I have friends who dry stack at my marina. I think it's a great deal. less money. They can call on their way to the Marina and their boat will be ready. The Marina lets them use any open dock if they want to stay the night. The cost is cheaper for the "entire year" than what I pay for a dock for "the season" I must pay even more for winter storage. I pay for a haul out if I want to work on my own boat. They have free haul outs and the use of a work rack. I am sure each marina is different. I still like having a permanate dock because its drive up and I "break camp" at the beginiing of the season with table, indoor/outdoor carpeting, dockboxes, and Grill

 

This is our third year and it is so much better than dealing with trailer rage at the ramp. With a cruiser I could see slipping but with a bow rider, dry stack offers a lot of advantages. We have had no issues with any damage from the hi-lo.

 

I keep mine in a stack. The only real "damage" the boat has sustained as a result of being stored this way is that the bottom paint gets worn off where the boat sits on the forks and the bunks. This really is not a problem since rack storage negates the need for bottom paint. I haven't seen any other damage.

Let me offer some advice that can save you some grief. Before signing up for rack service ask the marina the following questions.

1.) Do they allow you to do your own maintenance (bottom paint, mechanical work, detailing, etc.)?

2.) If "no" to #1, do they make you use a specific mechanic, or can you bring in your own?

3.) Will they allow you to put in on Friday night and tie up to a dock, slip, or pier for the whole weekend?

4.) If "yes" to #3, do you have access to water and power?

5.) Will they put your boat on a "work rack" (or "wash rack") upon request?

Now, find a few of the customers and ask them how well the marina helps them out when the inevitable happens, and the marina either miss your message telling them when to launch, or just plain forgets to launch your boat.

That last question is particularly important. I have been at my marina for one and a half seasons and they missed my message twice telling them that I needed to be launched. On both occasions, one of the owners apologized and launched me immediately upon my arrival. One of the owners lives on the premises and is nearly always there. That is very important. It will happen, and how they deal with it will be a determining factor in your overall level of satisfaction with the service.

I consider myself lucky. We have good owners who in general, let me do pretty darn much anything I like as long as I am not bothering anybody else. I can put in or get pulled out as often as I like, so things like maintenance and detailing have no extra haul out costs associated with them. We have floating docks in a protected cove that I can stay tied up to as often, and for as long as I want.

The service is fine. Just be sure to ask questions before signing at a specific marina.

Michael

 

Well thanks for the good information. Glad to hear that others like the dry stack, as this greatly eases my worry (on the 'damage' aspect)

skibum, in answer to your questions:
1. Yes, I can do my own maintenance. Actually, in order to do so, they'd just drop it back in the water for me to trailer wherever (or on the work rack outside).

3. They do have 'transient' docks. Granted, I would be more inclined to have them put it back in the rack (say on Saturday when done for the day) and have them bring it back out Sunday. The ONLY reason being is that the transient docks are not greatly secured... and they have an adjoining restaurant that usually has wedding receptions on Saturday... and I dont want the guests getting 'curious' around my boat.

4. No, there's no access to water / power... but again, my boat is only a BR... so there's really no need for those amenities.

5. Absolutely.

I will have to check with a few members to see how the 'call ahead' service is. I have talked to a few of the people putting their boats away... and they said that the overall service was good. All did mention that they 'tip' the drivers. I didnt ask how much (which I would have liked to... as I'd like to find out the average amount...)

Do you tip the forklift drivers? (If so, do you mind me asking how much? If so, do you at both times - ie bringing boat out, putting boat away - or just once?) Its these 'unwritten aspects' that I dont know anything about at the moment... lol

Thanks again!

 

We stored ours for a couple of years. Extremely convenient. Easy in and easy out. But I did notice that the workers are slightly less exacting in using your equipment than you would be. I had a couple of issues -

1. There was very little care when taking the tonneu covers off the boat. So much so that several snaps were damaged. They would just grab and rip.

2. I had a loose ignition switch that I hadn't had a chance to fix. This particular marina flushed for me. Now mind you, this had been somewhat loose for a while. Some moron got up to start the engine for the flush and kept turning the key (the ignition cylinder) until the wires broke off inside the dash.

When I brought both of these to the attention of management I was simply rebuffed with "we don't pay for that kind of damage. We don't know if you did it." They would have paid had they dropped the boat but there are a TON of small things that can happen that are simply brushed off. So after several hundred dollars in repair, we no longer high and dry.

 

I have been indoors for years. We love the service and your boat will retain its shine from reduced oxidation. Our handlers are great. I do not tip on each in and out. Instead at the end of the season I give them a check to cover one week of groceries.

 

I only tip once or twice a season. On the second Friday in August, there's a big fireworks show up the river a few miles from our dry stack. The marina stays open extra late that night. I tip then for the whole year.
You might want to grease someone's palm to get the choicest rack on the lot or to have your boat stored away from an annoying neighbor. Or, for helping sell your boat or for any "free" services or extra help from the dock help etc.

I have had only one minor bit of forklift damage and it was easily fixed. That's since 1997.

At my dry stack, you don't call ahead. They recognize my car when it pulls into the lot and are ready to put me in the water by the time I've got the cover off my boat and my cooler and nightcrawlers stowed.

Dennis

 

I love my dry "slip".

But there are pro's to con's to everything. Do a search, and you'll see a bunch of threads on "wet vs dry" slips. SKIBUM listed a lot of great points. It's been great being able to wash, wax and work on my boat without jumping through hoops. Also, if you start with a new boat, you can save SO much money on maintenance and work. (see those threads I mentioned)

It might help to see how many forklifts they have vs. the number of boats. I'm not sure what the ratio should be, but unless it's a small marina, they need more than one forklift.

The only caveat for dry slips is that you are at the mercy of the Marina. If they have crappy workers, bad management, understaffed, or etc, it will not be worth it. Also, for busy weekends (i.e. holiday weekends, etc) they will be pushed to keep pace, so make sure you plan those weekends accordingly.

 

There are 2 forklifts at our marina, but I have never seen the 2nd (older) one in use. I think it is "retired". We are a smaller marina, and the only 3 people that use the lifts are the 2 owners (brothers), and the guy who is also the marina diver. I have never tipped any of them. There are 3 kids that help out by putting in and removing drain plugs as each boat is launched, and handling the lines as boats are floated on ands off of the forks. I toss a $20 to them a couple of times a year.

John, why do they need to get on your boat and remove canvas or operate anything at all? I leave mine covered and tied up to the dock. The kids undo the lines, walk the boat back onto the forks, wait for it to be lifted out of the water so that they can remove the drain plug, toss the bow line over the bow rail, toss the stern line onto the swim platform, and the driver sits it on the rack. No one boards the boat. When they launch the boat, the kids use boat hooks to pick the lines up from the rail and swim platform and then walk her to where they will tie her up to the dock. I don't think I would care for it much if they got on board and started messing with ANYTHING, much less flipping switches or trying to start the boat.

Ok, after typing all of that, I went back up and saw that you have them flush the engine for you. I don't flush every time I use the boat, I do it about once every 2 weeks to a month. I have them put it on a work rack so I can do it myself.

Michael

 

...John, why do they need to get on your boat and remove canvas or operate anything at all? I leave mine covered and tied up to the dock. The kids undo the lines, walk the boat back onto the forks, wait for it to be lifted out of the water so that they can remove the drain plug, toss the bow line over the bow rail, toss the stern line onto the swim platform, and the driver sits it on the rack. No one boards the boat. When they launch the boat, the kids use boat hooks to pick the lines up from the rail and swim platform and then walk her to where they will tie her up to the dock. I don't think I would care for it much if they got on board and started messing with ANYTHING, much less flipping switches or trying to start the boat...

Michael,

Who takes off your canvass when the boat is put in the water? At the marina that I was at, that was the duty of the marina - to have the boat ready to go. When the took off the canvas, they broke some snaps off. As for the ignition, washing down and flushing was part of the service. Could I have done it? Maybe. Not sure, never asked. But I was paying for the service and I had seen them actually fulfilling that obligation.

Maybe I could have sued for the repairs, but was it really worth the time and aggravation to get that done? Probably not. That is why when the marina told us they would not cover the damage we promptly removed our boat.

Look, they were good employees. Management was just a dick.

 

This is my 1st season in dry stack. So far so good. No issues with calling ahead and having the boat ready. At the begaining of the year the marina placed the boat on the wash rack and then moved to shaded rack later for me to finish my spring commission cleaning and waxing the boat. It rained this past Memorial Weekend so I did not get to see how things were in a busy weekend. Our marina offers cleanup so if you drop your boat back off they will flush and rinse your boat for you before putting it away.(for a fee). I will give everyone a report at the end of the season.

Good luck with your choice. :grin:

 

Well, I took care of the paperwork and such today... and ill be dropping her in next week (this week she's in getting the impeller replaced).

I kinda talked them into replacing the carpet on the rack bunks, so that was cool.

I dont have to worry really about flushing the engine, as we're all fresh water here. (at least I dont THINK i have to?)

And I was incorrect on the calling ahead thing... they dont do that afterall. Although they did say that normally its not too busy (im sure on the holidays it is... but I guess Ill just have to plan on being there early)

At least I dont have to trailer

Oh, and thanks for the info on the tipping aspect.
I figure for the first few times I will... at least just so that the guys there get to know me...

 

I do. When I am done with the boat I tie it up to the dock and button everything up. This includes putting on the cockpit cover. They simply untie her and use the lines to walk her over the sunken forks. They lift her out and go immediately to the rack. When Iget back to the marina, she'll be tied up to the dock exactly the way that I left her. No one ever gets on board. Ever.

Michael

 

This is similar to my new situation also.

 

Only thing I can add to the good info here is make sure you retract your trim tabs and outdrive everytime you return to the racks. When the fork lift picks your boat, if the tabs are down the trim cylinders will blow out.

 

Good point, hopper.

Which brings us to the trim tab zincs. Last year, a buddy "helped" me install the new zincs. He did the trim tabs, I did the drive. When we finished, I noticed that he had installed them (I use "rudder" zincs, which have 2 identical rounds zincs, one on the top and one on the bottom of the tab) with the bolt pointing down. The bolt (actually a large screw with an "allen" type head) protruded about 3/4" below the actual zinc. At the end of the night, I knew that I wanted to change that, but it was late, so we left. The boat was moved 3 times (wash rack to storage rack, storage rack to launch, pull and put back on wash rack) before I had a chance to look at them again. Tabs were all the way up the whole time. The bolts were both bent over pretty far from sitting on the forks. I had to use a sawzall to cut them flush with the bottom of the zinc.

I had no idea that lifting the boat with the forklift put so much pressure on the tabs prior to that. The funny thing is that the forks have a 1" thick rubber pad wrapped around them. I would have thought that the bolts would have just sunk into the rubber.

Trim them tab zinc bolts if they protrude down. I'd recommend putting the head on the bottom, which is how I will be doing it from now on. Dad was an aircraft mechanic, so I was always taught that when you install a bolt, make sure that it points "in, aft, or down". Trim tab zinc bolts are a valid exception to that rule.

Michael

 

Yea good advice Mike. The fork truck drivers get kinda annoyed when people forget to raise them.
I didn't realize so much pressure was on the tabs either. They were up and still bent the bolts?
My marina put in 146 boats in the water today, and 146 back in storage. So that'a a full day of moving boats. It takes to much time to have to jump off the machine and raise the boat cover, put the tabs up replace the cover then pick the boat.

 

Glad I dont have tabs then

By retracting outdrive, do you actually mean leave it down?

 

I had the dealer install the automatic trim tab retractor by Bennett for $225. Works great and takes away the fear of the forklift at the end of the day.

 

I love my dry storage in Savannah. They keep the boat in "The Barn" and everything is ready to go when I get there. I call on the way in and the boat is in the water when I get there everytime. We have washdown racks outside for when you return.

 

I have a routine that I follow pretty much everytime that I come off plane. I automatically lower the drive and raise the tabs. I don't even think about it anymore, it has just become a natural part of the process when I chop the throttle.

So far I haven't left them down at the end of the day. If I have, the marina hasn't said anything about it to me.

I was down there Sunday afternoon. After I got in, I buttoned up the boat and headed to the parking lot. As I got in the car I saw my boat being placed on the top level of the rack. I got to thinking about how nice it felt knowing that NO ONE could get to my boat while I was away even if they wanted to. There simply isn't any way to get up there to touch it. Even if you managed to climb up onto the racks, the part of the boat that you could get to is too high to climb over to get on board. I really like the peace of mind that comes with knowing that as I pull away.

Michael