Why Santa Cruz Harbor was so devastated by storm surge

Boats are built to withstand fierce seas. But tethered inside the shallow and narrow Santa Cruz Harbor, few of the cruisers, catamarans and yachts were prepared for the fury of this week’s storm surge, which sunk at least 15 vessels and damaged many more.

Experts are now racing to prevent additional wreckage by hauling out submerged boats, broken pilings, shattered piers and other debris bobbing in the wavy sea.

“We just want to restore safety,” said Holland MacLaurie, port director of Santa Cruz Harbor, which tallied an estimated $20 million in damages, with costs likely to rise.

The harbor is shaped like an hourglass, funneling powerful waves towards docks. One section is shallow, focusing wave energy. And boats float side by side so they can slam into each other.

With a series of large swell events forecast to continue through the week, harbor officials are urging owners to limit navigation, use caution when aboard their boats or dockside and stay away from the jetty area. Dock lines and fenders should be replaced or added.

The storm caused significant damage to North Harbor docks, power and water infrastructure and pilings. One critical embankment is seriously eroded. With the U.S. Coast Guard, district crews are placing booms around doomed boats to prevent fuel spills.

“The wharf damage got a lot of attention,” said Andy Gere of Santa Cruz, whose 22-foot Boston Whaler was slammed by debris. “But you know what happened at the harbor? It was devastating.”

On Thursday, boat owners trickled into the harbor throughout the day to assess the losses. The foggy, overcast weather imparted an eerie calm to the scene just days after Monday’s storm surge. Some inspected boats that had capsized. Other owners worried about hidden damage.

“It’s tough,” said Sean Varenkamp, of Santa Cruz, whose family’s Ranger Tug 26 was completely submerged at the end of the dock. The storm surge flipped it upside down and sent it floating 75 feet to another dock before it surfaced. While unfixable, the boat is insured.

“Traditionally, Ranger Tugs are beasts in the ocean. They are meant to tow other boats and things,” he said. “They’re designed for the water.”

Paul Marquez came to inspect his 32-foot boat, built in the 1970s. While the vessel appeared mostly intact, Marquez, a former harbor employee, worried it might have sustained holes after Varenkamp’s tugboat surfaced dangerously close to it. For now, the extent of the damage is unknown.

Gere has already retrieved his beloved Namequoit, a 22-foot Boston Whaler, and trailered it home. The fiberglass boat was likely battered by a sunken boat, suffering some damage to its stern.

This is ordinarily a quiet time of year for most sailors. But many Bay Area boats have been left in the water due to the ongoing crab season.

And while ports are conventionally expected to offer “safe harbor,” ships are often safest at sea and in deep water.

During Monday’s storm, after being turned away by the county law enforcement officers, Gere and companions found a route down to North Harbor’s I Dock.

“I literally ran down to the dock,” he said. “We were just watching our boats get absolutely hammered.” They were monitored from above the dock by onlookers who watched for sets of incoming waves, yelling to warn the men to flee to safety from incoming surges.

Gere and others plunged their arms into the cold waters to refasten, double up or tighten lines. They added extra fenders to help cushion the boats from collisions with docks and pilings. An adjacent boat had already capsized, and others were in peril.

“It was chaotic. We helped everybody out as much as we could,” he said. “But then you’ve got to just let nature take its course.”

The harbor is vulnerable because fast-flowing water narrows under the Murray Street Bridge, then experiences what’s known as the “Venturi effect” where it accelerates as it flows through this constricted section, adding energy.

“There’s a pinch point, near the bridge, where the channel narrows,” said port director MacLaurie. “The surge in wave intensity is compressed, and then it moves up through the North Harbor, with more wave action and force. And as it bottlenecks, it picks up an intensity. That’s why more damage is sustained there.”

Hardest hit were boats in the North Harbor, which is most exposed to storm surges and where water is shallow. A nearby creek, Arana Gulch, flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains and deposits silt into the harbor; at low tide, some boats sit on the harbor’s muddy bottom.

Most vulnerable were boats that faced aft, with their sterns exposed to the surge, Gere said. That’s not the way a boat is designed to go through waves.

“We watched one take a wave right over the back. It went down in an instant,” said Gere. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Other boats were damaged by being tossed onto the wooden piers, then floating back off on the backwash. On some docks, cleats broke loose, so vessels were no longer securely tied.

One vessel had been securely tied, but then the pier broke loose, sending both the boat and the pier careening through the harbor. It was finally caught and safely tied off, even as a massive piece of wood was still attached.

Unlike a 2011 tsunami, which just lasted a few hours, “this was a 10 hour ordeal,” Gere said. “It just went on and on and on.”

The Santa Cruz Port District now is awaiting a determination from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as to whether a statewide disaster declaration will be forthcoming. If a declaration is made, financial assistance from the state will be made available for costs incurred by local governments, including the port.

Over the next days and weeks, Santa Barbara-based Cushman Contracting Corporation will use cranes and other specialized equipment to remove objects.

Submerged vessels are being marked and prioritized. Then large airbags, introduced with the help of divers, will float sunken vessels to the surface. Barges and other tools will help move them to a launch ramp and haul them out.

The debris will temporarily be stored in a large pile then removed by the state’s emergency services office to a dedicated site.

“This is sad,” said Varenkamp, surveying the damage. “But it’s not going to stop us. We’re ocean-faring people.”