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Houseboats and Hurricanes - Do they Move or Transport Boats to Safety?

Houseboat and Hurricanes - move or transport to safety?

Houseboat and Hurricanes - move or transport to safety?

When it comes to houseboats and hurricanes, do they move or transport a house boats to safety? Like what do they do, or what do you do, with a houseboat if a hurricane comes?


My questions is, are there companies that will remove the boat and store it, or transport it to safe location if you are not currently at the boat?

Thanks for any help.




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Reply - Answer
Welcome to the houseboat forums. When it comes to keeping houseboats safe throughout a hurricane, is surely a subject on many peoples minds.

Now depending on the size of houseboat that you have, if it was a smaller trailerable boat, you could easily arrange for someone to haul it to a safe location miles away.

Now if you have a much larger houseboat, this is where it gets much more difficult. If you could have someone you trust, you could navigate it to a location further inland and better protected.

As to having large houseboats hauled by road to a safer location, this is generally not done, and would be difficult to
coordinate. Every time that there is a potential hurricane in the forecast you would have to start the paperwork and procedures.

It's very unlikely that you would find a transport company to be on call should the weather turn bad, and this would be very cost prohibitive.

When it comes to houseboats and hurricanes, you want to have adequate insurance coverage, and the houseboat should be secured as best as possible. Anytime you leave a houseboat, you should always secure it as if there was a major storm coming tomorrow.

I am sure that this post will inspire other houseboaters to share tips and ideas about how they handle severe and major storms.

I always though that houseboats would be great for emergency support, or base units for search and rescue operations.


Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their hurricane and houseboat experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.


Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats


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Comments for Houseboats and Hurricanes - Do they Move or Transport Boats to Safety?

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Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Houseboat Ownership in Maryland
by: JULIA

I am at a severe disadvantage. I have a 46' Chris Craft houseboat. The engines do not run so my only option is to keep the boat at the marina.

We are preparing for Hurricane Sandy by making sure our lines are not frayed and our cleats are secured. (It's an old boat. The cleats tend to wiggle loose.)

I also bought 4 tubes of caulk to seal the windows better and will be borrowing a generator. I am securing everything that is loose outside and placing more things in storage.

Fortunately we have a propane stove so cooking things if the power goes out won't be a problem. When I bought the boat, it was already facing east.

We will be staying on board so if there is a storm surge, we can loosen the lines as we go, and then tighten when tide goes out.

I also have activity books for the 5 year old to do. This is how I prepare for a Hurricane in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. :)

Julia.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Houseboat Transport - need to move to restore
by: Muz

Purchased an older houseboat in the finger lakes region of New York. Would like to have the boat moved to Pa. to restore interior, overhaul the engine, and do some outside painting.

Any suggestions on who could do this or how it would be done. The boat is old and is 11 1/2 feet wide by 42' long. HELP!!!!!!
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Houseboat and Hurricanes in Pensacola, Florida
by: BananaTom

The Marinas in this area offer a "haul out" service when threatened by a storm. It is a reservations only list. The cost to be on the hual out is $1,000.00. This only gets your name on the list.

Then when the haul out trigger is pulled, you are given a date and time to have your vessel hauled out, and blocked on the "hill" / ship yard. The boats that were hauled out for Hurricane Ivan 09/16/2004 survived just fine. The ones that tried to anchor out did not make it.

My insurance policy requires a Hurricane plan. I attached my haul out contract to the application of insurance, which greatly reduces the cost of Insurance.

BananaTom
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		A houseboat and hurricane Ike
by: Suzanne

We were very worried this past summer when Hurricane Ike struck Galveston. Originally it was going for Rockport and threatened our 5th wheel trailer. We thought we were ok on our houseboat on the Rideau Canal.

The hurricane didnt hit our area.... the 5th wheel was safe...... but three days later we were hit with very high winds and our entire dock broke loose with 5 boats attached (at 3am)..... not too much damage but very very scary....... we were well secured to the dock, unfortunately the dock was not adrift. It all ended well........

Friends have boats in Texas (Gulf) and most move them inland when a hurricane threatens. It's a mad house when everyone tries to leave.... let alone a large houseboat on a trailer.

It would be difficult to get transport for your boat if you don't have your own trailer. Suzanne.


Reply - Answer
Thanks Suzanne for sharing the hurricane Ike experience. Glad to hear that everything worked out. My wife and I can also relate to breaking a dock off during the night. What a way to wake up... :(

IAN from www.all-about-houseboats.com
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Hurricane Preparation
by: Old Houseboater

In our area (Gulf Shores Alabama) many boats berthed in the on shore Marinas head into hydie holes and tie up, or head north up the rivers and Ten Tom waterway to more protected marinas when hurricanes approach.

Insurance has gotten so expensive that many boats head north during hurricane season. Our local marina was only two thirds full during the past season. Filled back up, after hurricane season was over.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Houseboats go to a Safe Snug Harbor
by: Bill V. Fla.

I own a 56 by 16 pontoon houseboat. It is on the Suwannee River in Florida. When bad weather threatens, we take it inland as far as we can, and beach it.

Tie it off on as many places you can, and ride it out. So far no problems. I am now building an 80 foot pontoon boat-all wood- and will do the same. Bill V.

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