Boating in Florida/Salt Water - What's It like?

My insurance is about 3X that but it is for 12 months a year coverage with no layup period. It is the price we pay for boating in paradise!

Everyone should have a hurricane plan, but unfortunately (up until now!) most owners didn't give storms a thought until a named storm had a line running from it to their boat on the weather channel graphics and at that point it is too late to secure a haul out spot. Water front property in Florida is too expensive to tie up a boat yard size plot of land with a boat yard and developers long ago snapped up large acreages and covered them with condos. Most folks without a plan, either tied the boats up in their slips as best they could or ran for it by running the boats up a creek or river and tied them off to trees or ran them as far away from the storm as possible. Either approach is risky because these storms tend to wander and strengthen just before they make land fall. We have 7 marinas in PC and 4 of them were completely destroyed and every boat left in them was lost.

Our marina is Treasure Island Marina located on Grand Lagoon. It is professionally managed and privately owned and we do have a hurricane plan. It is simple.....the management makes a decision on hauling out every boat in the marina or not. The over riding principle is to protect the docks and slips from the damage caused by boat left in the water so we have something to come back to after the storm. They haul every boat out of the water and block them up in the parking lot which is asphalt and "the high ground"; the last 12 go inside 2 large dry stack storage barns built for 150 mph wind loads. The boats are blocked up on the concrete in the middle between the stacks of smaller boats in racks. My boat was in the newest barn in position #4 and it didn't even get rained on. We had no total losses and a hand full of insurance claims caused by blowing debris, mostly from the marina next door which was destroyed. Our docks and power /water survived in tact and our boat was back in the water in a week. The marina did get significant damage (to 1980 vintage buildings with rusted beams and perlings that should have been replaced years ago) but they were open and launching boats within 2 weeks. This isn't a free service.....cost is averaged and runs about $1000, but the marina has 4 licensed captains on staff in service and management and they take as good care of my boat as I do. There is no other way I could leave a boat like mine and live 450 miles inland a good part of the year.......I get a courtesy call when they decide to haul boats for a storm, I don't have to make a decision or do anything but watch the weather online (and worry). If I am in town, I usually help the guys move the boats and haul and block them up, but we were under an evacuation order for this storm and I had to get off the beach or ride out the storm across the street from the beach. Cat 4 or low 5, wandering over a 100 mile wide swath..? No thanks....so we loaded up the dogs and headed to Tennessee. A lot of people lost a lot during this storm but we were lucky and blessed to sustain no damage to either the boat or the house.

Thanks Frank. You answered one question I had and that was the cost to haul out for the cane. I pay about $5000 winter and summer for well and storage. Most likely much less than Fl.
 
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North end of Boca Ciega Bay - Madeira Beach East Side Of ICW just north of the Welch Causeway Bridge. Nice floating docks there and if you go there at night, there is good Snook fishing in the mangroves, but hard to get them out.
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I tried to put a red & yellow star on the chart where the dock is. This is from chart online chart #11411
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My dad had a house on Boca Ciega in Reddington Beach. My wife and I loved that place. The house was on a point and the back of the house faced NE. We could sit on the deck and watch the launches from Kennedy.
 
Im sitting on my boat in newport harbor ri right now.......it sucks, and im having a hard time getting excited about the coming summer season......why? The boat was in fla for the past 4 years and I loved boating there - the summer is great as that is when the ocean is most predictable (other than afternoon pop up storms) but even on our winter trips, we were able to stay in the intracoastal if it was blowing too hard - I rack stored the boat inside most of the time, so the sun was less of an issue - cant say enough about boating in south fla - it ruined boating up here for me - im ready to head back
Is this going to be your first year in Newport or have you been boating here before?
 
My insurance is about 3X that but it is for 12 months a year coverage with no layup period. It is the price we pay for boating in paradise!

Everyone should have a hurricane plan, but unfortunately (up until now!) most owners didn't give storms a thought until a named storm had a line running from it to their boat on the weather channel graphics and at that point it is too late to secure a haul out spot. Water front property in Florida is too expensive to tie up a boat yard size plot of land with a boat yard and developers long ago snapped up large acreages and covered them with condos. Most folks without a plan, either tied the boats up in their slips as best they could or ran for it by running the boats up a creek or river and tied them off to trees or ran them as far away from the storm as possible. Either approach is risky because these storms tend to wander and strengthen just before they make land fall. We have 7 marinas in PC and 4 of them were completely destroyed and every boat left in them was lost.

Our marina is Treasure Island Marina located on Grand Lagoon. It is professionally managed and privately owned and we do have a hurricane plan. It is simple.....the management makes a decision on hauling out every boat in the marina or not. The over riding principle is to protect the docks and slips from the damage caused by boat left in the water so we have something to come back to after the storm. They haul every boat out of the water and block them up in the parking lot which is asphalt and "the high ground"; the last 12 go inside 2 large dry stack storage barns built for 150 mph wind loads. The boats are blocked up on the concrete in the middle between the stacks of smaller boats in racks. My boat was in the newest barn in position #4 and it didn't even get rained on. We had no total losses and a hand full of insurance claims caused by blowing debris, mostly from the marina next door which was destroyed. Our docks and power /water survived in tact and our boat was back in the water in a week. The marina did get significant damage (to 1980 vintage buildings with rusted beams and perlings that should have been replaced years ago) but they were open and launching boats within 2 weeks. This isn't a free service.....cost is averaged and runs about $1000, but the marina has 4 licensed captains on staff in service and management and they take as good care of my boat as I do. There is no other way I could leave a boat like mine and live 450 miles inland a good part of the year.......I get a courtesy call when they decide to haul boats for a storm, I don't have to make a decision or do anything but watch the weather online (and worry). If I am in town, I usually help the guys move the boats and haul and block them up, but we were under an evacuation order for this storm and I had to get off the beach or ride out the storm across the street from the beach. Cat 4 or low 5, wandering over a 100 mile wide swath..? No thanks....so we loaded up the dogs and headed to Tennessee. A lot of people lost a lot during this storm but we were lucky and blessed to sustain no damage to either the boat or the house.

What is the maximum weight that they can haul out in your marina? I am looking at a Neptunus 650E with an approximate wet weight of 85,000 LBS.
 
40,000 lbs and 16 ft beam.

But .......there are larger travel lifts in town about 5 miles away, and they have a hurricane plan. This would be a good marina for someone who lives out of town part time like me. They have all other services like fuel, service by competent mechanics, canvas, electronics, wash/detailing, ships store, with everything but hot meals.
 
What is the maximum weight that they can haul out in your marina? I am looking at a Neptunus 650E with an approximate wet weight of 85,000 LBS.

I am in the 70's for weight. There are two options in my area. Just had a haul out a couple of weeks ago, I was not the largest boat in the yard.

All depends what area you are in.
 
40,000 lbs and 16 ft beam.

But .......there are larger travel lifts in town about 5 miles away, and they have a hurricane plan. This would be a good marina for someone who lives out of town part time like me. They have all other services like fuel, service by competent mechanics, canvas, electronics, wash/detailing, ships store, with everything but hot meals.

This is good to know Frank. What is the name of their facility?
 
The boat yard with the large travel lift is Miller Marine and they are 5 mile up the bay from the Gulf in Southport, FL.

They have no slips, except for those for working on boats in the yard.

Furthermore, there are no slips available anywhere in town thank to Hurricane Michael last October. We have local residents who have their boat 100+ miles away while they wait to get back into marinas that are being rebuilt.

I can't speak for Treasure Island where I am but you can call The dock master and ask about slips. We have a number of large slips over on the commercial side of the marina and there are usually some vacancies there. I'm never over there so I don't know. Call George Laird, 850-234-6533, ext 39. He is there every day but Tues and Wed and he will know what they can do and when their dock repairs will be completed.
 
tiara in the snow 01.JPG
Surprising to see Travelhoists that lift just 20,000 pounds, small beams and not larger. Wondering where people with the larger boats get service. Big cities in southern Florida?
 
The boat yard with the large travel lift is Miller Marine and they are 5 mile up the bay from the Gulf in Southport, FL.

They have no slips, except for those for working on boats in the yard.

Furthermore, there are no slips available anywhere in town thank to Hurricane Michael last October. We have local residents who have their boat 100+ miles away while they wait to get back into marinas that are being rebuilt.

I can't speak for Treasure Island where I am but you can call The dock master and ask about slips. We have a number of large slips over on the commercial side of the marina and there are usually some vacancies there. I'm never over there so I don't know. Call George Laird, 850-234-6533, ext 39. He is there every day but Tues and Wed and he will know what they can do and when their dock repairs will be completed.

Thank you for the information Frank. I will certainly keep it on file. I have only just got home from the hospital a few short days ago from undergoing tripple bypass heart surgery, so it is way too early to get too excited about anything. We are looking at a May 2020 delivery date for a newly built Neptunus 650 Express, but that gives us plenty of time to get our ducks in a row. Having access to a marina that has a hurricane plan that can accomodate this boat is sage advice indeed.

~Ken
 
View attachment 65138 Surprising to see Travelhoists that lift just 20,000 pounds, small beams and not larger. Wondering where people with the larger boats get service. Big cities in southern Florida?
St pete Fl has progressive Marine, 94 ton travel lift, 27’ beam? There is a video of a 76’ boat getting raised and I’m pretty sure it blocked the canal until they got it out of the way.
 

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