1. Add flotation foam to the mast if it is not a wooden spar. Reason? Any alloy or glass spar can fill with water in a knockdown and could promote or prolong a complete roll over. If you are dismasted, there is a better chance you could recover your mast with positive buoyancy.
2. If you have a dodger or store your dinghy on deck, use screws that will pull loose to mount them. Do not use bolts and washers through the cabin top. It is better to lose the dinghy or dodger than to end up with a large hole in the cabin top when a wave rips them loose.
3. Find belowdeck storage spots for every piece of gear you keep on deck during normal weather. Otherwise consider any gear that is stored on deck as throw-away items, and be mentally prepared to get rid of them if necessary (see section 1, Storms and Cruising, in the storm tactics handbook).
4. Have a large manual bilgepump (2-inch diameter Edson) that can be operated from belowdecks to back up any electrical or engine-driven pumps. Be sure you can clear the strum box or add a swing valve at a T so you can switch to another intake if the inaccessible strum box clogs. Consider a longish, wandering intake hose if your boat has separate sump areas.
5. Add a second track for a storm trysail on any boat over 28 feet, and build a sailbag that allows the trysail to be stored in a ready-to-use position on the cabin top. For boats under 28 feet, an extra strong triple-reefed mainsail will be okay, but be careful to strengthen the track connection with extra fastenings where the head of the reefed sail rides.
6. If you use a roller-furling headsail, install a second stay behind the headstay for a storm jib that can be set on hanks with its own halyard.
7. Install two heavy-duty lugs or eyebolts port and starboard on or near your bow roller. These lugs should be designed to take the side loads of the bow fairlead snatch block.
8. Install locks or holddowns on all deck boxes and cockpit lockers. Make sure the drains from these lockers do not lead inside the hull. Return to Top
   
9. Install lockdowns on all floorboards and lockers in the crew area.
10. Add positive restraints so your gimbaled stove cannot get loose even in a roll over.
11. Check the installation of your water tanks, especially if they are amidships. They must be bolted directly to the hull or bulkheads and not just screwed in place to the fronts of the cabinets or bunks. (One cruising family chose to abandon their boat in the Coral Sea two years ago when a knockdown caused their water tank to break through the settee cabinetry. This was on a classic, well-recommended cruising boat, built by a reputable U.S. manufacturer. The tank flew across the cabin and smashed the table, far bunk, and owner's wrist on the way. We have checked out several other boats and seen this same potential problem).
12. Consider sealed gel-cell batteries and check your batteries' hold downs.
13. Try to make your boat unstoppable, even if water gets into your electrical system and shuts it down. Have a backup shortwave radio receiver, backup lighting system, dry cell or oil lamps, backup navigation such as sextant and the 249 tables. If you are in a serious knock-down, count on your electrical system's failing.
14. If you have a solar panel, have a separate gel-cell-type battery and ways to isolate these from the main system so that you can keep a light going inside the cabin if the main system packs in.
15. Have a para-anchor on board with a swivel, or have a plan for jury-rigging a sail drogue...
16. Have at least one chafe-free 300-foot nylon anchor rode of at least 1/2-inch diameter. Carry larger diameter line if at all possible. The larger the diameter, the less chance there is of chafing through the line. (We carry 5/8" diameter on Taleisin, and had the same on Seraffyn.) Return to Top
    
17. Have a backup para-anchor rode of at least 250 feet.
18. Carry extra snatch blocks, plastic hose for chafing gear, several shackles, and, if the para-anchor does not already have one, a large swivel.
19. Carry spare foul-weather gear, as dry people keep warmer and are more able to function and think well in difficult situations.
20. Make sure every locker inside the boat has drain holes to the bilge.
21. Consider ways to be sure all oil is removed from the engine tray. The most difficult clean up of all after any major intake of water from a knockdown, or even just a good dollop of water coming in, is from sump oil spreading into other parts of the boat.
22. Buy a supply of children's modeling clay (Play Dough, plasticine) and keep it handy for stopping up small leaks that always seem to develop during a storm. It sticks to wet surfaces yet comes away clean when the blow is over. You can use this clay to make a gasket inside your chain pipe cap also, a common source of leakage during a blow.
23. Make a checklist of storm preparations specific to your boat and have a copy available for crew to use as a storm approaches.

Return to Top