During Hurricane Hugo, in 1989, nearly half of that great storm's deaths were boat owners. They did not perish at sea. They died at the dock while taking too much time at attempting to storm-ready their vessels for the approaching hurricane.

In 1992, after Hurricane Andrew slashed its way across south Florida, loss figures for heavily damaged and destroyed boats exceeded a quarter of a billion dollars. had the owners properly storm-readied them, over half of those boats could have survived unscathed.

According to BOAT/US, nine out of ten hurricane fatalities are the result of storm surge--this includes unknowledgeable boaters struggling too long at storm-readying their boats.

Today's exploding boat population is expanding faster than there are safe storm shelters available to accommodate them. Hurricane forecasters have predicted that 1992 was the start of a thirty-year cycle of increased hurricane activity in the United States. But what those scientists cannot foresee is where and when the storms will strike...