Midwest 2 Dude!! Personally I would not have a boat w/o rail!!(unless of course I hit the lottery & can have a crew of big tittied deck hands 2 make sure my boat doesn't touch anything)!!!!!!
You have the right idea my man, haha!!
Thanks to everyone for your input.

You did pretty good job down there.

My 39 turns props out. Easy to dock, no problems.

I do too.

The rubrail never helped anything on any of my last boats when the going got tough. The seam on the side is almost flush with the rail, so it's going to scratch it even WITH a rail. That definitely wouldn't be a poart of my buying decision, other than it looking so much more modern without the rail.

I've had no problem with my current boat having no rail. It looks so much better to me as well. I've got great dock hands, but it's much easier to deal with a Cat that has such a wide stance vs a staggered vee.

Even with pilings the benefit of the rub rail is minimal; at low tide the barnacles stick out so far if you get within 6 inches of the piling with the rear portion of the boat you'll scratch it up.

Can someone explain: What's a rubrail?

LOL, what do you call it?

Not in northern Mi Bubba!!!

You would not know with a Gladiator, hahaha!!

I came out of an 05 38 TS Gun with 525's and bravos into a 39 with 700's and NXT's and to be honest could not tell that much difference in docking. The big props on the NXT's make a huge difference around the dock. They just have so much more bite it helps to compensate for the stagger. I think most 700 39's are spinning the props out. Can't comment on a bravo 39. Just my $0.02