Our thoughts go out this Sunday morning to all of our friends in the Gulf Coast fleets. Especially those on the West Coast of Florida.
At the time of writing this post, Sarasota is facing a forecast of a 10 ft storm surge. Sarasota Sailing Squadron is the host of our annual winter series and a center of Viper activity. SSS is on a low lying isthmus and I imagine the club is going to experience severe flooding. We wish Travis, Lee and all the members of SSS and their families a safe passage through the storm.
Fort Walton is also looking like it will experience storm surge and severe weather.
Houston Yacht Club survived Hurricane Harvey and I post a message from the commodore on the next post. We have not heard directly from Pat Gibson how the Houston Viper fleet fared.
A Message From the Commodore:
The Houston Yacht Club has survived Hurricane Harvey, although many up and down the Texas Coast did not fare so well. Our hearts go out to those that have experienced losses, and to our members who are now dealing with the aftermath of Harvey.
Many members have been in and around the club during the storm helping to check dock lines and pump out of boats that lost power or experienced pump failure. This is simply a matter of local members helping those that could not get to the club to take care of their boats. That's what we do. Thank you for helping.
Many clubs from around the country have reached out offering help and donations. Many of our membership has asked what they can do to help those in need. As a result, the Houston Yacht Club will begin accepting donations of non- perishable food, clothing, blankets, diapers, formula, baby food, pet food and supplies and toiletries for distribution to groups helping families affected by Harvey. We plan on targeting local charities and local families in need. Please drop of your donations at the club office. Member Laura Dalgleish will be coordinating the collection and distribution to the appropriate groups. You can contact Laura at
[email protected].
If any member requires assistance or help, please contact me or the club – we will do everything possible to make it happen.
Steve Gillett
Commodore
Fort Walton Yacht Club, the venue for the 2017 Beacon Group Viper 640 North American Championships, survived Irma. Currently we are having misting rain and lots of breeze. The club made it unscathed. The local Viper fleet either removed boats from dry storage or tied them the hell down, and we might even be sailing Wednesday night for Wednesday Night Fun Racing.
Craig
Sarasota is feeling grateful that Irma let us off lightly. Friends report that the SSS looks mostly ok. I'm grateful my family is safe. We had small damage to our house, mostly just downed trees and although part of our roof at our work building was damaged, the water intrusion looks minimal so far. No power anywhere but water is still on.
Most importantly- my Viper is fine. :-)
Quote from: Michelle Lee on September 11, 2017, 09:42:46 PM
No power anywhere
Most importantly- my Viper is fine. :-)
Phew. Thank Goodness.
How's the burger stand at the end of the road?
Quote from: Michelle Lee on September 11, 2017, 09:42:46 PM
Sarasota is feeling grateful that Irma let us off lightly. Friends report that the SSS looks mostly ok. I'm grateful my family is safe. We had small damage to our house, mostly just downed trees and although part of our roof at our work building was damaged, the water intrusion looks minimal so far. No power anywhere but water is still on.
Most importantly- my Viper is fine. :-)
Good to hear!
Quote from: Nick Ward on September 12, 2017, 08:23:45 AM
How's the burger stand at the end of the road?
Neither the Salty Dog nor the New Pass Grill (AKA "the Bait Shop") at the end of the road from the SSS were open today but both appeared to be mostly intact. Couldn't tell if they'd had flooding but outside damage was minor.
Most of the county is still without power, but clean up is underway. Many of the trees blocking roads have been cleared (but it's still dangerous to drive because power lines are down and the lights are mostly out so intersections are crazy) and people are out removing debris. This morning while I was cleaning up at our business, our regular FedEx guy showed up and cheerfully exclaimed, "bet you haven't seen the UPS guy, right?" People look tired and a little dazed but are incredibly friendly, helpful and generally happy.
Here are some pics of the drive out to the SSS this morning. Looks like a lot of downed trees have already been moved aside, so not too bad.
Road right outside/approaching SSS:
Road to SSS and St Armand's:
Some boats damaged at SSS.
My Viper was securely tied down about 5 miles inland and seems to be fine.
Nice vertical rudder tower!
Thanks for the pics... good move getting your boat in shore. Looks fast BTW
Hoping the storm didn't blow away any cool new hull graphics. Looks like Ron will be busy this fall at SSS...
Most residential areas - including where we live - are still without power and FPL says it may take weeks to restore. But we have power at our manufacturing building. This is our busiest time of the year for sales, so it's a bad time to have production offline. None of our employees have electricity and about half are on wells so don't have water, either, so most have gone elsewhere to wait things out or are busy repairing things at home... so I've put my kids to work and we're keeping at least some production going. Since all the public schools are closed this week, it's totally fine to work the little boogers 15 hours a day, right? Sheesh, this one hasn't paid a dime of rent for 12 years - it's about time he started earning his keep.
Quote from: Michelle Lee on September 12, 2017, 03:42:58 PM
Some boats damaged at SSS.
Craig should get some flyers made up that you can tape to those upturned hulls.
(Too soon?)