Marina Dock Age

During hurricanes, more and more facilities are offering reserved spots, haul-outs, and secured storage to boat owners. For membership in these hurricane clubs, local boat owners will pay in advance to arrange for the care of their boats.

Storage and service facilities offer space on the hard concrete, and wet slip marinas can haul boats inland or strap them to the ground, among other options. Even at a small offering, marinas and boatyards can help protect their facilities and generate more revenue with a valuable service.

After suffering terrible damage from the wrath of Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 with a hurricane club in place, owner Doug Hillman simplified the program at Sebastian River Marina & Yacht Club in Micco, Fla. The next year it was a mandatory part of the lease. “Hurricane clubs can be a viable and meaningful income stream in an otherwise quiet part of the year,” said Hillman.

How clubs work

Without extra precautions most boats can’t withstand the surge and winds of a hurricane. Typical hurricane clubs charge vessel owners an upfront storage fee to reserve a specific spot, agreed upon ahead of time. Fees generally include haul-out, secured storage, and launch.

To develop a hurricane plan, facilities need to consider:

• fee structure and customer contract
• plan for storing boats as securely as possible
• timing of haul-outs
• after the storm

Vessel owner preparation

Preparation for hurricane club members should be in the form of a good insurance policy. Before vessel owners join the hurricane club, make sure they also understand that participation in a hurricane club is not a guarantee against damage. “The worst thing to include in a contract’s terminology is that this is an insurance plan for vessel owners,” said Chris Miller, vice president of operations for Coastal Marina Management, which operates North Light Yacht Club in Niceville, Fla.

Club fees

The fee structures for hurricane clubs are as varied as the facilities that run them. Here’s a look at what several marinas and boatyards charge:

• At North Light Yacht Club, vessel owners pay $750 for three haul-outs, and each haul-out after that is an additional $200 charge.

Another dry storage facility in Indiantown, Fla., charges hurricane club members $250 for the season to hold a space in the event of a storm. Once a vessel is hauled out, all standard Indiantown Marina charges for haul-out, storage, and launching apply.

• The River Forest Yachting Center, which has two indoor dry storage locations in Stuart and LaBelle, Fla., charges hurricane club members a flat fee based on the size of the boat that covers them for the entire season.

• In Beaufort, N.C., Jarrett Bay Boatworks charges club fees based on boat length, beam, and weight. Vessels up to 62 feet with a beam of 18 feet or less and under 75 tons pay $15 per foot. Vessels up to 80 feet with a beam in excess of 18 feet and between 50 and 200 tons pay $17.50 per foot. Vessels over 80 feet with a beam of 18 to 30 feet up to 220 tons pay $19 per foot.

• Sebastian River Marina charges its hurricane club members $1,000 for up to two haul-outs. In the beginning, Hillman said customers couldn’t write checks fast enough for the club. Now with fewer hurricanes the past few years, people forget quickly, Hillman said. Since his club is mandatory, he prefers, but doesn’t require, customers to pay upfront. However, for those that choose to pay in the event of the storm, he reserves the right to charge an additional fee.

Revenue generator

Many of those in dry stack storage facilities don’t want to have to worry about hurricane preparations, said Miller. “The reason many [customers] are in dry storage in the first place is peace of mind,” he added.

As a new facility, North Light Yacht Club also sees its hurricane club as a tool for gaining long-term dry storage customers. “The hurricane club is a way to introduce people to the facility,” Miller said.

At another established Coastal Marina Management hurricane club at Lighthouse Marina in Panama City Beach, Fla., its boatyard and 50-ton travel lift can generate additional revenue after a storm from towing companies that need to get boats out of the water. Miller said the facility gets a lot of business post-storm doing recovery situations.

Planning pre-hurricane

It should be clear exactly where a boat would be stored in the event of a storm before a hurricane club agreement is signed. Additionally, all agreements should be easy to understand and reviewed by an attorney.

The configuration for storing boats depends on the facility layout and its location. Here’s a look at how many vessels facilities can store and how they do it:

• At North Light Yacht Club, hurricane club members reserve a spot on the concrete ground surface (or the “hard”) in a building rated to withstand up to 145 mph winds. The dry storage facility signs contracts before hurricane season with up to 25 boats for the hurricane club. As a new facility, which opened in October 2009, the hurricane club program still has room available, and once the dry storage spots have filled, North Light Yacht Club can also store boats outside in racks.

With several travel lifts, Jarrett Bay’s hurricane club can handle quite a few vessels. The facility has enough space for 200 boats but the limiting factor is that they have anywhere from 75 to 90 boats on the yard for service, so that will only allow another 30 to 50 boats. In the event of a storm, Jarrett Bay can handle up to 20 large boats with its 200-ton travel lift and 125 boats with its smaller lift. Vessels are stored in the yard on stands, which are chained to the ground. All sailboats have sails stored completely below.

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  The Sebastian River Marina hurricane club can handle 100, up to 120, boats. Hillman and his crew move the smallest vessels on its three outside dry storage racks, about 30, to an inland storage facility, and the larger boats up to 35 feet remain on the lower racks outside.

  

  The 60 boats in wet slips at Sebastian River Marina get strapped to the concrete using steel eyebolts embedded into the concrete.

  Before each hurricane season, Sebastian River Marina draws a land map of the property with a plan for each boat. The crew needs approximately four days to prepare for a storm. “It’s brutal, intense work,” said Hillman.

• At River Forest Yachting Center’s newest location in LaBelle, Fla., which opened in 2009, the hurricane club takes about 45 boats, depending on the size of the vessels. Many larger boats choose to ride out the storm in the water, where River Forest can pull boats away from the pilings and cross-tie them to anchors embedded in the face of the seawall. The remaining boats can choose to go outside on stands or on the concrete surface of the dry storage building and are tied down to steel aircraft cleats embedded into concrete.

Indiantown Marina stores boats during storms in the rock and grass on its property, using helical anchors to secure vessels to the ground.

• Indiantown Marina’s hurricane club takes about 10 to 15 boats, depending on vessel sizes. It used to run its club on a first come, first serve basis. Now it makes reservations ahead of hurricane season for guaranteed spaces and does accommodate last minute requests with any available space.

Haul-outs

Facilities also need to decide not only where and how boats will be stored but also when exactly boats will be hauled out. Most importantly, the latter needs to be clearly communicated to vessel owners so facilities have adequate time to prepare.

North Light Yacht Club contacts vessel owners to schedule a haul-out once National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service declares a 125-mile area around Destin, Fla., to be in a hurricane or a tropical storm watch area with a 50 percent predicted or higher landfall probability. Hurricane club members must bring vessels a minimum of 48 hours prior to the predicted strike time. After that management has the sole discretion as when to discontinue the haul-out of vessels for safety reasons.

Jarrett Bay also bases its timeline on NOAA predictions and begins haul-outs five days before projected landfall. “We set up the small lift on 30 minute increments and the 200-ton lift on two-hour increments. We haul everything within a three-day cycle, which gives us time for the crew to prepare their homes,” said Jeff Fulcher, yard manager. Jarrett Bay also tries to keep a crew at the yard during the hurricane, and when weather permits, they check boats and stands during the storm.

To make the program at River Forest Yachting Center as simple as possible, members of the hurricane club decide whether or not to have their vessels hauled, not the facilities. “Every owner has a bit different take on things, so we try and be as flexible as we can,” said John Smith, River Forest general manger. Managers at each facility, though, will make the decision about when to stop haul-outs, usually when the sustained winds reach around 30 knot, said Smith.

Launches after the storm

At North Light Yacht Club the timing for launching vessels after a hurricane threat is at the discretion of management, which hopes to accomplish launches as quickly as is practical, Miller said. Additionally, once the launching process has begun, owners that don’t remove vessels will acquire additional charges for relocating and securing vessels elsewhere.

The other option involves coordinating individually with owners to launch their vessels, as is the case with Indiantown Marina. “Whenever owners want their boats back in the water, we make arrangements,” said owner Scott Watson. Since owners pay standard fees for each day of storage, in addition to its membership cost, they can stay as long as they want.

At Sebastian River Marina, re-launches vary, Hillman said. After the 2004 storms, Hillman had no marina left in which to launch boats. The facility weathers storms much better now, and Hillman encourages customers to use the time after storms to do annual service, like bottom work on the boats in wet slips. “I don’t have to charge them to haul it out. They still have a boat. The sun is out. There’s an entirely different mentality post-storm,” said Hillman.

Additional hurricane preparation information

In September 2009, the BoatU.S. marine insurance division published a 24-page guide for marina and boatyard managers with proven techniques to reduce damage during hurricanes. To download a copy of What Works, A Guide to Preparing Marinas, Yacht Clubs, and Boats for Hurricanes, visit  www.BoatUS.com/hurricanes.

Since location plays a key role in how well facilities will weather a storm, the plan and best strategy for each facility will vary. For a quick outline of several successful strategies for the different scenarios, such as securing boats to floating docks with tall pilings or securing boats ashore, visit Hurricane preparation techniques.

Anna Townshend is senior editor of Marina Dock Age. She can be reached by phone at 847/647-2900 ext. 1308 or via e-mail at: atownshend@prestonpub.com.