After Hurricane Ian: Rebuilding a Cape Coral Yacht Business

On the afternoon of September 28, 2022, Barb Hansen stood at her sliding door in Cape Coral, watching the 36-foot Grand Banks trawler tied to her dock as Hurricane Ian intensified. By about 4 p.m., the storm surge and wind had the trawler pitching in 12-foot swings while water from the Gulf and inland rivers rushed through the area.

“Water started coming into our house so fast,” Hansen remembers. Four adults, four cats and three dogs spent eight hours in the attic as the water rose. The family watched the flooding from the attic opening in the garage; they were located roughly 8 feet above sea level and experienced about 4 feet of water inside their home.

Damage to a Long‑Standing Business

Hansen’s damages were not limited to her home. For decades she had built a business in Cape Coral, operating a fleet of about a dozen boats used for bareboat courses and charters. The marina suffered a roughly 15-foot storm surge. Boats were lifted off pilings, stacked atop one another in a chaotic tangle of docks, vessels and debris.

“It was a huge mess,” she says. “All the boats came up 15 feet and off the pilings and on top of each other. It was unrecognizable.” It would be another month before Hansen could return to check on the business she had grown since 1984.

Insurance Battles and the Long Recovery

Since the storm, Hansen has been engaged in an exhausting recovery process: multiple insurance claims, dealing with different insurers for different boats, a separate policy for the business, and other policies for her home and vehicles. The paperwork, automated phone systems and claim denials have consumed her days as she works to restore both her personal life and her company.

“It’s decades of paying these premiums, and then when you need it, they’re saying, ‘That’s not covered,’” she says. Some claims were denied over small issues, and a few boat owners connected with her company still await satisfactory resolutions. The layered nature of coverage for different vessels and assets complicated the recovery and prolonged repairs.

Reopening: A Step Forward

In October, Hansen announced a limited reopening with two boats available for bookings—a Fairline 46 and a Silverton 43—with charters and classes scheduled to resume on March 1, when the marina is expected to have power restored. Customers whose previous bookings were canceled began calling immediately to reschedule bareboat charters and training classes.

“Finally, they are now booked for January and February for their class and their charter, and they’re so excited,” Hansen says. The response from customers and returning students has been a bright spot amid the long recovery.

What Boaters Will Find Today

Hansen says visitors who book bareboats now will not encounter the devastation shown in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Many of the region’s marinas have reopened for boaters, and debris has been cleared from the water in most places. While some areas still show scars from the storm, much of the shoreline and marina scenery has been restored to its former beauty.

“There’s no debris in the water or anything like that,” she notes. A month after the storm crews were still removing sunken boats, but cleanup has progressed and many places now look as though they were never touched.

Plans and Perspective

Hansen intends to rebuild the company’s fleet to about eight boats and is accepting inquiries from interested owners. She plans to continue operations from the original office, which sustained minimal damage, while the company’s boutique—largely unscathed—remains open selling coastal-themed items to tourists and locals.

At 68, Hansen finds herself in a position similar to starting over. “I’m starting over like when I was 28,” she says. Running the business again is about resilience as much as commerce—employees and customers depend on her. The experience also brought a new appreciation for what matters: she lost personal vessels, from small 13-foot Whalers to her 36-foot trawler, and says the loss simplified her life in unexpected ways.

“You don’t often have an opportunity to start over. Not that I wanted to, but we lost personal boats… That really simplifies your life. It’s not how I wanted to do it, but it does simplify things, and you realize what you don’t need. I’m still able to do most things that I did before, just with a lot less stuff.”

This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.