At least 16 boats broke free, sank or washed ashore during the recent nor’easter, Harbormaster Mark Souza told the Harbors and Waters Board Oct. 5, offering the clearest accounting yet of the storm’s toll on Marblehead Harbor.
The figure does not include boats damaged when other vessels struck them during the storm, Souza said, meaning the total number of boats affected is higher.
“So the 16 boats are the ones that we have reports on that either broke free, sank, washed ashore,” Souza said. “The ones that got hit by boats going by, I don’t have that number in there.”
Souza said those additional reports have been coming in slowly, in part because some boat owners are handling damage directly through their insurance companies.
About half of the 16 severely damaged vessels were sailboats and half were powerboats, with slightly more powerboats affected, Souza said. Some powerboats remained attached to their moorings but rolled or flipped during the storm.
Despite the damage, Souza said the harbor’s mooring system itself performed well.
“Not one dragged a mooring, and you didn’t find any chain broken,” he said.
Instead, most boats that broke free did so after their pennant lines failed. A pennant is the line connecting a boat to its mooring.
During an extended storm, the repeated movement of a boat can cause the pennant to rub against hardware on the bow. Protective sleeves, known as chafing gear, are intended to shield the line, but they can shift, exposing the rope underneath.
“It’s that up and down motion of the bow constantly, which we had for four or five days, that will chafe that line and create the break,” Souza said.
The storm sent several boats onto shore and left debris in and around the harbor. Souza said the Harbormaster Department picks up debris when staff members encounter it, but recovering an actual vessel is generally the responsibility of its owner.
Souza said he was not surprised by the number of boats still in the water when the nor’easter arrived. With the storm coming during the fall haul-out season, boatyards and ramps were already busy, and there were limits to how quickly owners could get vessels out of the water.
“There’s only so many places you can haul a boat, only so many boatyards that have the capability of taking some of these boats,” Souza said. “So every boat ramp, every boatyard was busy…”
