Sitting in the mud for a hurricane?

Our old boat, a 36' Gulfstar with twins, would sometimes sit in the soft, silty, mud in our first slip during winter time minus tides. It never did any damage, but the environment was more controlled. By that I mean the boat didn't move around much, it settled slowly into the mud as the tide fell, and I knew from experience that there were no rocks, stumps etc underneath us. That would be harder to duplicate in a mangrove creek, but not impossible.

Personally, I think high water would be a bigger concern, but very low water happens during storms as well. There are plenty of slips in Florida, mine included, that get really skinny on a minus 4' tide.

Advice from posters saying to find a deep lake with no one in it, sounds great but is of very little value in the real world.. Those places don't exist in Florida, every good hurricane hole fills up quickly.

Spider tying is a good, proven tactic, it works really well if you do it right and account for chafe and have strong tie off points. It's what I do in our little canal well up the South Fork of the St. Lucie near I-95. I personally feel better about my boat there than on the hard in most yards in the area. The yards offer little to no wind protection and high water can easily flood them. One boat (Usually a sailboat) coming off of it's stands can wreak havoc on its neighbors. Obviously, being inside a hurricane proof shed is the best option, but you better have a DEEEP wallet if that is your plan.

Personally, I think your plan is not perfect (none are), but it is a pretty good one. Maybe do a practice tie some weekend to make sure it will work.

Doug

We did similar when I was a kidlet -- in the Everglades. IF I was considering this, know we throttled INTO the mangrove and put our bow as far in as we could manage. We had a sedan so not the windage you have.

Picture of our steel 40'er:


We would go into the 'glades, seeking a winding course to defeat fetch. Now back then, weather forecasts were not a good as they are now, so you do have that advantage.

We plowed the bow as far into a mangrove slot as possible with an anchor off the transom. You should know we had serious scuppers in the aft cockpit so water could not accumulate. Our prop was protected because that was in deep water.

If you decide to do this, I would advise you (everyone really!) to add a shaft zinc on the INSIDE to protect your shaft. This does absolutely zero for electrolysis of course. However, should something catastrophic happen HOPEFULLY your shaft will remain inside your boat, not leaving a large hold down in the bilges for water to ingress.

This article: How Shaft Keys Work article on janice142 (and yes, many know all this stuff already)

Frankly, I agree with OP. Mangroves give a soft landing though they will scratch gelcoat. And it's a mess to clean up. Also the mosquitoes will eat you alive. AND so, if you do not have screens in your engine room vents, add them. Have I mentioned the heat, humidity and those blasted mosquitoes yet? Don't forget that now we have pythons so that is yet another issue to deal with.

Proceed with caution. Good luck to you Cap'n.

I am guessing that it is feasible we would have read about it before.

Cargile said:

I am guessing that it is feasible we would have read about it before.

Click to expand...

It out there.

I first learned about it with my first sailboat when I was assigned Miami in 1977. Got more popular and I remember stories in boating magazines (mostly sail) in the early 80s when I lived aboard in Ft Lauderdale. Even if not widely published...sure were a lot of liveaboards (most I knew were poorer with older boats) who did it or planned to do it as the best option if they had to ride a cane out.