Kevin Ritz (“A Preventable Dockside
Tragedy,” Seaworthy, October 2009)
took the photo while on vacation in
Hilo, Hawaii of a boat he saw next to
a bridge. She (this boat was definitely
a she) had a pink hull, pink deck, pink
cabin, pink ports, pink mast, pink
handrails, pink cockpit, pink hatches,
pink telltales and pink vents. The boat
was not entirely pink, however; there
was a bright blue BoatU.S. sticker on
the mast. Kevin noted that BoatU.S.
members' boats come in all shapes ,
sizes and colors.
hurricane season, you’ll be able to follow
them using state-of-the-art tracking
models at www.BoatUS.com/hurricanes.
The site includes detailed information on
how to prepare your boat for a storm.
You can also stay informed by signing
up to receive Hurricane Advisory Alerts
for your area, which are issued by the
National Hurricane Center.
Another good site: www.
nauticalcharts.noaa.gov. Aside from being
enjoyable, learning how to access the
wealth of information at the site will make
you a better mariner.
Suzanne Giesemann, author of A
Woman’s Guide to Greater Enjoyment on
the Water, wrote to Seaworthy awhile ago
about a subject she feels passionately
about: wives learning how to operate the
family boat. She wondered what would
happen if the husband were to fall
overboard or have a heart attack … would
his spouse know what to do? Suzanne
cites an example she found at the U.S.
SAILING website of a husband who went
overboard and was lost; the wife spent
three days adrift because she didn’t know
how to operate the boat or even call for
help on the VHF. Women, she says, need
to at least know the basics.
It’s a topic that has been covered in
Seaworthy (“Giving Women the Helm,”
Vol. 20, No. 1), which made the obvious
point that husbands benefit as much as
wives when the latter learn to operate
a boat. Maybe more. The problem, as
Suzanne points out, is that a lot of wives
are reluctant, even afraid, to take the
helm. The fear, she says, stems as much
from making mistakes and being ridiculed
as it does from banging up the boat.
The solution is for husbands to (gently)
coax their wives to spend time at the
helm. It’s best to start on open water away
from crowds with the goal of eventually
encouraging the wife to bring the boat into
its slip.
Aside from learning how to handle the
helm, Suzanne suggests it’s important for
wives to know where the thru-hulls are
located, how to make a distress call, how
to use the flares, how to start and kill the
engine, how to use a GPS, how to navigate,
and “any other skill that has been the
husband’s domain.”
A spouse’s enjoyment, she says, is sure to
increase when your mate feels more like a
partner than a passenger.
your boat and what to do if you get oil on
your hull and topsides. If you live in the
Gulf or are planning a visit, check the site
before leaving port.
A BIG question that has been hanging
over a lot of people is, what are the
chances of a hurricane wreaking havoc in
the Gulf this year? According to Dr. William
Gray and his associates, the chances,
unfortunately, are good. The El Niño
current that kept hurricanes off the coast
last year is breaking up and will likely be
gone by summer. Another factor used in
their annual prediction, the tropical
Atlantic water temperature, is also
indicating increased hurricane activity.
Instead of the “usual” season that has an
average of 9. 6 named storms and 5. 9
hurricanes, Gray and his associates are
predicting 15 storms, eight of which will
become hurricanes. Four of these
hurricanes are likely to be major, with
winds greater than 110 mph. Gray says
there is a 44-percent chance that at least
one of these hurricanes will enter the Gulf
of Mexico. Historically, slightly less than a
third of Atlantic tropical cyclones pass
through the Gulf.
Whatever storms develop this
Lightning Strike Probability by State
the number of boats insured in each
state compared to the number that
was struck by lightning in a given
year. One obvious question: Why are
the chances of being struck in Rhode
Island and Maryland greater than in
Florida? The answer is that Rhode
Island and Maryland have a much
higher percentage of sailboats.
It’s summer, which is the season for
heat, humidity, and lightning. Earlier
statistics in Seaworthy have shown
that sailboats are far more likely to be
struck by lightning than powerboats.
The following probabilities of lightning
strikes by state were taken from the
BoatU.S. claim files and are based on
State Percentage
Rhode Island 0.355%
Maryland 0.336%
Florida 0.276%
North Carolina 0.265%
Wisconsin 0.253%
Mississippi 0.252%
Kansas 0.175%
Alabama 0.171%
Maine 0.164%
South Carolina 0.163%
Iowa 0.149%
Virginia 0.145%
Washington, DC 0.136%
Louisiana 0.117%
Delaware 0.114%
Connecticut 0.110%
Michigan 0.097%
Tennessee 0.097%
State Percentage
Oklahoma 0.092%
Texas 0.092%
Indiana 0.083%
New York 0.082%
Massachusetts 0.081%
West Virginia 0.077%
Illinois 0.073%
Ohio 0.073%
Kentucky 0.065%
New Jersey 0.061%
Vermont 0.058%
Georgia 0.054%
Pennsylvania 0.031%
New Hampshire 0.029%
Minnesota 0.015%
Washington 0.005%
California 0.003%
Average (all boats) 0.131%
