Prepping Your Boat & Dock for Hurricanes

Jared 00:07
Hurricanes coming. you've got a boat, Matt. I know you've got a lot of family members that have boats. You have your own boats. What do you do to prep them though for a hurricane? Yeah, I think we got to break it down from side you got some boats that are in the water some of those are on land. So give us your thoughts on both.

Matt 00:24
I'll tell you about my boat right. I'm lucky enough I can keep my boat in my garage but let's talk about one of the other family boats. What we're doing we actually have a concrete slab on the side of the house. We put anchor points into the ground or on the concrete. And so we'll strap the boat trailer to the ground there. And we'll take the cover off, hold the windshield down the windows out and put them in the garage. And now the only things that we really have that are potentially damageable from wind, I mean we're talking about an impact. There really isn't much, right something has to hit that boat for it to get damaged.

Jared 00:59
Yeah I saw a guy side guy that posted something on land as well if you don't have your boat in water, basically on the trailer in an open field where there's not debris that's around it, someone can fall on it. And one of the things that was actually really smart he brought up was to fill that sucker with gas. Load it up. It serves two purposes, weights the boat down during the hurricane. And now you got 100 and something gallons of gas ready to burn that generator for lights don't come back on.

Luke 01:24
I think a couple things too. Like if your boat is on land and it is outside, make sure your drain plugs out of it because you don't want the whole boat to flood or all your rod boxes to fill up with water they will so…

Matt 01:35
That's one that a lot of people actually do is they'll leave and they'll fill their boat with water but they don't realize that they're going to overload that trailer and boats are not going to drain they're going to kill the battery because the boat’s bilge pump is going to run. It can be a problem.

Luke 01:48
I think the other thing too in the water you know; I haven't gone through this a ton. But first thing that comes to mind for me is you know, simple thing. Spring lines can make a big difference in making sure your boat is moored properly, to allow for some movement, but the right kind of movement. Matt, I'm sure you can talk about that a little bit more.

Matt 02:06
Yeah, I mean, that's a struggle that my mom's going through with a trawler right now. She has been through a couple of storms, making sure she's got enough lines in the right places that are in the right tension that will one not allow for any title or flood fluctuation.

Jared 02:35
The title is enormous fluctuation during a hurricane is far more than a normal deal.

Matt 02:25
Right and you know keep in mind this isn't a situation where you don't want to be on that boat right you're not going to go out there and check on it. So you're getting all this prep at the dock before this thing hits you don't have an opportunity to go out there and make any adjustments on the fly. That's pretty much it. So she takes all the canvas down, rolls it up either puts it in the boat or takes it back to the house and make sure the batteries are charged up for the bilge pump.

Jared 02:56
Awesome