About to bring her home, docking solution?

We are getting close to bringing our new to us Endeavour 44 Power Cat home. We are in a pretty sheltered bayou, no wake issues etc. but have been through some strong storms and subject to storm surge (Crystal Beach on the West coast of FL.) I have been reading about SlideMoors and they seem to have favorable reviews, I am curious if any of you folks have any experience with them. Easiest Boat Docking System - SlideMoor | The Evolution of Boat Docking Kinda pricey but looks like something that could eliminate the multitude of lines I had holding our old houseboat in place.. Any thoughts or experiences much appreciated!

Regards, Scott

Should work well in calm waters. Not enough padding IMO, for dealing with boat wakes etc.

Ted

I thought it seemed like a pretty slick system until I got to the part that said"

"Rough conditions may loosen and tighten lines causing damage or sinking of boat"

http://www.slidemoor.com/content/ConditionsForUsingSlideMoor.pdf

Looks good to me but:
I'm skeptical when someone says "maintenance free" and about the ability of the slides to easily go up and down after some time in a saltwater environment.............without any maintenance.

Congratulations on that power cat purchase. I have a 30' power cat and I think you'll be happy with your choice. As for your question, I've been using Tideminders for years with great success:

TideMinders: freedom from line adjustment during storm surges, tidal changes and high-winds.

If you have pilings surrounding your slip, I'll give a second on the Tide-Minders. A heck of a lot cheaper and functionally equal, as long as you use good rope and have the Tide-Minders are not encumbered various devices screwed into your posts.

Kurt: It's about time we have a Motorcat aboard here on TF. At trawler speeds, it certainly has trawler assets.

I live on a canal, so have absolutely no surf, wake issues. I went with 16 foot slides to deal with up to a 12 foot surge. Used 40 foot long by 10 inch diameter pilings, Side bolted in pairs, offset about 12 feet. So one piling is further in the ground and the other one. There is also a catamaran that purchase slides you can see in one of these pictures. You just have to be careful the boat cannot rock and hit the slide. They make a 6 inch standoff. I found the slide more guys to be very helpful. Yes they are pricey, but considering there is no shock load ever on the boat due to wind and storms it allowed me to take my normal use of eight pilings down to only four, but really only to morning points. Message me if you have any questions or want other pictures. I plan to leave my boat on the slides up through a category three hurricane. With additional ropes and anchors of corse. Another benefit, as you can see from the pictures, is you can build your doc within a few inches of the boat.

healhustler said:

If you have pilings surrounding your slip, I'll give a second on the Tide-Minders. A heck of a lot cheaper and functionally equal, as long as you use good rope and have the Tide-Minders are not encumbered various devices screwed into your posts.

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Add us to the satisfied Tide Minder users. Our home marina is in a hurricane zone (Texas gulf coast) and strongly encourages them. We're used them for three years with good results.

Thread on conceptually related products, here:

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s42/tide-eliminator-ring-most-heavy-duty-its-ilk-33121.html

SlideMoor seems to be closest in concept to Tide Slides, which are also semi-expensive.

-Chris

We are in the same situation as you, CMgreen. No wave action and all a no wake area. I do like the Tide Minders, if we move forward on the SlideMoor's, I may pick up a couple of the Tide Minders to add additional lines as a safety during hurricanes. I appreciate all the thoughts!

Regards, Scott

INteresting thread I have seen both of these in my travels but never used I may be wrong but think I would want a little more padding

but then again would the padding take away from the integrity?

healhustler said:

Kurt: It's about time we have a Motorcat aboard here on TF. At trawler speeds, it certainly has trawler assets.

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Hull speed seems to be about 8 to 9 knots on my Motorcat with a fuel burn of around 1.5 gph total at 1500 rpm (60hp outboards). The problem is my throttles keep jumping forward for some reason

siestakey said:

INteresting thread I have seen both of these in my travels but never used I may be wrong but think I would want a little more padding

but then again would the padding take away from the integrity?

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Padding is not needed, the boat never gets more than a 1/4 from the bumper, so there is no "fetch" time for the boat to start moving fast to need a bumper. The only time you actually use the bumper is when your docking. Once you have the first line as tight as possible it is not possible for the boat to bump! Its attached to basically a hardpoint.

Scottbwheeler said:

We are in the same situation as you, CMgreen. No wave action and all a no wake area. I do like the Tide Minders, if we move forward on the SlideMoor's, I may pick up a couple of the Tide Minders to add additional lines as a safety during hurricanes. I appreciate all the thoughts!

Regards, Scott

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Dont know if you will need them. The weakest points become the deck cleats and the cleats on the slides. I have installed larger cleats on mine, and larger bolts. I have also upgraded to using 9/16 Kevlar rope. Its OSHA rated to 33,000. So the bolts will sheer off before i have to worry about rope issues. According to my engineer buddy, i should be able to pull laterally on the four bolts that hold the cleats to the slides with a force of 14,000-18,000 before the bolts are at risk of failure. Multiply that by two sets of cleans, and those 8 bolts could hang the boat just about. Remember with these the boat has no loose ropes which can allow it to get moving and create any type of shock load on the mooring equipment. Call slidemoor up and go look at one locally. I can get you the regional reps number if you need it.

Good idea on the Kevlar rope, I have some left over from our jeeping days! Did you upgrade both the deck and slide cleats? I have spoken to their local Rep., very helpful guy.

I pulled the trigger yesterday, ordered a couple 12' y rails and 30" slides. My neighbor did the same, he's getting the 40' Pilot house Trawler Cat (Endeavour).

We had to get the longer slides because the rub rail is 21" below the gunnel cleat...
Grumble.....

Scott

I think every dock situation is a little different so the best solution varies. I like the slides where there's a dock adjacent. I like the rings where there are freestanding pillars. Wake, tides, floating or non floating, all need to be considered. Ultimately I am going to over protect on my home dock through whatever mechanism is needed and far more padding than needed. Also choice of lines varies by application. At home, we have padding on dock and fenders on boat and it can be rough with wakes. We don't, however, have heavy tides and haven't had anything like the 13-15' others have had, even during hurricanes.

At our slip, there is virtually no wake and we're able to tie on both sides of the boat. The slip is wide enough that we can protect against it hitting the sides and the pilings are far taller than will ever be needed. Now the big question there with fingers on both sides and a fixed dock, do you center the boat between the sides or tie it tighter to one side and loose to the other. For convenience of getting on and off, we tie it closer to one side.

I am going to add another post as a satified Slidemoor user. I have been using them for a little over 3 years now without having any issues. I went with 14' tracks because that is all that my pilings would accommodate without any kind of extensions or modifications. I did add another midship cleat to line up with a piling instead of going with placing a chock. I am on a 50' wide canal so I have basically not wake or swell action to contend with. I opted for the slidemoor system to cut down on how far my boat sticks out into the canal. I felt that it was better to spend a few extra dollars to prevent my boat from getting hit by giving others more space seeing as how there are boats on both sides of the canal.

kwmeyer13 said:

I am going to add another post as a satified Slidemoor user. I have been using them for a little over 3 years now without having any issues. I went with 14' tracks because that is all that my pilings would accommodate without any kind of extensions or modifications. I did add another midship cleat to line up with a piling instead of going with placing a chock. I am on a 50' wide canal so I have basically not wake or swell action to contend with. I opted for the slidemoor system to cut down on how far my boat sticks out into the canal. I felt that it was better to spend a few extra dollars to prevent my boat from getting hit by giving others more space seeing as how there are boats on both sides of the canal.

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Wifey B: Wow. Strong. They turned your boat on it's side and are still holding it up.

Not sure why that keeps happening.

Great simple and inexpensive system. I bet someone with a bit of time could replicate the system with some old golf balls for a few bucks. Just sayin.

mixman said:

Congratulations on that power cat purchase. I have a 30' power cat and I think you'll be happy with your choice. As for your question, I've been using Tideminders for years with great success:

TideMinders: freedom from line adjustment during storm surges, tidal changes and high-winds.

Click to expand...

Fotoman said:

Great simple and inexpensive system. I bet someone with a bit of time could replicate the system with some old golf balls for a few bucks. Just sayin.

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The last time I played golf and hit the ball in the lake it did not float. lol.

Update: I installed the SlideMoors and am very happy so far, no more messing with spring lines etc. just untie from two cleats to leave and re-tie upon return. Not too hard an installation either. Thanks for all the input!

Scott

Scott that is great! I can tell you that you will love them! They are friend/marriage savers when you are coming back to the dock after a hard day of "work" and your crew is having trouble holding their beer and wine in one hand and tieing up with the other! This is the simple solution, drive the bow into the first one, tie it up, push the stern into the second one, tie it up. (Then of course go down and retie both, but at least the boat is safe and secure.) If you ever have any questions don't be afraid to call them direct, they are very responsive!

Charles