"Mid Size Power Boats": A Guide for Discreminating Buyers - by David Pascoe

PHOTO LIBRARY

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Safe Harbor:
Lessons learned from recent hurricanes
 

Photos by David H. Pascoe, Marine Surveyor

 

This doesn't have to happen to your boat. With narrow slips and entirely inadequate pilings, the boats in this marina never had a chance. Numerous cleats and pilings lagged into the concrete docks came loose. 

     

The domino effect occurs when one boat on a canal breaks loose and crashes into others, resulting in a chain reaction that ends up with boats piled up at the end of the canal. 

 
 

With slip clearance of only two feet, there was no way to protect this yacht from battering against the pilings.

 
 

The pilings for the Bertram in background are too close and too low. The sailboat in foreground didn't have any pilings at all, just a few pieces of wood lagged to the sea wall. Good pilings would have prevented this.

   
 
 

These boats survived the eye of Andrew, despite fronting directly on Biscayne Bay with a 10' storm surge, by a combination of cross-tying and anchors. The sail boat had 3 anchors out that saved it when the forward mooring lines broke.  

 

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About Author:
David H. Pascoe is a marine surveyor (retired) with 40 years' experience.

He is author and publisher of power boat books:

"Mid Size Power Boats"
"Surveying Fiberglass Power Boats" 2E
"Buyers' Guide to Outboard Boats"
"Marine Investigations"

Visit  yachtsurvey.com  for more than 160 online articles.

David Pascoe's biography

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