Questions for those who dry dock

[H2OBoy]

I am in the process of purchasing a new place on the lake and will be moving my boat to a marina for dry dock storage. For anyone who does this, I have some questions. Do these places generally have battery chargers available? Do they normally offer a service to wash down the boat after use? I am fairly anal about my boat so I am obviously concerned about the long-term effects of dry storage. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ilmmct]

In this area (NC coast) dry docks have power and the jet boat owners have educated the marina staff to do their engine flush procedure.

Not sure how detailed the boat cleaning gets but I have seen them do basic rinse off of the owners boats.

 

[Matt Phillips]

Based on your location above, I'd presume you will be boating in fresh water. if that's the case, then you'd only likely need to rev the engines a couple of times once the boat is on the lift. If you don't have electricity on the lift there are options for solar chargers (I rigged one for my '09 232 that keeps the house battery charged while mine is in the wet slip at the lake). Also, depending on your dock, there may be freshwater piped down to it and I'd imagine you could wash your boat with that.

Again...Lots of assumptions there on my part, but just trying to give some ideas.

 

[H2OBoy]

Based on your location above, I'd presume you will be boating in fresh water. if that's the case, then you'd only likely need to rev the engines a couple of times once the boat is on the lift. If you don't have electricity on the lift there are options for solar chargers (I rigged one for my '09 232 that keeps the house battery charged while mine is in the wet slip at the lake). Also, depending on your dock, there may be freshwater piped down to it and I'd imagine you could wash your boat with that.

Again...Lots of assumptions there on my part, but just trying to give some ideas.

Thank you for the reply and thoughts. You are correct that I will be in fresh water, on Lake Oconee in GA. I should have clarified that the storage I will be using will be in a dry slip inside an enclosed storage facility (on a rack).

Likely here: http://waterfrontonlakeoconee.com/marina-new/

I will be relying on the marina staff to perform any services once the boat is out of the water.

 

[MattFX4]

Thank you for the reply and thoughts. You are correct that I will be in fresh water, on Lake Oconee in GA. I should have clarified that the storage I will be using will be in a dry slip inside an enclosed storage facility (on a rack).

Likely here: http://waterfrontonlakeoconee.com/marina-new/

I will be relying on the marina staff to perform any services once the boat is out of the water.

I highly doubt they will have battery chargers or access to power while in the rack. I checked on dry stack storage like that here on lake Allatoona and they did not have an option to connect to power. They lift the boat up in to those racks with a huge fork lift. Someone would have to crawl up in to the boat and plug it in if were even an option.

 

[tdonoughue]

I think it depends upon what type of dry dock you have at your location. If there are racks, yes, I agree with @MattFX4 . However, at my dry dock place, my boat is stored on my trailer in a storage shed thingy. I have a light, light switch and one outlet in my bay, so when they put it away I plug in my charger...

 

[Evildwarf]

When we dry docked on Allatoona the marina lovingly placed your boat on an elevated rack using the large forklift as previously mentioned. End of service.
It's a good way of keeping a bowrider but there are limits to what services you can expect. Perhaps you can arrange for a wash down procedure....but it will probably cost you and I'm not even sure a busy marina would do such a thing around here. The volume of traffic in and out of dry dock is very high and the marinas have their operations pretty well dialed in.
If you want to have power and access to your boat when off the water perhaps wet slip or storage at the marina on your trailer are better options...

 

[SCSTWG]

I store my boat at the marina on my own trailer. I use the boat weekly and haven't had an issue with battery drainage. That said, I intend to install a solar charger for those times that the boat sits longer than expected. I like this arrangement vs. the rack, but I think the rack offers better security. I have not had any issues, but in theory someone can pop the cover and help themselves to anything in your boat. Additionally, there are people backing in their boats next to yours and they could have an accident. It seems there are pro's and con's to any storage setup.

 

[rkluck]

I checked on this at a few marinas. The ones I looked at you will not have a electricity etc. while in the rack. They did prep the boat for you (before you got there), washed the boat and run water through the engines. They offered winterizing and pretty much and service you wanted to pay for. I never asked about how they keep the batteries charged.