Community Corner

What Can Boaters do to Keep Boats Safe in the Next Tsunami or Storm?

Wally Smith has some advice for boaters who face nature at its most brutal

After he found his 30-foot boat was safe, Wally Smith and other volunteers spent a week at the harbor answering questions, escorting owners to their boats and using the telephone to track down the owners of crafts that were missing from their slips.

Most of them were on trailers far away, which is the best place to be in a tsunami, said Smith, an ocean lover originally from Connecticut's shore.

Much of what happened to the 13 damaged boats was sheer luck of the draw. If a piece of a dock breaks, there is nothing an owner can do.

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However, Smith said there were precautions that could insure a better liklihood of surviving the storm.

One is to get the boat away from the harbor, he said.

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"If you are in 100 feet of water, you won't even feel a tsunami."

That's what the Stagnaro family did with their charter ship: they got it to deep water as soon as they heard the warning.

The other way to protect a boat that is tied up is to make sure it has two strong and thick ropes, said Smith. One should be taut, and the other a bit looser in case the first gives way to stress and frays.

The force of the surge condensed into a slim channel has 1,500 times the force of a regular wave, said Smith, and rushed in at an estimated 14 knots or more.


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