SailTime bases on the Eastern Seaboard spent the last weekend of October preparing for Hurricane Sandy, who has the potential to wreck havoc on the most populated coast of the country. Bases from Miami, Florida to Bristol, Rhode Island had their hands full getting ready. Ordinarily, for most of them, this would have been the last weekend of sailing for their Members. Instead, it turned into a mad dash to beat the clock.
SailTime boat owners enjoy the benefits of our professional boat management services year around. When a situation like this happens, our bases put emergency procedures into place to protect people and the boats. Owning a boat on your own, means you have to take care of everything. Because we work year around with our vendors, we have priority for services like getting our boats hauled out in situations like this! It’s one of those times a boat owner feels very good about the decision he or she made to partner up with us.
Miami and St Augustine had a pretty mild go of it as they were brushed early on. But taking no chances, Annapolis, Baltimore, Havre de Grace and Jersey Shore all hauled their boats out of the water. It’s quite possible that one of these locations will receive a direct hit. The Philadelphia boating base and the Virginia Beach base decided to keep their boats in the water, being in protected locations.
In Boston, Base Owner, Doug Giuliana, sent out a notice to members, announcing that the base enacted their Hurricane Preparation Plan starting at 3pm on Sunday. At that time, they went through their Hurricane Checklist to secure each boat. Members were invited to assist and learn what preparations needed to be made. Several came down to help and learned what to do in situations like this. The Boston sailing base has a stock of gear necessary for such events, such as extra dockline and fenders, bungy cords, tape, and sails ties to make sure everything is secure on hand and ready at a moments notice. Doug said, “One owner called to say that he was on his way to buy more fenders, but we let him know that wasn’t necessary and that we would take care of everything.” He continued, “We don’t expect that we will experience the brunt of the storm, but we will be ready. We have been through this exercise a few times over the past 9 years, so we know it well. Given our protected location and expected wind and wave direction, we should be OK.”
