Slip space...how much do you need?

BruceK said:

To be fair the staff tow, not drive. Quite well, they keep in practice. The usual reason to shuffle boats is $ return maximization. I`m not accepting it, plan to leave this weekend.

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Poetic justice would be for someone to show up, see their boat not where they left it, call the police to report it stolen. One simple courtesy phone call surely isn't that hard for them.

BruceK said:

I`m not accepting it, plan to leave this weekend.

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Bruce, you have the patience of Job! I can honestly say that if that happened to me, the marina office (Dock Master) would have more trouble than they could ever imagine......in-excusable!

I must say if someone moved my boat without my permission the would be a sh"t storm of monumental proportion dropped on them. (Emergency excluded of course)

Some must not comprehend the average marina manager mentality or read their marina contract.

I was asked to leave a marina while pulling in last spring because the manager insisted in telling me how to handle my boat while docking. I insisted that it was my responsibility and insurance that would pay if something went wrong....tell me where to dock but not how.

He asked me to leave even before all the lines were on...the guy with the trawler in front that we almost hit because the manager want paying attention was shocked as he was out helping and couldn't beleive the manager was forgetting the spring line.

Some managers and dock masters have a bit of an ego problem.

Some will say I have one also..but like I said...push comes to shove..it's me and my insurance that pays....

There is no written marina contract(see above). My reading of the owner is nothing positive, perhaps something negative, would come from confrontation. I spent a professional life enthusiastically confronting people in and out of Court, but always consider the whole situation, before barging in. Attacking the staff is pointless, they just obey owners instructions. My best solution was to get out of there. I made other arrangements, gave a month`s notice, leaving him to connect the dots, which he did.

BruceK said:

There is no written marina contract(see above). My reading of the owner is nothing positive, perhaps something negative, would come from confrontation. I spent a professional life enthusiastically confronting people in and out of Court, but always consider the whole situation, before barging in. Attacking the staff is pointless, they just obey owners instructions. My best solution was to get out of there. I made other arrangements, gave a month`s notice, leaving him to connect the dots, which he did.

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Very pragmatic Bruce. What is the name of the problem marina? It always good to know where not to go, in addition to where you should go.

BruceK said:

There is no written marina contract(see above). My reading of the owner is nothing positive, perhaps something negative, would come from confrontation. I spent a professional life enthusiastically confronting people in and out of Court, but always consider the whole situation, before barging in. Attacking the staff is pointless, they just obey owners instructions. My best solution was to get out of there. I made other arrangements, gave a month`s notice, leaving him to connect the dots, which he did.

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Sometimes people don't precisely interpret instructions and I have no idea if this is one of those cases as I doubt seriously it is. But a possibility is owner says to reassign, employees move the boats without contacting the boat owners. Now in that case the owner didn't actually instruct them to do as they did. As to avoiding confrontation, nothing wrong with that. Had they not connected the dots, I would have made sure they knew the reasons. Perhaps then next time they'd contact owners as appropriate.

"I am thinking I will go bow in next time and back out."

Usually much easier to control as well as far more privacy while aboard , a big PLUS!

FF said:

"I am thinking I will go bow in next time and back out."

Usually much easier to control as well as far more privacy while aboard , a big PLUS!

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+1 We have a very "sociable" dock & to back in is just asking for too much company.

There's a couple of YC that we frequent, they have a bow in only policy. For visiting boats that can sometimes be a problem getting services to the boat if their cables aren't long enough.

mbevins said:

There's a couple of YC that we frequent, they have a bow in only policy. For visiting boats that can sometimes be a problem getting services to the boat if their cables aren't long enough.

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Any particular reason they state for bow in only?

Are they in a high cross current area?

psneeld said:

Any particular reason they state for bow in only?

Are they in a high cross current area?

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I've seen it done for a couple of reasons. First is because of depths. Some marinas only have the quoted depths in the back half of the slips. That's as far as they dredge.

Some just like uniformity.

Then some that are covered do it to keep engine fumes and exhaust outside and even as a small bit of fire precaution.

Depths I can see....the rest are pretty weak.

What fire hazard? Do they turn away side exhaust boats? Wind blows exhaust in all directions. Uniformity?.....holy you know what....I guess double ender sailboats confuse them.

I could see bad cross currents might result in a lot of broken pilings.

So far I gave never stayed at a marina with those kind of rules....thankfully...anyhow, the depth thing is a no brainer.

psneeld said:

Depths I can see....the rest are pretty weak.

What fire hazard? Do they turn away side exhaust boats? Wind blows exhaust in all directions. Uniformity?.....holy you know what....I guess double ender sailboats confuse them.

I could see bad cross currents might result in a lot of broken pilings.

So far I gave never stayed at a marina with those kind of rules....thankfully...anyhow, the depth thing is a no brainer.

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I'm talking covered slips on the fire and exhaust. Don't see many double ender sailboats in covered slips. As to where I have heard the exhaust and fire as a concern it's been on lakes where over the years those with covered boathouses have gotten much more scared as have their insurers. Typically those built today have openings in the middle. Those on houseboat lakes have had the most problems. Now you do get less exhaust and noise if the engine and exhaust are toward the open side, not in the middle. The fire concern is a belief, probably wrong, but on their part, that most fires originate from the engine room. So having it to the outside reduces the risk to others and allows more time.

You don't run across this much on the coast.

However, we do dock sometimes in a building enclosed on three sides. Everyone does dock bow in. With people warming up or cooling down diesel engines and most exhaust toward the stern it lessons both noise and exhaust fumes. The uncovered boats right beside this building all dock stern in. One other difference other than the building is that the boats inside have full walk ways on all sides, those outside only have short finger piers on one side.