So many yachts destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

[+ sync]

I have a question that maybe can be answered by any yacht owner(s) here in the fora.

The sight of so many yachts reduced to rubble by hurricane Ian made me think that if I had a yacht, and had been forewarned, I would have stocked it with as many general necessities as I could and taken it out into the Gulf of Mexico until the storm passed.

My thinking is that after the storm had passed the yacht could also serve as a temporary residence until the repair/restoration of my home was completed, or far enough along for me to move back into it.

Have I over-simplified the situation?

Of course, if I were fed-up with yacht ownership, I would just leave it for the hurricane to destroy whereby I would be rid of the yacht and collect the insurance funds.

[samhexum]

13 minutes ago, sync said:

if I had a yacht, and had been forewarned, I would have stocked it with as many general necessities as I could and taken it out into the Gulf of Mexico until the storm passed.

I didn't read the article, but saw a headline this morning about a guy whose $1 million car with only 300 miles on the odometer floated away during the storm.  I can't begin to tell you how badly my heart bled for him.  I didn't read the article because I was too busy creating a GoFundMe page for him.

Oh, well... he'll collect the insurance, buy an even more expensive car, continue to live in Florida, and watch THAT one float away.

The circle of life, Florida-style.

[Luv2play]

Given the Gulf of Mexico is relatively shallow, I wonder how large the waves were throughout that body of water even miles away from the hurricane's path.

It wouldn't be terribly comfortable riding out those waves. For sailing boats it would even be more treacherous I imagine. I once sailed on a crewed charter out of Key West and in the trip we hit bottom a couple of times. That was a bit scary as the boat lurched sideways as the keel ground and bumped along the bottom.  

[+ WilliamM]

A close friend sailed from California to New Zealand in a relatively small boat. He and his girlfriend ran into savage storms in Australia. They did  decide to sail upstream in a river - sort of successfully

[+ nycman]

3 hours ago, sync said:

Have I over-simplified the situation?

Sometimes, you want your boat to be "destroyed"….

Trust me. 

[+ bashful]

1 hour ago, nycman said:

Sometimes, you want your boat to be "destroyed"….

Trust me. 

As the old adage says, happiest day is when a man buys a boat, 2nd happiest day is when he sells the boat.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, sync said:

...Of course, if I were fed-up with yacht ownership, I would just leave it for the hurricane to destroy whereby I would be rid of the yacht and collect the insurance funds.

Well, I've often wondered the same thing. I'd think the insurance company should be able to just say "You knew that storm was coming for a week, and you could have just sailed it up to Pensacola Beach during that time. It was your negligence and failure to mitigate the effects of a known danger which was responsible for the loss. Screw you!" And if I owned a home which had a huge yacht smash into it, one would think I could collect from the yacht owner for leaving a dangerous projectile in harm's way. 

[samhexum]

8 hours ago, sync said:

Of course, if I were fed-up with yacht ownership, I would just leave it for the hurricane to destroy whereby I would be rid of the yacht and collect the insurance funds.

 

1 hour ago, Unicorn said:

I'd think the insurance company should be able to just say "You knew that storm was coming for a week, and you could have just sailed it up to Pensacola Beach during that time. It was your negligence and failure to mitigate the effects of a known danger which was responsible for the loss. Screw you!"

Bill Maher and Van Jones, both of whom I find attractive (though to different degrees), talked about climate change's effect on the insurance industry tonight.  Van said you can't get flood insurance at any price in Florida anymore, and Bill said he can't get fire insurance in California.  So maybe the insurance companies are wising up.  After all, Flo didn't fall for that fake burst pipe ruse from Jon Hamm.

Edited October 1, 2022 by samhexum
just for the hell of it

[samhexum]

8 hours ago, sync said:

So many yachts...

I'm sorry, but my teens were during the disco era, and every time I look at the title of this thread, I imagine Ian singing So little time... as he veers away from Florida.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, samhexum said:

... can't get fire insurance in California....

One can get fire insurance in the hills, but it's just rather expensive. One has to get the California FAIR plan for basic fire insurance, then an additional policy for other damage. I have to get a FAIR plan where I live in the Hollywood Hills. That being said, there were 3 trees abutting my house when I bought it, and the first thing I did was to have them chopped down. I only have succulents near the house. I put a retaining wall where one was, a cactus where another was, and a sexy merman statue where the 3rd one was. 

[pubic_assistance]

15 hours ago, sync said:

If I had a yacht, and had been forewarned, I would have stocked it with as many general necessities as I could and taken it out into the Gulf of Mexico until the storm passed.

Hurricanes move much faster than your boat and cover huge areas. Being an ex-boat owner myself, I've considered this strategy and realized there is no way you could travel far enough / fast enough with the little warning time you have during hurricane season. If that storm moved a little faster than you calculated or in a slightly different pathway you are screwed when it catches up with you while on the open water.

Edited October 1, 2022 by pubic_assistance

[+ The Big Guy]

A yacht owner may have indeed elected to hope it was destroyed to collect the insurance.  What I have found in business and personally is that insurance payment is far from certain.  The insurance policy gives you the ability to make a claim and start a very long tedious negotiation to collect.  Full recovery and replacement of value can often be achieved but only after a long and frustrating experience.  

[+ FrankR]

Which is why I will only settle for a mega yacht so I can get in my helicopter and get out of dodge before it is too late! 😋
 

https://www.slashgear.com/925126/the-most-incredible-features-of-jeff-bezos-500-million-mega-yacht/

Edited October 1, 2022 by FrankR

[Becket]

Flood insurance is sold by the federal government, is it not? So one would assume it would be available even in FL

[+ Charlie]

The son of old friends of mine had a sport fishing business in the Florida keys. When a hurricane hit there several years ago, his boat was destroyed, along with his business. When someone asked him why he didn't just sail somewhere else to wait out the storm, he pointed out that sailing anywhere takes some time and preparation, but predictions of the storm's path are constantly changing and often inaccurate. That was certainly true of Ian, which was supposed to come ashore at Tampa, but instead came in much farther south at Ft. Myers. I called a friend who lives in the Tampa Bay area the day before predicted landfall, to ask if she was going to evacuate, but she said that she didn't know where would be safe to go, and she was right--many of the inland areas that she might have gone to ended up with more severe damage than the area around her.

As for the guy whose sport fishing business was destroyed, the insurance wasn't near enough to resuscitate it; he ended up working as a bartender in Jacksonville.

[Luv2play]

I've loved the ocean and activities associated with it all my adult life. Having a sport fishing business always seemed like a lovely way to spend one's life if one were into fishing, which paradoxically I'm not.

When I read the dystopian tale of sport fishing by Hemingway, To Have and Have Not, I decided sport fishing wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Nevertheless that vision of bright azure skies, cerulean water, and a gently rocking boat in the trade winds of a Southern clime, and the odd excitement of a mighty fish tugging at the line, sends me into reveries, especially during a cold winter evening cuddled up with a book. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Luv2play

[jeezifonly]

I feel terrible for small fishing and charter operations that will be broke, but cannot care about the loss of private yachts of any size. Similarly I also care little about those who lost second homes in the storm. My donations go to those orgs helping the poorest first.

[samhexum]

23 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

that vision of bright azure skies, cerulean water, and a gently rocking boat

...with a seasick samhexum puking violently over the side...

[Luv2play]

While I sympathize with the poor who have lost their homes and or livelihoods in the hurricane, I'm not unmindful of those who have lost a cherished second home. These places mean a lot to those who can afford them and are not just an ostentatious display of wealth, at least in many cases. They are a place of family gatherings, where friends hang out away from their everyday lives in the city and romantic interludes away from the madding crowds. 

The loss of these places represents a shattering of happy memories and future expectations of good times. Nothing to denigrate or minimize.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Luv2play

[Luv2play]

5 minutes ago, samhexum said:

...with a seasick samhexum puking violently over the side...

Luckily I've never suffered from seasickness.

[+ Charlie]

My friend in Tampa just let me know that her area suffered tree damage, but the flooding that she prepared for never materialized, so she was glad that she hadn't evacuated. She had lived through one of the really bad hurricanes in Puerto Rico, when they were without power for a month, so she knew what to possibly expect.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Charlie
Typo

[EZEtoGRU]

I don't feel bad for the boat owners but I do feel for those that have lost a home.  Having lived in Miami when Hurricane Andrew hit, I know how awful hurricanes can be.  Whilst the impact on me personally was fairly small (lost power and water for 4-5 days), I saw the devastation on other people's lives.  It took the southern part of greater Miami two years to recover.

After Andrew, I headed out of Miami on any flight I could get to avoid any potential incoming storm.  Hurricanes are no joke.  I would never live in Florida again primarily due to the hurricane threat.  

[mike carey]

12 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Nevertheless that vision of bright azure skies, cerulean water, and a gently rocking boat in the trade winds of a Southern clime, and the odd excitement of a mighty fish tugging at the line, sends me into reveries, especially during a cold winter evening cuddled up with a book. 

You had me until the part about a Southern clime. The visions of Antarctic gales, penguins and icebergs were too strong. And of yachts de-masted in the roaring forties. I realise others may have different ideas about 'south'.

[Guest]

On 9/30/2022 at 5:51 PM, samhexum said:

I didn't read the article, but saw a headline this morning about a guy whose $1 million car with only 300 miles on the odometer floated away during the storm.  I can't begin to tell you how badly my heart bled for him.  I didn't read the article because I was too busy creating a GoFundMe page for him.

Oh, well... he'll collect the insurance, buy an even more expensive car, continue to live in Florida, and watch THAT one float away.

The circle of life, Florida-style.

My collector car coverage sends out notification in advance of a major storm indicating that they will pay the cost of storage in a safe area.   Naturally, the cost of storage is much cheaper than the cost of loss

BUT, there is one problem - time.  In this case, the storm hit CONSIDERABLY farther south than expected.  When the course was known, it was too late to put a small boat to sea or to transport cars inland.  Keep in mind, in hurricanes, all routes are outbound.  If you move a car out, you may not be able to return for other things.  I have one close friend with six cars at his house on Sarasota bay…he could  have spent a whole day transporting them to his plane hanger or, he could have just hopped in the plane and flown north.  He opted for the latter and suffered no damage because the expected landfall moved south.

as a car collector, I will say that we “cringe” at the loss of a special car - especially one with history.   It’s not cavalier entitlement that makes one take a casual view to the potential loss, it’s priority of life over property   

It’s not as easy in the moment as it might seem from the outside looking in

[+ jeezopete]

On 10/1/2022 at 8:43 PM, Charlie said:

My friend in Tampa just let me know that her area suffered tree damage, but the flooding that she prepared for never materialized, so she was glad that she hadn't evacuated.

I live just north of Tampa. On Monday we had mandatory evacuations of zone A, and recommended evacuations of B & C in my area; I'm in zone D. The next day Ian turned toward SW Florida & caused immense damage while I had drizzling rain & no wind, and my electricity went off for 1 minute in the middle of the night. The Ft. Myers area just didn't have enough warning before Ian's path changed.

Edited October 4, 2022 by jeezopete
grammar