[C320-list] Hurricane!

[Rick Smith]

I highly encourage you to get a survey!!!  

I have a “lesson learned” story to back up this recommendation.  In a recent big storm on Lake Lanier (north of Atlanta) our Wavelength 24 Ishtar that lives in a slip on a lift got hammered by incredible shifting of the floating dock and access bridge (we're the first boat on the dock) -- there was visible damage (a dock stanchion punched a hole in her side) and we got that repaired and Geico/BoatUS paid for it.  Then last weekend the boat went out to race for the first time since that bad storm...and there was significant structural damage with a compromised, cracked, and delaminating bulkhead -- the boat was immediately brought back to the slip and inspected by a professional who called for a whole new bulkhead etc etc etc which will likely run somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 all-in after boat comes out of water, etc.  So -- how now to go back to insurance and get them to add this additional claim to the original damage???  Unlikely they'll do anything.  Lesson learned: get a survey after a major storm!!!

Rick Smith
Layla 136 (and Wavelength Ishtar #73)

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jack Brennan 
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2020 11:56 AM 
To: C320-List at Catalina320.com 
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Hurricane! 

Well, the tropical storm wasn’t that bad, but we almost lost Sonas to a fluke occurrence.

Either a freak wave or a mini-tornado slammed into her and broke off the 18-inch-diameter piling that was taking much of the beating from the storm. Immediately, Sonas slammed into an equally large piling on the other side and decapitated it.

Surprisingly, I can’t find any damage on the boat. Still, I’m going to arm-twist Geico/BoatUS into paying for a hull survey to look for structural problems as well as paying for the pilings. (They belong to the condo association, but I’m responsible if I damage them …)

At 3 a.m., I found her hanging to just two remaining taut windward lines and had no way to get on the boat because the broken pilings were keeping her off the dock. Luckily, they held as the storm weakened. I managed to straighten things out after first light.

Now the fun begins. Insurance claim. Finding a dock company to replace the pilings. Jury rigging docking lines until that happens.

Be over, 2020.

Jack Brennan
Sonas, 1998 Catalina 320
Tierra Verde, Fl.







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