How do you spot your boat at a busy Marina?

[zipper]

Your friends/family are meeting you at your boat for the first time. Where do you tell them to meet you? Parking lot, dock, boat? If boat, how do they find your boat without a map? I mean, stand in the parking lot and look over all the similar colors, blue and black, on all the similar boats.



Not an issue for the owners of the bright orange Yamaha unless orange colorblind. But what if it were blue or black?. I can drive by on Lake Shore Dr. and spot the boat to see if all looks normal without too much looking around to find it. How do you distinguish yours from others from a distance?

 

[Babin Farms]

I’m lucky enough to have the only red boat with a tower on our home river and our marina is small so no issues. Our friends that live along the river know it’s us cruising past by the different sound of the engines as we pass their place.

 

[Bluewater272]

I used to take a google maps screenshot, and draw a little arrow of the path they need to take on the docks.

 

[Joshua Miller]

I have them meet in the parking lot and I try and get to the ramp about 20-30 min prior so I can already have the boat prepped and launched.

 

[WREKS]

Your friends/family are meeting you at your boat for the first time. Where do you tell them to meet you? Parking lot, dock, boat? If boat, how do they find your boat without a map? I mean, stand in the parking lot and look over all the similar colors, blue and black, on all the similar boats.

View attachment 140705

Not an issue for the owners of the bright orange Yamaha unless orange colorblind. But what if it were blue or black?. I can drive by on Lake Shore Dr. and spot the boat to see if all looks normal without too much looking around to find it. How do you distinguish yours from others from a distance?

i luv that orange

 

[drewkaree]

For your marina, anyone with an AR such as myself, tell 'em look for the tower on my boat, and to verify when they get closer, look at the transom (ass end, for instructions to my non-boat-lingo friends) for the boat name.

Otherwise, I'll text them a pic of my boat.

 

[2kwik4u]

We're the only boat on our lake with a light gray bimini.

We don't have a slip, but all our boating friends on the local lake know it's us when locating us in a cove, near the dam, or at the Marina's.

 

[212s]

We trailer so they either come with us or meet us at the ramp...no issues.

 

[Seadeals]

Just blare Ozzy Osborne’s “Mama, I’m Coming Home” through the speakers on repeat until they find you.

 

[Sotally Tober]

Just look for the stripper pole...

 

[HangOutdoors]

Easy, It is the one without a slip on a trailer waiting in line to get to the launch !

 

[Betik]

I rarely go far enough from the boat to point where I cannot maintain visual contact.
Our lake has no marina and we don’t have too many friends, so this has never been a problem for us.

On some Bimini pictures though I recall finding my boat because of the position where I except for to find not that I can pick up my boat from the crowd.

 

[Canuckjetboater]

Your friends/family are meeting you at your boat for the first time. Where do you tell them to meet you? Parking lot, dock, boat? If boat, how do they find your boat without a map? I mean, stand in the parking lot and look over all the similar colors, blue and black, on all the similar boats.

View attachment 140705

Not an issue for the owners of the bright orange Yamaha unless orange colorblind. But what if it were blue or black?. I can drive by on Lake Shore Dr. and spot the boat to see if all looks normal without too much looking around to find it. How do you distinguish yours from others from a distance?

@zipper ..... no problem at all. I have a 17" holographic owl suspended from our bimini top that twirls in the wind. You can see it from quite a distance as it reflects in the sun. All our friends know what to look for but you can see it for a mile anyway! He had bells too but someone cut them off - lol - poor guy. Bought it because we had a problem with sea gulls (rats with wings) crapping on our boats. They stay a long way away from ours now. I get asked more questions about that damn owl than my supercharger! Picture attached.

 

[zipper]

@zipper ..... no problem at all. I have a 17" holographic owl suspended from our bimini top that twirls in the wind. You can see it from quite a distance as it reflects in the sun. All our friends know what to look for but you can see it for a mile anyway! He had bells too but someone cut them off - lol - poor guy. Bought it because we had a problem with sea gulls (rats with wings) crapping on our boats. They stay a long way away from ours now. I get asked more questions about that damn owl than my supercharger! Picture attached.

It was probably me that cut those bells off. Just kiddin. Most likely someone who could not sleep with those wind chimes. Being at a marina with many people spending the night, we secure our halyards to the lifelines or the toe rail and not the base of the mast, until we go out. It keeps them from clanking on the mast all night. I have seen people get on others boats to secure loud halyards while unoccupied.

 

[ChrisM]

Not hard to pick out when you are usually the only Vortex on the lake..!!!

(Rusty Rudder, Lake Norman)

 

[Canuckjetboater]

It was probably me that cut those bells off. Just kiddin. Most likely someone who could not sleep with those wind chimes. Being at a marina with many people spending the night, we secure our halyards to the lifelines or the toe rail and not the base of the mast, until we go out. It keeps them from clanking on the mast all night. I have seen people get on others boats to secure loud halyards while unoccupied.

@zipper. agree 100%. I am one of those guys who has secured the halyards as (unlike some who like the sound) I could not sleep with the constant clinging. As for Mr. Owl I should have cut his ball$ - I mean bells - off myself!

 

[NewBoater]

I’ll just have to look for the giant red tower lol

 

[Babin Farms]

Or just tell them the only Yamaha that's backed into it’s slip.

As you can see, the marina is SUPER busy ?

 

[tdonoughue]

Similar to @212s : Mine is on its trailer in a stall (where we have ramps and valet service). So I just have folks meet at my stall number. We load the boat, get everything ready, then call the valet and tell the driver to go park down by the water. They dump us in, we pick up the driver, and off we go.

Recovery is the reverse of launch.

 

[PeterB]

We have people text or call when they arrive and either walk out to the parking lot to get them or pick them up at the fuel and rental dock as there is usually room to pull up on the side for quick pick ups and it’s easy for visitors to find. A few times we’ve picked people up at different boat ramps on the lake as a few have courtesy docks
For food delivery we usually walk out to the marina parking lot and meet the driver