Some of the most important things you can do to protect yourself and your marine investment during hurricane season should happen well before the storm names start going through the alphabet. Here are a few pieces of advice about how to best navigate the Florida hurricane season.
Essentially, you need to decide whether you’re going to moor the craft in a marina or trailer it to covered storage. If you’re going with the second option, the vessel in question is going to have to be small enough to justify the trip. For a lot of inshore fishing boats, covered storage is a great option.
For larger vessels, trailering isn’t feasible without semis and special permits. In that case, either you’re going to keep your boat in the water at a marina with reasonable protection from storm waters or you’re going to put it in dry dock for the season.
Sometimes, depending on the size of the craft, it’s best to have the captain take her to another hemisphere until the hurricane season ends.
But whatever your plan, ensure that you practice all emergency procedures before the event of an emergency. That way, when it happens, you’ll have done it before and will be less stressed.
Experts agree that the best place for any boat in hurricane season is away from the hurricane’s worst extremes. If it’s possible to get your boat out of the water (that is, if the boat is small enough to do so), it’s best to get that job done well before the event of a storm.
In other words, the time to head to the boat ramp with your empty trailer isn’t when the National Weather Service issues a hurricane warning. It’s well before that, preferably on a nice day when it’s even enjoyable to do the job.
When you do store your trailered boat, the best place to do so is far inland, preferably indoors. Many storage facilities offer indoor, or at least covered, storage bays that are intended for boats.
If no indoor storage bays are available in a convenient spot for you, the best you can do is park your boat in the lee of a sizeable building. Ensure that there aren’t any hazards in the area — such as power lines or trees with large limbs — that could damage the vessel in high winds.
It’s a great idea to have your boat inspected by a qualified technician at least once a year, if not more often, to identify looming safety concerns before they become a catastrophe.
Whether you use your boat to head out into blue water or you tend to stay in the shallows, it’s still good form to at least get it inspected for mechanical integrity, hull integrity, and fire safety.
You’ll want to look up an inspection checklist online if you decide to go about the business yourself. In that case, the list should include at a minimum a thorough once-over of all of the boat’s machinery, hardware, rigging, hull, navigation equipment, and fire safety gear.
A safety inspection is what any competent retailer with South Florida boats for sale would do, and it’s just good common sense. If the vessel isn’t seaworthy but she’s going to be expected to weather a storm in a marina, your first call after the storm blows through will probably be to a recovery company with a dive team.
If you’re looking at Palm Beach boats for sale, make sure the vessel in question is ready for hurricane season. That includes learning the details of its insurance policy, because whether a boat is ready or not involves considerations from physical storage options to paperwork.
