hurricanehoops

[sabrejocky]

Have you seen these? Looks like they would do a good job. However I think they are to expensive and that it should be possible to make them yourself. Anyone have any thoughts?

Cor

 

[jtybt15]

???

 

[L. Keith]

What happens when the storm surge exceeds your piling height?

 

[divedaddy]

I am on an engineered, full floating pier system with enough overhead to handle about 18 feet of surge. Considering I am about 30 miles inland off a bay, that level of surge is extremely unlikely.

With hurricane season not far away, I sure would like to hear from others in the "zone", especially Florida, how they prepare and deal with hurricanes. How do you secure the boat?

Pascal? Anyone?

 

[PascalG]

i have no idea what hurricane hoops is !!!! i though maybe it was a new NBA team or something

i'm not sure i'd trus a floating pier... lots of them failed during the 05 season, and i don't think it was the surge, it was just the wind and the tremendous loads...

I secure the boat with as many lines as possible, spreading the loads to mutiple cleats and pilings. I did fine with Wilma, 100kts+, although back then spoil islands protecting the marina where covered with tall australian pines. Then last year, some environmentalist expert decided they were not natives and had to go... so 80%of our wind protection is gone...

if it's over 100kts then it's a problem... slips are too narrow and the surge/wave action woudl over run the spoil islands. anything over 100kts, ... got to go somewhere else !

 

[psalzer]

The floating piers in Pensacola ended up accross Main Street, most of them still had the boats tied to them.

 

[L. Keith]

Floating pier not a good idea. Even thirty miles inland. This is how I survived Katrina, just thirty miles to the east of the eye wall.

See below.

 

[L. Keith]

 

[sabrejocky]

If you type in www. topic name .com that will take you to what I am talking about. I am thinking of using something like this for daily use, in a real storm all bets are of if the piling moves or brakes anyway. I think one can make these things up a lot cheaper if I could get a hold of the balls.

Florida is full of none natives, removing the trees of that island is just dumb. I would send who ever made that decision the bill for any storm related damages i would encure.

Cor

 

[DeeRow]

The eye of Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma passed over our house. For these storms, I tied my 28' Carver (11k lbs) in the middle of the canal behind my house. The canal runs east-west, is approx 600 ft long with a 90 degree bend at the openning, and 75 ft wide. There is not a lot of wind fetch. The boat was tied to the base of palm trees on either side of the canal. I since sold the 28' Carver and bought a 42' Cruisers (35k lbs.). Needless to say, I don't trust the palm trees to hold the 42' footer. I have replaced my old dock which had short pilings with one that has long pilings. I also have purchased TideSlides which operate on the same principle as hurricane hoops. SlideMoor also makes a similar system. TideSlide had installations in place for Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma and had no boats using their system damaged. With the boat tied to a slide or hoop (assuming that the slide/piling is tall enough), lines can be shorter and therefore there is less stretch and less movement of the boat. I had the 42' footer tied in the middle of the canal for Ernesto (40 mph wind) and it sailed up and down the canal from the lines stretching. It was clear to me that I needed to do something different for it. For Frances and Jeanne, we had approx. a 6 ft surge 8 miles inland. Wilma blew offshore for us. If we had something larger that a cat 3 coming our way, I would seriously consider having the boat hauled. Unfortunately, NOAA is not as good at projecting strength as it is in projecting path. Wilma was suppose to be a topical storm by the time it crossed the state. It was far worse than Frances or Jeanne. One neighbor had his entire roof blown off, not just shiggles, but the rafters too. It was not properly tied to the walls but the same house "only" lost his pool enclosure during Frances (it was gone when Jeanne hit 3 weeks later).

My biggest concern for the hurricane hoops is that they could ride off the top of the piling. If your in a slip where you need to share a piling, your neighbor needs to use a hoop also for the hoop to be effective.

Mark