Hurricane Preparations and the Small Boat Sailor

By Neil Persadsingh

”Yes” he said to the Prince, ”the storm will come there is nothing you or I can do about that. But we have control over what we can do before the storm comes”
Any one who has a small sailboat and lives in the hurricane belt must start to think seriously about the increasing frequency of these storms and their increasing strength.
It seems that every hurricane season we get more and stronger storms. I consider the hurricane belt to include all of the West Indies, Florida, the Gulf States, Texas, Alabama, Louisana, the Carolinas and recently we had tropical storm Gabrielle menacing Nautachez. Also we must include the ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela, Nicargua, Hondouras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico.
If you live in any of these places you must start to plan carefully for the storms. Monitor the weather carefully. Usually, we can spot these storms coming of the West coast of Africa very early in their genesis. Keeping track of the storms it is really a wonderfull hobby. If you would like to get a map and some pins you can keep track of the storm daily. Monitor all weather forecasts and keep track of the storm by radio broadcast etc. Incidentally the sites weatherchannel.com and caribbwx.com will give you an instant weather forecast twenty four hours a day.
If you have the capability to listen on the shortwave bands or the ham bands you can usually hear what is happening to boats in the region of the storm and there is a Carribean weather net at 14.325 Mhz daily. Those of us who saw the devastation caused in New Orleans must remember the pictures carried on CNN of a big sail boat with its genoa being trashed in the storm Kathrina. So the first order of business is to get the genoa off the boat.
In Viva, my 20 ft Vivacity, we use a roller furler. The tack of the sail is removed from the drum and the jib halyard is freed. The sail is then pulled down out of the grove of the roller furler. The jib sheets are then removed and the sail is carefully folded and put into a sail bag and stored below in the small cabin. The jib sheets are taken home and put into a pail with fresh water and allowed to soak out the salt and grime which accumulates on them when in use.
The main sail’s cover is then removed and carefully folded and stored below. In Viva we have a fully battened main sail; this is removed from the boom and rolled up into a sausage which is carefully stowed in the cabin. The sails are the engine of a sailboat, so treat them well and they will give you years of enjoyment. In Viva we then take off the boom, and the main sheet. The lazy jacks are then detached and tied off at the foot of the mast. The boom with the attached main sheet and the cleat is then stored inside the boat.
The tiller is removed and the rudder as well, and these are inside the boat resting on the floor. The boat is then made water tight. All the openings and ;vents are sealed off with duct tape and any holes we see are sealed off as well. Use the duct tape liberally. In Viva we had two mushroom vents which were removed and two cowl vents were installed. The cowl vents are screwed off and the plate that attaches to the base where the ventiliator is screwed on is reattached and carefully taped over with duct tape. A rool of duct tape is cheap compared to the cost of the price of the boat. In Viva we have installed in the cockpit a compass and a depth gauge. These are covered with their own coverings made of sunbella. These coverings are carefully removed.
The boat is now moved into a lagoon which borders the yacht club This lagoon is almost surrounded with mangroves and here the boat is carefully tied down. We usually put down an anchor with twenty feet of chain and fifty feet of rope any way. The boat is tied off to the trunks of the mangrove shrubs by four lengths of nylon line. Two forward and two astern and as an insurance policy a specially long line is attached to the samson post. These ines must all be of Nylon, because they will have to stretch. Because the boat is in a lagoon which is almost surrounded by mangroves, I believe that there is very little storm surge during the storm. Also the A rawak indians who lived here before the coming of Columbus would shield their seagoing canoes in these mangroves when the storm came and there are designated hurricane refuge spots eg Rosey Hole, which can be used by bigger boats during the hurricane.
I believe that these refuges in the mangroves must have been used from the time of the Spanish conquest of Jamaica. Following the passing of the hurricane we have to get the boat back in shape. Be warned however that the leaves will stain the fiberglass and a lot of leaves will be on the boat in the cockpit and on the deck.
The product Rolloff will remoove the stains from the leaves use it with lots of water Rolloff is sold by West Marine. The boat is then taken back to its berth and the genoa is reattached The boom is then reattached to the mast and the main sheet is then reattached to the horse with a shackle through the jam cleat.
At this junction the mast is carefully examined. Use binoculars and carefully examine the hounds where the stays and the shrouds are attached to the mast. Carefully rig the lazy jacks back in their place. Examine all the running rigging carefully. Put back on the rudder and reattach the tiller. Put back on the covers for the compass and for the depth gauge. Take off all the duct tape which you had previously put on and reinstall the cowl ventiliators.
Clean up the boat and give her a good hosing down and you are all ready to go to sea.
A sailboat is much safer in the water during a hurricane than on a trailer on land. It is easy for a boat to be blown off its trailer, during the last storm we had a J 22 was blown off the trailer damaging its keel and its hull. We also have been having some thoughts about the posssibility of the boat being holed and sinking. I think that in the next hurricane threat I will fill up some garbage bags with empth plastic bottles and just put them in the cabin they will be trapped in there and will give sufficent boyancy tio the boat, that if she is holed she will not sink.
PS: Neil, with callsign 6Y5NP can be reached on 14.283 every morning or at 14.287 in the evenings. He writes: ”Incidentally if we have any hams on board we are planning a marine ham event with two sailboats at some time in the future and we hope that you will try and work our station wherever in the world you are.”