CAT TEAM TO
THE FOUNDING OF THE BOATU.S. HURRICANE CATASTROPHE (CAT) TEAM goes back to the fall of 1983, when Hurricane Alicia devastated much of the Texas Gulf coast, including the newly built outer harbor at the Houston Yacht Club. Dozens of boats that had been in the harbor came ashore and were strewn, one on top of the other, in a massive pile-up that proved to be a daunting challenge to would-be salvors. BoatU.S., which insured many of the boats, had been in touch with the club’s officers and volunteered to
dispatch several BoatU.S. employees to the Houston Yacht Club to, in the words of one employee, “do whatever we
could to help clean up the mess.”
BoatU.S. CEO Bill Oakerson, who was then
head of our BoatU.S. Marine Insurance
Division, was part of that original group
that sped to Texas. He describes what happened in Houston as the start of a company-wide learning process that has continued
to expand with each new storm for almost
three decades. Today, the BoatU.S. CAT
Team’s experience in how to mobilize and
get on scene immediately, evaluate would-be salvors, efficiently set up staging areas to
safely store damaged boats, and negotiate
contracts — all on behalf of our insureds —
is unparalleled in the marine industry.
With years of firsthand experience, the
CAT Team now has more than 35 members, and has amassed an impressive body
of knowledge about what works and what
doesn’t work when boats are prepared for
hurricanes. We’ve talked to several of the
senior members of the CAT Team to see
what lessons they’ve learned that might
help you prepare your boats for the next
inevitable storm.
JACK HORNOR
NAVAL ARCHITECT
Those of us who’ve spent weeks and some-
times months sorting out the maritime
aftermath of hurricanes are seldom surprised
by what we find when we visit a site for the
first time. It’s not long before all marinas
and boatyards start looking alike in terms of
what happens and why. But there’s one that
stands out for me, not for the damage and
destruction — although there was plenty of
that, too — but for the lack of damage to
many vessels there due to the forethought
and planning of conscientious boat owners
and a forward-thinking marina owner.
