the storm, appears to bend to one side before it finally disappears and is replaced by darkness.

The speed with which a yacht built to handle the roughest seas capsized stunned maritime experts.  

“I can’t remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that, you know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size,” said Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five of the 22 other people who were aboard the 184-foot vessel remain unaccounted for and are believed to be trapped in the Bayesian’s hull, nearly 170 feet underwater.

Officials confirmed Monday that at least one person, the ship’s cook, had died.  

Superyachts like the Bayesian, which had been available for charters at a rate of $215,000 a week, are designed to stay afloat even as they are taking on water to give the people aboard a chance to escape, Richter said. 

“Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday,” Richter said. “They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed.”

Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered Bayesian could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast is the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters. 

On Tuesday, Italian rescue workers resumed the search for Lynch and the five other passengers still missing: Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife.

“The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” Salvatore Cocina, the head of civil protection in Sicily, told Reuters .

The Bayesian is owned by a firm linked to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 people rescued Monday after it capsized.

“It’s extremely rare for a boat of this size to sink,” Richter said.

What’s not rare is the kind of storm that sank it , said Simon Boxall, senior lecturer in oceanography at Britain’s University of Southampton.

“People assume the Mediterranean is this rather calm and passive place that never gets storms and always blue skies,” Boxall said. “In fact, you get some quite horrendous storms that are not uncommon at this time of year.”

The president of Italy’s meteorological society has said Monday’s violent storm may have involved a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or a downburst, which occurs more frequently but doesn’t involve the rotation of the air.

Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorology Society, also said recent temperatures may have been a factor. 

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius [86 Fahrenheit], which is almost 3 degrees more than normal,” Mercalli told Reuters. “This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.”

The Mediterranean sailing vacation was designed to be a celebration for Lynch, who two months ago was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of fraud charges stemming from the 2011 sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Prosecutors alleged that Lynch, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” and Autonomy’s vice president for finance, Stephen Chamberlain, had padded the firm’s finances ahead of the sale. Lynch’s lawyers argued that HP was so eager to acquire Autonomy that it failed to adequately check the books .

Lynch had taken Morvill, who was one of his defense attorneys, on the luxury trip. 

Chamberlain was not on the Bayesian.

In what appears to be a tragic coincidence, a car struck and killed Chamberlain on Saturday as he was jogging in a village about 68 miles north of London, local police said.

“Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family,” Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg, said in a statement .

Henry Austin reported from London and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.

Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.

Ready 4 The Storm: Saildrones sailing into the eye of hurricanes

by Charistin Clark

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Hurricane Beryl was a record-breaking major storms that formed in late June. The major hurricane brought devastation to the Caribbean islands, and parts of Mexico and Texas.

Data company Saildrone deployed one of their unmanned surface vehicles, or USV, into the outer edge of the storm. When it was a Category five hurricane, the USV collected incredible video and data that will help forecasters learn more about how these storms intensify.

"It is rare to even have a hurricane this early in June, to have a hurricane form in June," oceanographer Greg Foltz said.

Hurricane Beryl rapidly intensified in the eastern Caribbean and reached Category five hurricane strength in early July.

READ MORE | "Know Your Zone: A breakdown of changes made to local emergency evacuation zones"

"That's two weeks earlier than any other cat five hurricane recorded ever in the Atlantic," said Foltz. "So just a lot of records and a lot of extraordinary intensification and, you know, with this hurricane."

Hurricane Hunters flew into the storm to collect data, while NOAA and Saildrone sent their USV into the outer edge of Beryl.

Hurricane Hunters are collecting data to learn what's happening in the atmosphere of the storm. Saildrone's USV collects data from the surface of the storm.

"We measure winds and waves and the air temperature, humidity, the surface pressure, ocean currents, and wave height and period," said Foltz. "And we take pictures and videos. So quite a lot of good data kind of from the outer edge of the hurricane."

SD-1041 experienced harsh conditions even though it was about one hundred miles from the center.

"Winds about 50 miles an hour and gusts up to 60 miles an hour," said Foltz. "And this was on the very edge of the hurricane when it was cat five, so that, you know, you can imagine how big and powerful it was if we're a hundred miles away and we're getting winds of miles an hour and waves of 25 feet."

Collecting this data will help scientists learn more about what's happening at the surface of these storms.

READ MORE | "Ready 4 The Storm: How the Lowcountry dealt with storms throughout history"

"The more we can learn about how these storms begin, how they grow and intensify, are there things that we're measuring that might cause the track to change, you know, all of this data along with all that other information I mentioned before, you know, all that comes together to kind of tell that bigger picture and then it's gonna take some serious analysis to be able to say, okay, this storm, you know, is following the track of and will likely do this, and, and we wanna be more accurate with that," Brian Connon, Vice President of Ocean Mapping at Saildrone, said.

Because the end goal is to "protect people who live along the coast, give them more time for warning, so they can get outta the way," Connon said.

Protecting people faster, smarter and safer than ever before.

National Hurricane Center tracking 4 tropical waves as we near the peak of storm season

When is hurricane season june 1 to nov. 30, with the busiest part of the season between august and october. the next named storm would be francine..

For the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next seven days.

So says the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

However, the hurricane center is tracking four tropical waves in the Atlantic.

➤  Weather alerts via text :  Sign up to get updates about current storms and weather events by location

According to the weather service's Wednesday, Aug. 21, advisory, no tropical cyclone activity is expected throughout the week, but the hurricane center did report there are four tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean to monitor as we near the peak of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. According to forecasters, one system is near Senegal and Gambia, two in the Caribbean Sea and the fourth impacting the southwest Gulf of Mexico and southern Mexico, Fox 35 reports. Each wave is traveling westward across the Atlantic.

• A tropical wave is in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just offshore the west coast of Africa, moving west. Scattered moderate convection is noted.
• A tropical wave is in the Atlantic Ocean approaching the Lesser Antilles, moving west. No deep convection is associated with this tropical wave.
• A tropical wave is in the central Caribbean Sea southward to Panama is moving west. Scatteredmoderate to locally strong convection is noted off the coast of Panama and Costa Rica.
• A tropical wave has moved into the Bay of Campeche, moving west. Isolated convection is occurring in far southern portions of the Bay of Campeche.

Caribbean Sea:

• The Atlantic ridge extends from the Northeast Atlantic southwest to the Central Bahamas. This ridge extends north of the basin and continues to support a typical trade-wind regime across most of the Caribbean Sea. Fresh to strong east to northeast winds and seas of 7 to 10 feet continue as a strong pressure gradient between high pressure over the central Atlantic and low pressure over Colombia persists. Gentle to moderate tradespersist elsewhere, except light and variable in the southwest and northwest Caribbean away from any convection. Seas are 3 to 5 feett in the eastern Caribbean, 2 to 4 feet in the northwest Caribbean, and 3 to 6 feet across the remainder of the waters.
• For the forecast, fresh to strong trades and moderate to rough seas will continue over the south-central basin today. Moderate to locally fresh east to northeast winds and slight to moderate seas are expected over central and eastern portions of the basin through this weekend, with light to gentle winds and slight seas over thenorthwest Caribbean.

Atlantic Ocean:

A cold front off the coast of Northeast Florida is supporting moderate to locally fresh southwest winds and seas of 4 to 6 feet. Moderate to locally fresh east to northeast winds are noted and seas of 5 to 7 feet.

When is hurricane season in Florida?

The Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 to Nov. 30 every year, with the most active part of the season between August and October.

When is the peak of hurricane season?

The peak of the season is Sept. 10, with the most activity happening between mid-August and mid-October, according to the National Hurricane Center.

What are the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season names?

According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, these are the  list of names for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane  season:

What happens if we run out of hurricane names? What are the  supplemental hurricane names for 2024 ?

If there are more than 21 named tropical cyclones during the Atlantic hurricane season, any additional storms will take names from an alternate list of names approved by the World Meteorological Organization. These are the supplemental hurricane names for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season:

Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network-Florida

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

What next for Grenada after Hurricane Beryl?

• Chris Doyle
• August 27, 2024

Few people know the cruising communities of the Caribbean better than Chris Doyle – he examines what the aftermath of hurricanes can bring to the islands, and what might be next for Grenada and the Grenadines after Hurricane Beryl.

Hurricanes are not unexpected in the Caribbean. On average about seven form each year. But although everyone in the region remains alert, the path of a hurricane is relatively narrow and each year most islands are unaffected.  

Grenada has been disastrously hit only a few times in the past 70 years: Janet in 1955, Ivan in 2004, and now Hurricane Beryl . It would be rare for any location to average a bad hurricane hit more than about every 16 years.

Hurricane Irma , which devastated Barbuda in 2017, is the only storm I know of that has precipitated a change so great that Barbuda is unlikely to be the same again. Barbuda is a low-lying 40,000-acre island with many lovely beaches. The population of around 1,700 people held the land in common and so controlled development. They’d leased land to four hotels, two of them now defunct. Barbuda was low key and quiet. The Antigua and Barbuda government had long wanted to end the communal ownership of land and to encourage large-scale tourism, but the reaction of Barbudans was mixed – most wanted Barbuda to keep control of its own land .  

Devastation after Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Caribbean in 2017. Photo: Sharpshotaero/Alamy

After Hurricane Irma, the government, for the safety of the population, ordered a complete evacuation of all Barbudans to Antigua. During the evacuation, the government did some restoration work, and started construction of an international airport for executive jets.

The hurricane destroyed the Coco Point Lodge Hotel, which sold their lease to PLH, a high-end development company. PLH also bought the lease for the defunct Palmetto Point Hotel. Ever since, there has been a steady progression of development. Luxury houses now occupy the former Coco Point Lodge land. PLH is converting Palmetto Point into a resort. A report by the UN concluded: “In the midst of a global climate crisis… it is shocking to see the development of a yacht marina in an area known for its fragile ecosystem and a golf course on an island that relies on scarce groundwater resources.”

The low land barrier protecting Barbuda’s Codrington Lagoon breached during Irma. This has happened before, but previously the barrier naturally restored within a few months. This time more has eroded – it is not recovering on its own.  

Grenada bounced back after the 2004 Hurricane Ivan as a central hub of yachting – here the Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis marina, Grenada, before Beryl.

Island resilience

The Caribbean is resilient in the face of hurricanes. Over the years I have seen many photos of terrible damage to an island, only to visit the next winter to find them up and running, apparently back to normal, even if there are occasional blue tarps on yet unrepaired roofs.  

Things are changing: when Hurricane Maria (2017) hit Dominica, very little information emerged for almost a week, but within a day of Beryl, news was coming from Carriacou and Union. While big aid organisations always help, 2024 is also the first year in which assistance arrived promptly: a helicopter delivered sandwiches to Petit Martinique very shortly after the storm.  

The Marine and Yachting Association of Grenada was one of the first to start raising funds for Carriacou and to send aid on yachts. In Union Island Jeremie Tonet, who owns a kitesurfing business, did an almost miraculous job by raising €250,000 in just a few days and visiting Martinique to ship things needed by both plane and ship.

The Tobago Cays in the Grenadines is a stunning cruising ground. Photo: Peter Phipp/Travelshots.com/Alamy

I returned to Grenada the winter following Ivan (2004) and life for most people was close to normal. But the rainforest was destroyed; trees stripped bare of their leaves and covered in vines. Its recovery was gradual, yet 10 years later most would not have known there’d been a hurricane.

About the author

Chris Doyle’s is a name familiar to all Caribbean  cruisers, as the author of best-selling  cruising  guides of the region. Having explored the Caribbean for more than 40 years, there is barely an anchorage he hasn’t visited or a harbour he hasn’t surveyed. His knowledge of the eastern Caribbean is second to none, and his cruising guides can be found on the shelves and chart tables of thousands of boats.

Tropical Storm Hone Increases to Category 1 Hurricane Strength While Approaching Hawaii

Tropical Storm Hone has increased to a Category 1 hurricane while continuing its steady approach toward Hawaii late Saturday

This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Hone as it continues to track to the west toward the Hawaiian Islands, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)

HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Hone increased to a Category 1 hurricane while continuing its steady approach toward Hawaii late Saturday, forecasters said.

Hone (pronounced hoe-NEH) had top winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to an 11 p.m. advisory by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. The minimum threshold for a hurricane is 74 mph (119 kph).

A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Big Island as the storm moved west at 12 mph (19 kph) about 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Hilo, Hawaii, and about 275 miles (440 kilometers) southeast of Honolulu, the center said.

The hurricane center, part of the National Weather Service, previously said Hone was expected to remain just below hurricane strength at its peak Sunday through Monday.

Hurricane Gilma, still about 1,480 miles (2,380 kilometers) east of Hilo, increased to a Category 4 hurricane Saturday night.

Hone, whose name is Hawaiian for “sweet and soft,” drew near the islands Saturday with breezes that were expected to intensify and increase the wildfire risk for drier parts of the state even as memories are still fresh from last year's deadly blazes on Maui.

A red flag fire warning was in effect for the leeward sides of all islands through 6 p.m. on Saturday. The National Weather Service issues the alert when warm temperatures, very low humidity and stronger winds combine to raise fire dangers.

“They gotta take this thing serious,” said Calvin Endo, a Waianae Coast neighborhood board member who lives in Makaha, a leeward Oahu neighborhood prone to wildfires.

Most of the archipelago is already abnormally dry or in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The winds are expected to be strongest where they blow downslope from higher terrain, over headlands and through passes, the hurricane center advised.

The situation recalls last year's deadly wildfires on Maui, which were fueled by hurricane-force winds . But while Hone presents high fire dangers, “it’s not on the magnitude of that,” weather service meteorologist Derek Wroe in Honolulu said Saturday.

The Aug. 8, 2023, blaze that torched the historic town of Lahaina was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, with 102 dead. Dry, overgrown grasses and drought helped spread the fire.

For years, Endo has worried about dry brush on private property behind his home. He's taken matters into his own hands by clearing the brush himself, but he's concerned about nearby homes abutting overgrown vegetation.

“All you need is fire and wind and we’ll have another Lahaina,” Endo said in the morning. “I notice the wind started to kick up already."

The cause of the Lahaina blaze is still under investigation, but it’s possible it was ignited by bare electrical wire and leaning power poles toppled by the strong winds.

The state’s two power companies, Hawaiian Electric and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, said they would be monitoring conditions this weekend and ready to shut off power if necessary to reduce the chance that live, damaged power lines could start fires.

Firefighters remained on the scene of a small blaze that started Friday night in Waikoloa, on the dry side of the Big Island, according to Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth. It was under control and did not cause any injuries or damage.

“We’re expecting to have bands of rain come through the day,” Roth said from Hilo, on the island's east side, where it was raining.

The island was getting enough rain later Saturday to cancel its red flag warning, though a warning remained in effect for the other islands, said Ian Morrison, a weather service meteorologist in Honolulu.

Officials were closing some Big Island beach parks in anticipation of dangerously high surf and preparing to open shelters if needed, Roth said.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority told travelers it’s still safe to come to the islands but recommended postponing outdoor activities.

The eastern and southeastern parts of the Big Island could get 5 to 10 inches (11 to 25 centimeters) of rain. The island could get sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph (32 to 64 kph) and gusts near 60 mph (97 kph), weather officials said.

Moving westward across the Pacific behind Hone was Hurricane Gilma. A separate 11 p.m. Saturday advisory said Gilma's “intensification rate has leveled off" and placed the storm 1,500 miles (2,410 kilometers) west of Baja California . The maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) elevated the storm into the bottom of Category 4 hurricane status.

Forecasters had called for additional strengthening before gradually weakening as Gilma moves over cooler sea-surface temperatures and into a drier, more stable airmass.

Copyright 2024 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Photos You Should See - July 2024

Join the Conversation

Tags: Associated Press , wildfires , natural disasters , Hawaii , floods , weather

Related Articles

Best states.

America 2024

Best States Rankings

• # 2 New Hampshire
• # 3 Nebraska
• # 4 Minnesota

Healthiest Communities

Your trusted source for in-depth analysis on the issues impacting your community’s well-being delivered right to your inbox.

Sign in to manage your newsletters »

Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy .

You May Also Like

The 10 best states in america.

Elliott Davis Jr. May 7, 2024

Why Utah Is the Best State

Elliott Davis Jr. and Julia Haines May 7, 2024

Why Florida Is No. 1 in Education

Tim Smart May 7, 2024

Residents in Boston Suburb Raised $20K After Town Officials Shut Down Boy’s Ice Cream Stand

Associated Press Aug. 28, 2024

Missouri Death Row Inmate Gets Another Chance at a Hearing That Could Spare His Life

Bikinis, Surfboards and Battle-Axes? Hawaii Loosens Long-Strict Weapons Laws After Court Ruling

All Eyes Are on Nvidia as It Prepares to Report Its Earnings. Here's What to Expect

California Lawmakers Pass Protections for Pregnant Women in Prisons and Ban on Legacy Admissions

Associated Press Aug. 27, 2024

Tesla's Fight Against Louisiana Auto Sales Law Revived by Appeals Court

Florida Says Execution Shouldn't Be Stayed for Parkinson's Symptoms