G Man

What do you guys think is better or less wear and tear. Valet service where they put the boat in and out for you or leaving it in the water. Boat is a 25 Baja Outlaw. No bottom paint. All gel coat.

Had the valet last year with anohter boat. They scratched the bottom with the fork lift forks a few times which I made them fix. Thought leaving it in would be better but have heard of gel coat blistering etc. .....

GOODT

you are crazy if you leave it in, its a no brainer..............

375stinger

you mean dry docking? it depends what type of waters you are in. if saltwater, you cant leave teh boat in anyways, even if you bottompainted it, as your engine/outdirve cant be left in salt and needs to be flushed everytime you run the boat, or at least before leaving it unflushed for a period over a few days. in freshwater lake we leave our boats in, unles you are on a river where you will get growth and barnacles etc all voer the drives. ive never heard of dry dock with a fork lift at freshwater tho..

G Man

Fresh water. Big fork lift grabs the boat from an indoor building and puts it on a lift that lowers it into the water.

Vinny P

I have mine forklifted in and out all the time. Never had a problem.

GOODT

managed a marina with a "boatel" for several years only one problem the whole time

Owners kid ( of the marina ) forgot to check for a drain plug in a crown line....wasnt pretty

was in my office looked out the window and all I saw was a bimini top in the slip

vandeano

That story reminds me when I was at my parents house and one of the neighbors came running over to our house around 10 pm asking if we saw anyone take off with there new boat. We said we haven't seen anyone.

SO that cops came about an hour later and the neighbor called me over there for support, so I go over there and we all are standing on the dock and I see a reflection in the water and at first I thought it was the reflection of the moon. Problem was there was no moon out. It was the guys boat sitting on the bottom of the lake and what I thought was a reflection of the moon was his pole stern light. This guy never owned a boat before and never new about any plug.

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I found this pic in a old thread someone dragged up,excellent! Smitty

vandeano

Been there, done that with my old 19 foot eliminator. I was just kicking it on the Colorado River and a boat like the one I own now (more to that at the end of this story) went cruising by and his wake sank me in about 30 seconds. Its not hard when only about 12 inches of the back of your boat is above water. I thought for sure my boat was going to the bottom. But it bobbed just like that one. The guy that sank me is the one that pulled me out. I guess that was the least he could do. Funny thing was I ended up buying his boat.

cbeastwood

I keep mine in a slip at the lake, but then again I stay on it on the weekends. I pull it out every 3 weeks and clean the bottom. No problems.

I used a 'boatel' in FL this winter. There was some forklift rash that they fixed. For a 25 I don't know if you'll stay on it so I'd probably rack store it if it was just going to be used for daily outings....