What to check on a fiberglass boat after a storm on Mobile Bay

A boat that rode out a storm in a slip on Dog River, on a lift in Orange Beach, or on a trailer in a Foley driveway has been loaded in ways it never sees on a normal day. Surge lifts hulls onto pilings and drops them. Wind works a boat against its lines for hours. Rain fills open cockpits and every crack that was already there. The hull can look fine from the dock and still have a problem.

Before you touch anything, photograph it

This matters more than anything else on this page. Insurance covers impact and storm damage on most policies, and adjusters want to see the boat as the storm left it. Take wide shots from every side, then close shots of every scrape, crack, and dent with something in frame for scale. Photograph the lines, the fenders, the piling or dock it was against, and the waterline if the boat sat lower than usual. Photograph the inside too, especially standing water and anything that shifted.

Do this before the boat is moved, pumped, or cleaned if you can. Once it is back on the trailer and rinsed, the story of how the damage happened is harder to tell, and that story is what the claim runs on.

Where the damage hides

The obvious spots are the rub rail and hull sides where the boat met a piling or a neighbor. Those are usually gelcoat and outer laminate, and they are the least of it. The places we find the expensive damage are these.

Around cleats and chocks. A boat that strained against its lines for a night loads the deck at each cleat far past what docking does. Look for new spider cracks fanning out from the base, a cleat that moves under hand pressure, or a raised edge in the deck around it. The cleat is often fine. The deck core under it is what gave.

The keel and chines. Surge sets boats down on things and picks them back up. Run a hand along the keel and the hard chines looking for gouges, flat spots, and cracks that go through the gelcoat. A grounding strike from a storm looks the same as one from an oyster bar and gets repaired the same way, which our hull repair page covers.

The transom. If the boat was on a lift with the motor up, wind rocked that weight on the transom for hours. If it was in the water and the cockpit filled, the transom sat under more load than it was ever meant to carry. Push down hard on the lower unit and watch the transom. Any flex, any crack at the corners where the transom meets the hull sides, or water weeping from a bolt hole is worth a look before the boat runs again.

The deck and stringers. Standing water that sat in a cockpit for days finds every screw hole and hatch seam. Walk the deck and listen for a spot that sounds different. A soft area that was not there before the storm is a sign the water got into the core, and it is far cheaper to open in the first month than the next year. Our guide to transom and stringer rot cost drivers explains why time is the expensive part.

Hardtops and T tops. Wind loads these hard and cracks the fairings where the pipework enters the fiberglass. Small cracks there let water into the fairing and turn a gelcoat repair into a rebuild if they are ignored.

What can wait and what cannot

Gelcoat scrapes, dock rash, and cosmetic crazing can wait. They are not letting water anywhere it matters, and in the weeks after a storm every shop on the coast is busy with work that cannot wait. Get them on the list and let the structural boats go first.

Anything that flexes, any crack you can catch a fingernail in, and any soft spot should not wait, and the boat should not be run until someone has looked. Impact cracks extend farther inside the laminate than they show outside, and pounding through a chop grows them fast. Send photos first. We can usually tell from pictures whether the boat can come in on its own bottom or needs a trailer.

Which damage is covered

We are not your insurer and cannot tell you what your policy pays. What we can say from the claims we have worked is that impact and storm damage are generally covered, subject to your deductible, and that gradual problems are not. That distinction is where claims get argued. A transom that was already soft before the storm is wear. A transom that cracked because a storm rocked the motor is damage. The photos you take in the first days, and a shop that documents what it finds when it opens the boat, are how that line gets drawn in your favor when the damage really is from the storm.

How the repair goes with a claim

We document the damage before touching it, write the estimate in the format adjusters expect, and photograph each stage of the repair. We will meet the adjuster or surveyor at the boat. You handle the policy side. Our paperwork keeps the claim from stalling, which after a big storm is the main thing that decides whether your boat is back in the water for spring or still waiting on an approval.

On the repair itself, storm work is priced the same as any other job. The ranges on our cost guide apply, from gelcoat spot repairs to structural hull work and transom replacement. What changes after a storm is the schedule, so the earlier the boat is on the list the better.

Before the next one

Most of the storm damage we repair got worse because of something small that was open before the storm. A cracked cleat base, a hatch that did not seal, a transom bolt weeping a little. Those are the paths water takes when a storm gives it days to work. If you know of one on your boat, fix it in the off season and the next storm has less to find. We are glad to look at a boat before the season and tell you what is worth closing up.

What to send us

Send the storm photos you took, tell us where the boat was and how it was tied or stored, and point out anything that feels or sounds different from before. Reach us at (251) 220-4157. We will tell you straight what needs a look now and what can go on the list.