Earlier I wrote that experts at this week’s Hurricane Preparation Symposium in Orlando talked about taking boats ashore and “bundling” them to provide more resistance to wind and water.

Sometimes showing is easier than telling.

Doug Hillman of Sebastian River Marina in Florida used forged steel eyes embedded in concrete and standard dock lines with surface knots for tension. The technique works especially will with large powerboats.

As a member of the BoatUS Catastrophe Response Team, these are a few of Jonathan Klopman’s least favorite things:

Forget mountains. When it comes to marina pilings and storm surge, you can’t have pilings high enough.

“You can have wind,” says Daniel Rutherford, of Ocean Marine Specialties in Cape May N.J., who is both a member of the BoatU.S. Hurricane Catastrophe Response Team and has evaluated damage from about 20 major storms. “You can have high wind. But you can’t have 18 feet of water coming through your marina and expect to survive.

“It is all about the surge.”

Other coastal states would do well to look at a Florida law enacted after Hurricane Andrew’s catastrophic rampage through the state in 1992, says attorney Richard J. McAlpin, a maritime law expert.

It spells out, as much as any statute can, what a marina can and cannot do with a storm on the way. It can’t force boat owners to haul out their boats but it can require them to use certain materials to secure their them and require owners carry insurance.

For a small conference, The BoatUS 2008 Marina Preparation Symposium here in Orlando is tackling some big ideas.

Take eco-friendly. Vendors are showcasing products, including some brand-new ones, that are designed help mitigate storm damage but interfere as little as possible with the existing marine environment.

Looks can be deceiving. Take the nylon lines you’ve been using as an anchor rode or to tie up at the dock. They are not new and they look a bit beat, with chafing where the lines left the chocks or tied to the cleats.

But they still hold. Or do they?

John Naybor has one word for coastal marina owners just starting out or faced with post-storm reconstruction: Overbuild.

“We need to survive these storms rather than rebuild every time a storm comes through,” he says.

How many hours did you spend deciding which boat was “the one?” Weeks and months, reading brochures and reviews, checking online user groups, comparing specs and going on sea trials. The National Marine Manufacturers’ Association says it generally takes about three years to go from interest in buying a boat to the moment of purchase.

Now answer this: How much time and energy did you devote to picking a marina? For boat owners who live and play in areas prone to hurricanes and tropical storms, the truth is that the time spent "shopping" may not be enough.

Boats and hurricanes don’t mix well. But boats, at least many of them, have one big advantage over beach homes, waterfront condos, hotels and other shoreline developments: They can be moved.

Studies consistently show that boats moved ashore during tropical storms fare better than those tied up at dock.

Tony Palumbo got the idea of protecting boats with heavy nets anchored in concrete while deployed in Iraq in 2005.

Sand storms – not storm surge – toppled every military vehicle in site – trucks, planes and even helicopters. Palumbo, then a Lieutenant Colonel with the Army National Guard in California, tried everything.

The only method that worked involved strong nets. He retired from the Guard last year after 30 years, 15 of them spent as the agency’s emergency planner for California, and launched SecureNet LLC in November.