The Atlantic season runs June 1 to November 30, and the boats that come through it are the ones whose owners made their decisions in May. A hurricane plan is a set of choices you make once, early, so that when a storm is three days out you’re executing instead of deciding.
The season, briefly
Peak activity runs mid-August through mid-October, with the statistical peak around September 10. Once a system is named, the National Hurricane Center issues full advisories every six hours, but the practical warning you get is shorter than the forecast cone suggests. Haul-out yards work a first-come list, and drawbridges stop opening for boat traffic once evacuations begin. Three days out, your options start closing; five days out, they’re all still open. Move early.
What “a written plan” actually means
Most Florida marinas require a hurricane plan on file, and the exercise is useful even where nobody asks for it. A real one answers four questions:
- Where does the boat go? The specific yard, canal, or slip, with the yard’s phone number and your reservation or contract, not “haul out somewhere.”
- Who moves it? You, a hired captain, or the yard. If it’s you, the plan should say how fast you can get there. If it isn’t, the person needs written authorization and keys before the season starts.
- What gets done? The strip-and-secure list from the 72-hour checklist below, adapted to your boat.
- Where are the papers? Registration, insurance policy, and a current photo inventory of the boat. Ashore, not in the nav station of the thing you’re insuring.
Haul, hole, or slip: decide in May
There are three places a boat can meet a hurricane, and the choice is mostly made for you by draft, location, and what you can book.
Ashore. BoatUS insurance-claims data after major storms is blunt on this: boats hauled and stored ashore are far more likely to come through than boats left in the water. Blocked, strapped down, mast unstepped if the yard offers it. The catch is capacity: every yard in the county has the same list of clients, which is why the reservation happens in spring.
A hurricane hole. A narrow mangrove canal or deep protected creek, boat centered on a web of lines to the mangroves and ground tackle. Done well, it’s how boats survived storms for a century; done late, you’ll find the good holes claimed by Thursday. Scout yours before the season and know how long it takes to get there, including the bridges that will have stopped opening.
In the slip. Sometimes the only option, and modern floating docks with tall pilings have a fair record. Double every line, lead them long to spread the surge range, chafe-protect everything, and strip the windage. Read your dockage agreement first: some marinas require boats to leave ahead of a named storm, and finding that out during a hurricane watch is the wrong time.
Wherever the boat rides it out, you don’t. No boat is worth staying aboard for.
The 72-hour checklist
When the cone includes your coast:
- Strip the windage. Sails off (genoa first, it’s the one that unfurls at 90 knots), then bimini, dodger, and anything canvas. Halyards led to the rail or run out of the mast.
- Double the docklines with long leads and chafe gear at every contact point. Surge does more damage than wind at the dock.
- Charge the batteries and clear the bilge pump strainers. The boat may sit for two weeks without shore power.
- Take everything that matters ashore: papers, electronics that lift out, the outboard off the dinghy rail.
- Photograph the boat as you leave it. If there’s a claim, the before picture is the one you’ll wish you had.
- Then leave.
If you’re away for the summer
Plenty of Florida boats spend June to November with their owners somewhere else, and a plan that requires you to be here in 72 hours isn’t a plan. Absentee owners need one of three arrangements standing before the season: a yard contract that includes storm haul-out on the yard’s own trigger, a hired captain or management service with written authorization, or a slip neighbor who has specifically agreed to strip and double up. If a storm forms on a Tuesday, the boat’s fate is whoever answers the phone on Wednesday.
Insurance, before the season
Read the policy in May, not in the cone. Florida policies typically carry a separate, higher named-storm deductible; know the number. Many insurers share the cost of a professional pre-storm haul-out, a clause that effectively pays you to do the right thing, and one many owners don’t know they have. Check whether your policy has a hurricane plan requirement of its own, and whether it restricts where the boat may be during the season. And keep the photo inventory current: if the boat ends up on a seagrass flat or someone’s lawn, the removal is your responsibility, and the claim goes faster when the paperwork is ready.
Chartering during the season
Summer charters in Florida are cheaper for a reason, but the risk is mostly to your calendar, not your safety. Charter companies watch the tropics professionally and will not send you out ahead of a system. Book with flexible dates, understand the company’s weather policy before you pay, and consider trip insurance for an August week in the Keys. The seasonal guide covers what summer sailing here actually looks like between the storms.
The bookmarks
- National Hurricane Center: the season, in one tab.
- NWS Marine Forecasts: your zone forecast; every region hub on this site surfaces active tropical and marine alerts.
- BoatUS Hurricane Prep: the deepest free library on storm prep for boats, including plan worksheets.
- FWC Boating: the owner-responsibility rules for displaced and derelict vessels.
Last reviewed July 2026.