Pat,
Ditto on what Joe and Ed have said. Here's what I do. Hopefully it will help.
Touche' is in a slip with bow pilings, midships pilings and cleats on the main
pier. We have very little wave action in our marina. Touche's slip is exposed
to wind and surge only so most of my storm prep is so directed. Isaac
generated over 8 feet of surge. The water level was 5.1 feet over the piers.
I have a dedicated set of dock lines for storms only. I remove the normal dock
lines which go to the pilings on the port and starboard bow and have the eyes
on the bow cleat. I replace them with the longer storm lines which go across
the slips on either side of Touche' to the bow pilings for those slips. They
are tied near the tops of those pilings. These lines have chafe protection at
the chocks and are figure eighted on the bow cleat for adjustment. I tension
them slightly to keep the bow centered in the slip.
My stern lines are normally crossed and cleated on the main pier. The center
pier I'm on has a metal roof. I remove the normal dock lines and replace them
with the longer storm lines which are tied chest high to the pilings on the
main pier which hold the roof up. These pilings are 10 or so feet further
outboard of the cleats where the normal lines attach. These lines are crossed,
figured eighted on the transom cleats and also tensioned slightly to keep the
stern centered in the slip.
Note my emphasis on keeping the boat centered in the slip. With the lines
carried so far outboard from the boat, there is less requirement to leave the
lines slack. Think of it as increasing the scope on your anchor rode. If you
are anchored with 10:1 scope, the angle will change little as the boat rises or
lowers with the tide. Touche's storm lines remain nearly horizontal throughout
a storm event.
For me, it is important to tie the lines high on the pilings and tension them
to keep the boat centered in the slip. During Isaac, my buddy was running up
and down the bayou checking on boats. He said Touche' never got closer than
6-8 inches to the midships pilings. Gotta save the new paint job!!
I also installed dock cushions/bumpers down the insides and over the top of
both midships pilings. These are the ones that look like firehose with foam
inside. It's important to wrap them over the tops of the pilings. See next
paragraph.
The boat on my starboard side just ties to his pilings and doubles up his
lines. His midships pilings are dented on top and show signs of bottom paint
where the boat moved over and sat on the pilings at maximum surge.
Fortunately, it suffered no damage since there is no wave action. If we had
waves in our marina, the boat might have been holed and sunk. That's why I
wrap dock bumpers over the tops of my midships pilings. The boat next to him
did the same and also showed signs of having sat on top of his midships pilings.
I also put large fenders on the midships pilings at various heights. I don't
change the spring line as there won't be much windage on the boat and the
spring line is long enough to handle the surge without changing the horizontal
angle much.
I remove all sails, clip all forward halyards to the toe rail forward of the
shrouds, tie the boom side to side to the toe rail or foot blocks on the
cockpit coaming, and, depending on the expected wind strength, I may tie the
biminis down to the deck or backstay or remove the canvas altogether.
Dennis C.
Touche' 35-1 #83
Mandeville, LA
>________________________________
> From: Pat Nevitt <pnev...@gmail.com>
>To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
>Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 9:02 AM
>Subject: Stus-List Extra lines for storm
>
>
>I'm on the Chesapeake just south of Annapolis and the current storm track
>makes it look pretty ugly here Monday and Tuesday. Obviously I'm going to go
>down and take the sails off and remove anything that might get taken away by
>the wind. I've prepped for storms before, but not really sure that I put the
>extra lines on properly. I thought I would ask the list for their input. I
>have a C&C 29 MK II and am in a slip on a fixed dock (not floating) in the
>middle of a line of 20 boats or so. I have sailboats in slips on either side
>of me. The slip has angels (pilings) off the bow and the fixed dock at the
>stern and a short 6 foot finger pier along the port side. Normally I have
>stern lines that don't cross (I don't cross them anymore as they tend to rip
>out the swim ladder) going to pilings on the pier astern and fixed to the
>cleats on the aft port and starboard side of the boat. The bow lines go from
>cleats on the deck on either side of the bow
and through a gap in the toe rail to the pilings. I also have a spring line
on the port side that goes from a cleat attached to the genoa track to the
piling off the port bow. We are fairly protected and don't normally get a lot
of wave motion in the slips except when a power boater ignores the speed
limit. Normal tidal range is only 2-3 feet. Obviously the potential wind,
waves, storm surge and the abnormal tidal range all coming together with this
storm will make it unique. So, the question is where should I place extra
lines?
>
>My original intent was to leave the normal ones where they are, perhaps a
>little looser than usual (will put larger fenders on either side of the boat,
>especially near the finger pier). I thought another spring line on the
>starboard side maybe going aft would be good. Then I think I should double up
>the bow and stern lines, but the cleats won't hold more than one line. So
>where to put those? In the past I have afixed the extra stern lines to the
>main winches, but the bow lines are another issue. Base of the mast maybe? I
>also intend to leave these double lines with much more slack in them to
>account for tidal range.
>
>Pat Nevitt
>
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>
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