Chrysler Sailors Forum

I've been looking at the tracks and it looks like we might also get some weather from this system. I'm a worrier by nature. We are on a mooring in a public marina on the Northshore of Western Long Island Sound.
(adjacnet to the Merchant Marine Academy, for anyone who knows the area) . Short of pulling the boat (which i would like to avoid) any other suggestions? My biggest concern is the swing keel bouncing around in the slot. I'm thinking of passing a line or strap under the keel for some extra security. I'm always nervous about that pin holding! Also any suggestion on adding more lines or additonal ways to secure to the mooring ball. I don't want to inhibit the boat's free movement on the ball. We have a double bridle as it is and chafe protection on the bridles. Other than the bow cleat, which is big enough to pass the mooring bridles through and over, we have the two OEM cleats aft, port and staboard.


Thanks

If I had the trailer it's coming out of the water if it looks like Hanna is going to have any punch by the time it gets there. I have seen too many piles of boats that had broken loose and square danced for 12 hours before being left high and dry................

Maybe Hanna will be too pooped to pop by the time she makes it your way, but if you've been to www.nhc.noaa.gov lately, you'll see that Ike and maybe Josephine are lined up to follow suit, so best to have your prep planned out.

Trailer's for sure the safest alternative.

How's the mooring? Hard to know how old, what shape it's in, etc. Might chat with the marina on that. If not excellent and overbuilt, again consider the trailer.

Strip all canvas and stow below

Redundant, ridiculously strong mooring pennants, with chafe gear. Don't just rely on the cleats: secure at least one to the bow towing eye, too.

Ensure batteries are topped up and that the auto-bilge pump switch works.

Lash tiller

Print up a couple off copies of your contact info (not inkjet, which usually runs when it's wet, with the words "REWARD" in big letters, and laminate them. Tape one inside on a bulkhead, tape the other (good tape, right?) on the drop boards.

Latch all external hatches and lockers securely. Seal the hatch edges with good tape. Washboards should be secured down from the inside. Seal washboard joints and channel with tape.

Keel's a mixed bag: if you leave it down you get more stability; if you leave it up you might have less damage if she breaks loose. Dismantle table and get a look at the keel pennant if you're thinking of leaving it up. I would assume my mooring strategy was sound and leave it down.

Motor stays down, presenting a smaller target for drifting boats.

Anything that can tumble if the boat heels 60 degrees or so gets lashed down. Latch all locker lids. Consider removing anything that doesn't need to be on board.

Fran,

I think we will only have a real rainy crappy day this saturday....I know where you are and I think it will be very windy but I wouldn't worry much beyond the windage or wind problems..anything that will chafe away in teh wind...However, Windward does have very good detailed info...I would be worried about OTHER boats or floatsom breaking loose and hitting you...put out the fenders! might want to bring the outboard in in case the stern starts bobbing up/down rapidly as she rocks on her morring..

I was actually thinking of going aboard myself as the heavy rain might give me a great time to check for source of active leaks and play watchman and putter around on some interior projects..

Thanks for all the advice. Pulling the boat not feasible due to the tide table. We need high tide and we just aren't going to get one when it would be possible to pull the boat. So we went out there tonight and stripped it bare to reduce all windage. Pulled off the sails, boom and motor. We are down to bare poles. Added additonal chafe gear to the mooring bridles and the dockmaster came out and checked the pennant and said it was good to go. Same dockmaster advised against adding an additonal line least it got tangled with the mooring bridles. So if it breaks, I'll argue it's on him .

Don't think Hanna will be an real issue, they are forecasting 30kts out of SE from which we are well protected. I've got my eye on Ike and Josephine. If Hanna clears out quickly we may hit a favorable tide late Sunday afternoon. I'll try to convince hubby to pull the boat then.

WELL DONE!!

You are the kind of responsible boat owner that is few and far between...now I think I will go double check on my anti-chafe meassures... we sure don't want to start another "sunk" thread...

I guess I am finding another reason to lay out the money for a trailer...being able to pull it out of the way of a storm....

Thanks!

Good idea to check out the cafe guards! Lets hope this one goes by without too much bang!

How are the East Coast Chryslers fairing ?

Well (knock on wood) it looks like we have dogged what will probably be the last major storm of the year. Looks like the Keys could still get hammered though. We lived in the Keys when I was a boy and I can remember in the 3 or so years we lived there while my father was stationed at the Naval Air Station we must have seen 4 or 5 hurricanes come through, I think we lived in base hangers and local hotels Fortunately all we ever lost was the shell of the shed next to our trailer. Tornado took it but left everything inside and our home alone.

Hanna turned out to be a non event here in the NYC area. Maybe NYSAILOR had a different experience further out east which took a more direct hit. We had some rain and just a little wind. Haven't been out to look at the boat yet, but heck, we have sailed her in higher winds than blew through yesterday. I figure if something was wrong the Marina would have called. We will swing by later to put her back together and maybe go out for a short ride. We have just a few weeks left to this sailing season!

Our thoughts are with those in Ike's path now, it looks to be very dangerous.

What Hanna (and FranS) taught me....

OK, Like Fran says we had a lot of rain in a real hurry but the storm was so fast moving the exposure was merely a ew hours of really heavy rain.

BUT, I did learn a few things...

1) NONE OF THE CLEATS HAVE A BACKING PLATE!!! this is unreal... one of my stern cleats worked a little loose and Ithought it odd... At first I thought the area was blind and you could not get to it and feared the cleats were just screwed into the glass..NOT.. you can get a hand up into that narrow space from the gas/outboard locker but the cleats are just bolted in with narrow bolts and nuts and small washers ( at least on my boat) ..now I got to fabricate some alum or stainless backing plates for taht small narrow area.. anyone done this and have templates or dimensions...wondering how oversize ( in this case longer) to go...

2) It is very ez to simply remove the boom/mainsail and put it below to reduce windage ( as per FranS)

3) A trailer would be helpful as if you really have to pull her out all the marinas and travel lifts will be pretty busy and won't get to YOU.

4) Try never to get complacent about a tropical storm..no matter how much hype...get a drill that you do same each and every time... not amtter what YOU or the LOCALS "know" will happen

5) Get a proper seacock on that port sink drain!!!! esp. if your boat ( like mone) already has a mysterious list to port ( got to figure that out)

On the 22 the cleats for the back of the boat are on the sides and have wood blocking to back them up.

Good lessons. I will have to check the stern cleats to see what if anything backs them. The shrouds are backed with wood blocks and the single bow cleat has an aluminum brace backing it. A single bow cleat makes me nervous, I would prefer a redundant system in case one gives but there is no real way to intall two bow cleats and properly back them with a plate. As my husband said, if the bow cleat got torn off the boat so would a good bit of the foredeck and she would go down anyway.

To all our frineds in Texas, good luck!

I am troubled by the single bow cleat as well...and it is too small...I have to put TWO lines on her bow onteh one cleat at my slip and it is not nice...also no room for chocks there either.

on the stern..it is pretty tight up in there where they are mounted .. I think my set-up is oem... I will fabricate and aluminum angle iron to use up in there as a backing plate...your husband is right..if it goes with a backing plate it will take a big chunk of glass with it...so maybe ther is "wisdom" in the no backing plate ..."break away" cleats... but I guess the cleats whole existance is to hold the boat and not to break away...

After the first season we replaced the OEm cleat with an 8-9 inch stainless cleat . We too were concerned that the oem cleat was not wide enough and that the bridles might pop off. the new one is large enough to pass the mooring line through the center and around the horns, so we can overlap and lock the two bridles. The forward horn is very close to the forestay which just leaves enoungh room to pass the line.