Winter Hill Yacht Club Provides Neighborly Safe Haven

They're rafting up and squeezing into spare dock space at : Large motor boats more accustomed to cruising Boston Harbor and coastal New England than navigating the Mystic River.

To escape the —high winds, monster tides, punishing waves and storm surges—boats from the Volunteer Yacht Club in Lynn and Old Colony Yacht Club in Dorchester have found a friendly safe haven in Somerville.

On Friday, the docks were full and Bill Rogers, commodore of the Somerville yacht club, was directing large boats, most about 40 feet long, into tight spaces where they were rafting up.

The yacht club is providing the space to about "30 outsiders that would normally be out in harm's way, out in the ocean," said Rogers.

Normally during a storm, some members of the Winter Hill Yacht Club would haul their boats out of the water and secure them, on land, in a lot adjacent to the club. This time, however, the lot is unavailable. It's under construction as part of the project.

So instead, boats are crowding the docks, and Rogers and other members of the club will "spearhead the thing all weekend long."

Winter Hill Yacht Club tends to be a relatively safe place to keep your boat in a storm, in large part thanks to the Amelia Earhart Dam, just to the southeast of the yacht club on the Mystic River.

The dam helps control the level of the river, protecting boats from the surges and tides of the open water. But the dam can cause difficulties, too, said Rogers. If dam operators lower the level of the river too fast, the boats will drop with the level of the water, and all those taught dock lines securing the vessels can snap. Cleats can get ripped out of decks, and boats can be let loose. It's not something you want to happen in the midst of a serious storm.

Despite the scramble to make everything ready for Irene, Rogers is only concerned "to a point." 

"You can't control mother nature," he said, so you do what you can and hope for the best.