Undercover or outside

Who's undercover and who's outside ?

Undercover. Only minus is more spiders.

Edit: thought of another minus - have to hinge tall items

South Texas. It's hot. Under cover. Sooooo glad I did it. I can actually hang around the dock without roasting. Don't have to run the AC all the time.

Bird poop is only negative so far.

Outside. We use our boat year round, going up to it almost every weekend. If it's stormy or too windy to go out we stay on it as though it was a getaway cabin on the water. So even if we don't go out the boat gets used, the systems turned on and run, and so forth. We would not do this if the boat was in a boathouse; who wants to sit in a boat and look at the inside of a boathouse?

There are no covered slips in our harbor, only open slips and boathouses. The view through all the boathouse doors is other boathouses or, from the innermost row, shoreside commercial buildings.

The shot below is the view from our boat in its slip. There are folks nearby who paid well over $1 million for the exact same view from their house.

Keeping the boat outside adds a lot to the maintenance effort but to us it's well worth it. It might be different if we used our boat only a few times during the year.

Outdoors - but very close by!

Inside in the PNW, we have no spider poop, boat stays clean & dry through the long wet winters here. Cooler in the summer heat. Have a nice westerly view with the garage door open.

Outside. There are no covered slips here. I prefer to be outside anyway so you can see things from the boat.

Outside. No covered slips in NJ or Charleston, both places the boat spends considerable time

Outside. Our marina has covered docks but cost would be close to double what we pay for a slip. Wish we were under cover when it gets hot in summer (and for keeping the gelcoat in good shape) but love being outside in the sun during cooler weather. Also it gets really loud under cover, such that you can hear everything people say in normal conversation almost the entire length of the dock.

No roofs in New England. Too much snow. A mooring is the usual parking place.

Outside but looked for inside. Our airdraft would have cost us to much. When we had our Mainship we were undercover in the PNW and loved it. Our only complaint was having to wash the boat in the winter because of the dust. lol. We used the boat 100 plus days/year.

Under cover inside and it isn't costing much extra. After 8 years outside in Alaska covered moorage seems a bargain. We're going to turn the boat around in an hour and do some varnishing.

Wonder if I have room for paravane poles and rig?

cardude01 said:

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Wonder if I have room for paravane poles and rig?

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It looks like you do. One of the the covered slips we looked at had fixed docks and the concern was if the river flooded.....

I'm outside. There's only one covered slip in my marina, and that's for the owners.

Outside as there is very few covered the Eagle would fit and they run at 2+ times. In the winter the pilot house and stern is canvas covered and the front deck is tarped over. However each summer the teak has to be revarnish, front teak deck resealed, and areas repainted. 40 to 80 hours each summer, but we are a live aboard but its better than yard work.

cardude01 said:

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Wonder if I have room for paravane poles and rig?

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Nice end slip cardude . How did you swing that ? Our covered slips are about 40% more than outside for same size slip .

TDunn said:

Outside. There are no covered slips here. I prefer to be outside anyway so you can see things from the boat.

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Covered slips don't seem to be a Maine option. Snow load? Cost of shorefront land?

Slips are also hard to come by in our neck of the water.

Moorings are preponderant and nice IMHO. You swing to the weather. You have changing views. They are less expensive. You know what you have for ground tackle.

But you do have to schlep your stuff out to the boat in a dinghy sometimes. No biggie.

Under cover and glad too, the boat leaks way too much. One of these days I'll get to that part of the list...

Almost all boats in South Florida are outside. There are only a couple of facilities with covered slips and they aren't generally very convenient to the ICW and ocean.

In a covered slip at the cost of about $10 per day including water and electricity. It's tough to beat the comfort and protection of a covered slip, especially with lots of brightwork and canvas.

When we were in the CA Delta, spiders and mud daubers were a real problem in the heat of summer. Now that we're near the SF Bay, no issues with bugs or birds. Just an occasional pair of ducks looking for a handout.

There was exactly one boathouse in Powell River on the chuk at Grief Point. It blew away. I watched it. The only other boat houses used to be up on the lake, they're gone now too. Owners of the damn got nervous about them.

When I was a kid there are all sorts of boathouses on the Seneca canal full of old wooden Elcos, Owens and Chris Crafts. I remember being bombarded by swallows when I went to visit boats in my canoe.

Nope, not a boathouse fan.

Pack Mule said:

Nice end slip cardude . How did you swing that ? Our covered slips are about 40% more than outside for same size slip .

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Just lucked into it. I was actually at another marina, but couldn't get the silly manager to call me back to get the lease finalized. Frustrated, I went to check out this new place and took that covered end slip as soon as I saw it.





Floating dock. Nice synthetic teak deck. Nice view. Breezy. Restaurant with good outdoor bar. I like it.

It's $370 per moth so not a terrible price I thought.

Northern Spy said:

...boat houses used to be up on the lake, they're gone now too.

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Was a time it was solid houses along Arbutus from the bridge to almost the dam.

Seems to me there might have been some at Stillwater also and Ernie Mahood mighta had a float plane in a house out there too. Could be wrong on both counts though.

Covered. 12x30 slip, electric, water included. Great restaurant, for $165/mo. I love this place! No more dang hurricanes ( I was in the eye of three in two years in FL). No salt corrosion, no tides, no coral reefs, and thousands of acres of national forest to cruise, hike and fish. We've got 40 lb stripers here on the Tennessee River. Gotta love it! Ben

With a GB woody, a boathouse is the only logical option for us. Like Kevin, a few houses down, we have a decent view out the back. Boat stays clean and dry.

cardude01 said:

Just lucked into it. I was actually at another marina, but couldn't get the silly manager to call me back to get the lease finalized. Frustrated, I went to check out this new place and took that covered end slip as soon as I saw it.

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Floating dock. Nice synthetic teak deck. Nice view. Breezy. Restaurant with good outdoor bar. I like it.

It's $370 per moth so not a terrible price I thought.

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Wow amazing price

tego said:

Covered. 12x30 slip, electric, water included. Great restaurant, for $165/mo. I love this place! No more dang hurricanes ( I was in the eye of three in two years in FL). No salt corrosion, no tides, no coral reefs, and thousands of acres of national forest to cruise, hike and fish. We've got 40 lb stripers here on the Tennessee River. Gotta love it! Ben

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What Marina is that? We're headed your way next summer!

Outside.

While a boathouse may seem like a good idea where we live, it also comes with risks. A 49' Meridian sank during a 5.5' snowstorm last winter because the snow on one side of the boathouse slid off, unbalancing it, then the whole thing flipped and took the boat to the bottom. The boat was one year old.

Our boat faired better out in the open despite the road being closed for two days and no power at the marina;

MurrayM said:

Outside.

Our boat faired better out in the open despite the road being closed for two days and no power at the marina;

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I'd do my best to have mine on the hard in those conditions.