How to protect your boat for 183 days: BoatUS offers help for hurricane season

A reminder from 2017's Hurricane Irma: All that is left of this sailboat is its mast entangled in a goalpost © BoatUS

The 2020 hurricane season starts Monday, June 1, and runs through November 30. That is 183 days your boat could find itself in the crosshairs of one of the 16 predicted named storms.

Taking a few minutes now to begin making your own customized hurricane plan to protect your boat can prevent damage or a total loss. To help, BoatUS Magazine offers a range of short hurricane-planning videos and other resources at BoatUS.com/hurricanes.

The videos include simple projects you can do yourself such as how to make a fender board, how to properly hang boat fenders, and how to set lines for a boat that will remain in the water. Other topics covered include how to choose the best marina for a hurricane and how to prepare your boat. Each are 10 minutes or less and are backed up by a range of free, downloadable hurricane-planning tools available at the BoatUS Hurricane Tracking and Resource Center at BoatUS.com/hurricanes including checklists, tipsheets, and the "BoatUS Magazine Hurricane Planning Guide."

Meant to help trailer boaters as well as those with larger vessels, marinas and boat clubs, the helpful, no-cost BoatUS hurricane preparation information and advice is field-tested. For nearly 40 years, the BoatUS Catastrophe (CAT) Team has been assisting BoatUS Marine Insurance Program policyholders with claims and cleanup after every storm, and they know better than anyone what works—and what doesn't. BoatUS also offers the free BoatUS App that will alert users about incoming storms and more.

Researchers at Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project predict an above-average year for storm activity with eight of the 16 storms expected to reach hurricane strength with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater. The absence of El Niño and warmer sea surface temperatures are cited as factors in the forecast.