What dosent your marina let you do?

[ukester]

well just got a letter informing me my marina was sold and all boats must be off the property by may31. For most here that would not be a problem but my 39ft sedan is quite aways from being put on the water so I must find another marina. The marina I was at let you do most anything you wanted to work on and let some help come in to help you. Given I live in Wis. the cold will be here thru april so it does not give me much time to do most anything to get her up and running, my guess is I hope to tow this to another marina. So getting back to my question what should I be looking at at another marina and what questions should I ask before I make the commitment.


Thanks Mark

[bill]

Any Yacht Clubs in your area?
Mine is a working club. The members run the lift and tractors for haul out and launch. Each member does certain amount of work hours.
bill

I see there are 7 Yacht Club on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin . A working yacht club is the way to go, You meet a great bunch of people, even the sailors are decent. You cant beat the prices and you get reciprocating rights with other clubs all over the states.

[ddependo]

My marina will not let you do anything on the hard. All boats stay in the water year round anyway. They do bottom jobs. The most I.ve been able to do is change anode when they do a bottom job. They will let you do miner work in slip ,no painting. They run a tight ship.
Wayne

[Leviathon]

We have several options for slipping our boat in SW michigan. Our marina, Brians, will let you do most anything as long as it is not too dangerous, and they will let you borrow tools. They have provided help with all kinds of things over the last 4 years. There may be nicer kept marinas, but we love where we are. I typically spend 2-3 weeks working on her in the yard at the marina before she goes in the water. A marina that would not allow that would not work for me.

[bcassedy]

Mark,
I'd get a list of marinas you might consider and start calling. Some of the questions I'd ask:
- Do you pull boats at the end of the season?
- If I found that I needed to pull mine in mid-season,
* Would that be a problem?
* How much lead time would be the minimal amount needed? (ie. can they react quickly?) (this is subjective as your emergency might not top their emergency.
- While the boat's on the hard, I'd like to do some work on it. Are there any restrictions?
.... I painted the bottom of our boat 3 years ago, including sand blasting. The boat was parked "parallel style" and the
marina management only asked that I ensure I contained the dust and sand. I ringed the boat with plastic sheeting
taped to the gunwales and erected a tarp at each end as a possible last ditch barrier in case the guy sanding her
misdirected his blasting gun and blew a hole in the plastic. Wanted to protect the guy behind and ahead of my boat.
- Any restrictions on maintenance work, either on the hard (think pullin' prop / rudder shafts, engine work) or at the slip?
- Do you have an online copy of your marina's by-laws?
- Do you dredge regularly (if needed)? If so, do you dredge in the slips or just the channel leading to the slips?
Our last marina dregded pathetically... in the channel only. The reasoning was that the mud/silt in the slips would
"fall" from the slips (aka - increasing the water depth) into the channel. Problem... it doesn't take an engineer to
understand that settled silt will "pack" to a degree and while a minimal amount will fall from the end of the slip into
the channel, most will remain in the slip. When we left our marina in Oct. of last year, we had .8' (10 inches)under
the rudder. While pulling out of slip wasn't a huge issue, backing in stirred up a ton of debris, being sucked into our
engine's raw water inlet. Not good!
- Can you give me the names/fone #'s of 3 current users of the marina? (getting their opinions will help.)
-> When/if you talk with these folks, see if they can provide some names of past marina users. It'd be nice to know why
folks have left and get it from them and not a generic reason from the marina's management.

Bill

[barefoot99]

Bill , where did you relocate , maybe we could drop something again!

[bcassedy]

Scott,
We're going to Aurora, In. Bit further drive but about the same amount of time (less stoplights & stop signs <annoying things!! )
Either Lighthouse Point Marina or if lucky, a place where a guy has land bordering a backed up creek area. He's got 50' wide sections of land adjacent to the bay"ish" area that he rents. Has water and electric, you put in your own docks. He's full up now, but we're hopeful. Otherwise Lighthouse will be our new home.

Come see us!
Bill

[Rockit]

It's very common for marinas to have these kinds of restrictions. While $42 +/- per foot for seasonal dockage in our part of the world is a fair amount of dough, I'm not sure that makes for a healthy business model. Your cash flow mostly comes in late winter or early spring and your expenses run well into the fall. The owners are looking for revenue wherever they can get it and if they can get away with these restrictions so much the better. Everything is negotiable however. At my old marina, one of the guys simply struck those provisions from the agreement and told the owner that he was not going to tell him who could work on his boat. The marina owner accepted the revised contract.

I dock at the best marina around. The owner has a nice collection of tools that people use on the honor system. The rules are the ones his insurance company insists on. He works hard to keep the place in good shape and is genuinely concerned about the people and their boats.

That reminds me. I need to send my contract in. He give a 5% discount if you pay in full before the end of January. Hopefully we'll see low fuel prices this summer and will be tearing up lots of water this summer.

Joe

[yooper]

A 39' is hard to manage in Wisconsin without a marina with a boat lift and an adjacent lot or barn to store and work on the boat. I live in the U.P in Michigan. I had to buy a big trailer and a one ton pickup to manage my 32'. I store mine in unheated indoor storage. I have to remove the flybridge to get through the 14x14 door. I am able to do any work I need to but it is very cold so I am going to buy an electric heater so I can do a few tasks before relaunch this year. The nearby private boat works (Vinettes) has the lift and a yard to work on boats. They also have pretty good mechanics. They do not operate slips for seasonal use. The State runs nearby marinas but no storage or repair yards.

Is there a boat hauler with good hydraulic rig near you. Over the road moving would give you more options. What is needed to get your boat in the water and running? Leave cosmetics for later. Can you run a heater safely in your boat now?