2012 Hurricane Predictions

Indecisive? Not! New Bedford, Massachusetts has a 3-mile long hurricane barrier protecting the harbor and city. Built following the devastating hurricanes of 1938 and 1954, it is the largest stone structure on the East Coast of the US.

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Photo by: United States Coast Guard

The experts at NOAA predict 2012 will play out as an average hurricane year. In a nutshell, that means there is a 70-percent chance of:

•9-15 named storms, with winds in excess of 39-mph

•4 to 8 of those becoming hurricanes, with winds in excess of 74-mph.

If you ask me, it doesn’t matter what the predictions are. As a lifelong coastal boater, hurricanes –and for that matter, Nor’ easters, or  any big wind—is always accounted for and dealt with as part of basic boat ownership. The plan for doubling the lines, hauling out, or finding a hurricane hole, is perpetually in place. The exact action an individual boater chooses to take will vary with circumstance, so I wont preach for a specific plan. But I am making a call that you resolve to act. 

I’ve seen too many boaters glued to The Weather Channel,  the VHF or the NOAA website, tracking every minute wobble of the storm and trying to delay doing anything about their boat until they are “sure” its gonna hit their locale. If your one of those boaters, here’s some advice: if the storm’s so imminent that your watching its every move, its past the time you should have hauled your boat, moved your boat, or doubled the lines, dropped the canvas and hung the fenders.

Takeaway: I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything. -Jerry Seinfeld