What can you do to protect your boat during the 2019 hurricane season? The editors of BoatUS Magazine have teamed up with the experts at the BoatUS Catastrophe Response Team to create an up-to-date “Hurricane Preparation Guide.”
If you want to know how to best protect recreational boats from damage in a hurricane, ask the experts who’ve been tasked with cleaning up the mess for nearly 40 years.
They’re the ones who’ve seen the evidence after the storm passes: a lack of preparation, poorly maintained docks, low seawalls, fallen boat lifts, and destroyed marinas.
The new 2019 guide as well as other hurricane preparation information is available at BoatUS.com/Hurricanes.
Available to all boaters at no cost, the updated BoatUS Hurricane Preparation Guide has articles on:
- What to expect in terms of storm surge, wind, and waves;
- Where to keep a boat — either ashore, in the water at floating or fixed docks, at anchor, or in a protected hurricane hole;
- How to find and fix potential breaking points such as chafing gear and reducing windage; and
- How to develop your own hurricane plan including hauling out, how to choose the most storm-safe location possible, and ensure that you have everything you need to implement your particular hurricane plan, long before any storm threatens your boat.
Also included is a hair-raising first-person account of how one BoatUS member got his boat safely through a major hurricane using time-worn techniques, and how to find the safest marina to weather a hurricane.
New to the guide is an easy-to-follow link to “create your own hurricane plan.” By downloading the PDF or Word form, boaters can put together their own hurricane plans that can be easily followed when a named hurricane threatening their area is announced.
“Use our free Hurricane Preparation Guide and watch our step-by-step videos to help you develop your own hurricane plan,” said BoatUS Magazine’s editorial director, Bernadette Bernon.
“Then implement it when the next storm approaches. We’ve learned what will give your boat the best chance of survival, and we want to share that critical advice with as many boaters as possible,” she said.
Photo from BoatUS magazine's Hurricane Preparation Guide
“Within seven hours of Hurricane Florence hitting the Carolinas, the water was 4 feet over the docks where John Stone’s boat was tied up.” — from the 2019 Hurricane Preparation Guide
About Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS)
Celebrating more than 50 years, BoatUS is the nation’s largest organization of recreational boaters with more than a half-million members. We are the boat owners’ voice on Capitol Hill and fight for their rights. We are The Boat Owners Auto Club and help ensure a roadside trailer breakdown doesn’t end a boating or fishing trip before it begins. When boats break down on the water, TowBoatUS brings them safely back to the launch ramp or dock, 24/7. The BoatUS Marine Insurance Program offers policies that give boat owners affordable, specialized coverage and superior service they need. We help keep boaters safe and our waters clean with assistance from the nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water. Visit BoatUS.com.