Yachting World — November 2017

‘she smashed into the Leeward

islands in the Caribbean,

decimating Barbuda’

November 2017 47

The hurricane belt runs from roughly
10°N-35°N, and from 55°W-100°W – though
some insurers define it as extending a little
further south, others narrow it a little east-west.
The hurricane season runs from the beginning
of June to the end of November, with peak
activity from June to late October.
Many insurers do not offer named storm
cover, but those that do tend to have strict
terms and conditions. These include how a
boat is stored, such as whether on the hard,
in a hurricane pit, on what type of cradle and
whether the mast should be unstepped.
Insurers that do offer hurricane cover in the
Caribbean tend not to insist that yachts are
in one particular area – partly because it is
statistically beneficial for their risk to be spread
over different islands. But also because islands
that were traditionally thought of as ‘safe’,
such as Grenada at 12°N, suffered devastating
damage when Hurricane Ivan ripped across
it in 2004. South Carolina, Trinidad and the
Bahamas are considered lower risk, but are not
immune from tropical storms.
Instead the focus has been on improving

facilities and practices across the region to

reduce the risk of damage through the use of

steel cradles, concrete tie-down points and

dedicated keel holes.

Cameron McColl, owner of Nanny Cay marina

which offers dedicated hurricane storage, said

he was looking to learn from Irma.

“We have a dedicated catamaran park, and

the majority of cats there are OK, with their

masts intact. A few masts have snapped, just

from the sheer wind force. In the monohulls

that’s where you see the domino effect where

they tipped over.

“We want to analyse what happened, to make

sure it doesn’t happen again. We want Nanny

Cay to offer bulletproof protection and we know

that it can. We have techniques we know will

work. If it were any ordinary hurricane it would

have been fine, but [Irma] was a sustained

Category 5.”

Hurricane belt
USA Likely
Most likely
More likely

N

VENEZUELA

MEXICO

35°N

10°N

Atlant

i c

Oc

ea

n

Tropic of Cancer

100°W 55°W

New

Orleans

Tampa

Prevailing tracks

Miami

Pacific

Ocean

Houston

HURRICANE

BELT

Gulf of

Mexico

CUBA

BAHAMAS

JAMAICA BVI

PUERTORICO

HAITI DOMINICANREPUBLIC

TURKS &CAICOS

CARIBBEAN

ISLANDS

Caribbean

Sea

0

nautical miles

250 500

Getty Images

PA Images

Maggie Nelson