To our Vessel Owners and Marina Community,

The first of November has marked the start of a new Cyclone Season and for some of our customers who have yet to experience a monsoon season in the tropics, we know this can be intimidating.

Breakwater Marina and our region now shift to getting ready for Cyclones and Tropical Storms and their widely unpredictable conditions. These storm events can be potentially dangerous to people and boats and can include squalls, torrential rain, flooding and storm surge; all of which can be damaging for those who aren’t properly prepared as they can occur quickly, with little warning and can escalate fast.

In our experience, the message remains simple at the commencement of every Cyclone Season – Be Prepared Early.

At Breakwater Marina, the objective of our Cyclone Management is to minimize damage to property and maintain personal safety and we seek to support our customers and residents with their own planning and preparations. We encourage you to grab a copy of our Cyclone Management Plan for useful information about how to plan, how to prepare, to know the risks and how to be ready in each stage of a severe weather event.

One thing we want to be clear on is that for all boat owners with a Mooring Agreement at Breakwater Marina between 1 November 2024 and 30 April 2025, you must comply with the measures in our Cyclone Management Plan that serve to protect not just your boat but the boats around yours from damage during a severe weather event.

It is the absolute responsibility of the Boat Owner to take measures that ensure their boat remains secure at its berth during severe weather and that everything practicable has been done to minimise the risk it breaks free, the risk of the boat sinking due to water ingress or the risk of unsecured equipment becoming airborne.

This Season: Vessel Self Assessing & Marina-Wide Inspections

The strongest message to come out of our Cyclone Management is that should every Boat Owner take responsibility for their own storm readiness measures, then all boats berthed at Breakwater Marina have the best chance of surviving a Tropical Storm with the least amount of damage; it is very much a collective effort. In support of this, we’ll be circulating a Vessel Self-Assessment to all our Boat Owners that will allow owners to ‘check-off’ their vessel readiness measures against the compliance measures in our Cyclone Management Plan.

With this in mind we’ll be starting our marina-wide, vessel by vessel Cyclone Readiness Inspections from this week. We use this information to support our vessel owners to prepare their boats for the rigours of strong winds and torrential rain; particularly those boat owners who have obvious and immediate measures to take to improve their severe weather defences. We’ll have correspondence sent to you shortly in response to the vessel inspections and whilst we know the majority will take-up the sensible, early precautions,we reaffirm the conditions of our Cyclone Management Plan are binding on everyone.  

We’ll have also various targeted emails to our customers whose circumstances require we have a personalised Emergency Plan in place for them. The most obvious of these will go to our Boat Owners who don’t live in Townsville or will be away from Townsville for extended periods during Cyclone Season. We want boat owners to take the cautionary approach and secure it for severe weather before you leave.

We have links below to the Breakwater Marina Cyclone Management Plan for your reference and ask that you familiarise yourself with the Planning, the Preparation and the precautionary measures detailed in each of our 4 stage Cyclone Warning System. We make no excuses for taking a cautionary approach in the interests of best protecting the masses and appeal to all Owners to play their role to do the same. The endpoint is that Tropical Storms and Cyclones can be intimidating but with some sensible and common-sense measures taken to secure your boat, your risk of damage is greatly reduced.

All Marina staff are available to answer your questions and to help you plan and inspect the readiness measures you’ve used on your boat so feel free to call the office or grab a staff member on their way around the Marina. To take our support of boat owners a step further this year, the Marina is hosting a Q &A Storm Readiness session and BBQ this Friday afternoon – 8th November from 4pm. We’ve arranged for a panel to share their specialist advice and experiences so our boat owners have all the support they need to get their vessel preparations going early and they’re across the readiness measures they need to be taking through Breakwater’s Cyclone Warning System. We invite all our boat owners, regardless of their storm readiness experience, to come along and ask questions, to share and to offer feedback.

We share a common hope that Townsville and its surrounds aren’t impacted by any destructive weather, but we thank you in advance for your cooperation and willingness to help others get ready for the prospect of damaging weather.

Many Thanks,

Scott Marshall  |  General Manager    

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