Lift vs. Floating dockage

[Rickysa]

The marina where I'll be docking whatever 31 I wind up with has regular slips w/ floating dockage or a boat lift in the slip. I'm guessing a FBC w/ Yanmars would be around 13k-15k lbs, for which they have lifts available. Marine growth is a real issue even with bottom paint due to warm temps and a good bit of tidal flow...we've had monthly divers service boats in the past.

Opinions welcome!

[Terry Frank]

Lift.

[SteveM]

Lift

[russell pagels]

Lift,and make it goes high enough for surge protection

[Tommy]

Ricky, as others have said: welcome back, it is great having you back on the Board. I keep my Everglades on a lift down at Atlantic Beach and never worry about it even though I'm 2.5 hours away in Raleigh. We kept the 31 in a wet slip in New Bern at the East Carolina Yacht Club. The Yacht Club and docks are on the well-protected, brackish Trent River, so minimal worries about wind issues or bottom fouling (monthly diver service). The advantage of a wet slip is the joy of stepping off the dock onto a floating boat to mess around, do maintenance, or just talk with a buddy and have your beverage of choice while the boat rocks. Since my brother lived 5 minutes from the marina, he really enjoyed the wet slip as he was on the docks most pretty days. If you are going to be an absentee owner, my opinion is that the wet slip offers no upside (except the insulation factor of warm water under the hull versus frigid air) but plenty of downside.

[Rickysa]

Thanks Tommy, good to be back.

I'm looking at the new docks being built over at Homer Smith's in Beaufort...we kept our other boat there and were happy with things (although we hardly ever went out). We keep a little runabout on a lift at the house and love the ease of just lower-and-go...I wasn't sure about the docking bow-in and access to the stern for removing fish/gear etc. for a 31. I don't see it as problem but wanted opinions on folks that have tried it.

ps...as memory serves, I believe Island Girl ran the Yanmar 6LP-STE 315s...do you have a name of a mechanic should (when) we need one? The boat I'm looking at is running those also.

[Craig Mac]

If I had a choice, definitely a lift.

I do know people that claim they use their boat less after they got a lift, seems just a little extra effort getting the boat in and out of the water.

[Tommy]

Regarding mechanics, we used a diesel mechanic in New Bern to help us with scheduled maintenance issues. When a Yanmar factory bulletin was issued relative to a potential valve issue, I secured the services of our very own Bruce to pay me a visit and make the required adjustments. I'm sure you will have a diesel survey done on the engines and you will confirm that scheduled maintenance was performed by the book. I checked on line and it is reported that Town Creek Marina is still the authorized Yanmar service provider. I don't know if your prior experience there was good, bad or indifferent; and I have no experience with them.

[Rickysa]

I don't know if your prior experience there was good, bad or indifferent; and I have no experience with them.

I'll default to the Golden Rule....

[THESALTYSATO]

I have a Bert 31 on a lift at Crows Nest Marina on a high tide lift boat lift on Atlantic Beach. I agree with the others that a lift is the way to go(no Cleaning).When the tide is out it is easy to step onto the dock- especially when your are getting older. The 2 negatives for me are that I can not run my A/C or heat because it is out of the water. I was told to cut off the sea cocks on the a/c and generator before I pull it out of the water so as not to loose my prime. I run a small Cafrano heater to get rid of the humidity and it seems to work great. I do not have a problem with the prime of the engines so I do not cut them off. I have mine set high enough for a storm surge and the bunks set for pulling in straight which is no problem. My how I have it spaced and just how far you need to pull in, Also you want to be sure you are far enough forward to properly one comment would be to be sure your bunks are properly spaced as you do not want to pull up on a shaft or shaft log, a transducer or anything else. I can get you my spacing measurements or if you are in Atlantic Beach go to the marina and see distribute the weight. I think you would want a lift that is at least a 16000 lb.(mine is 20000) because of boat engines, fuel, water, gear, people, etc. As far as having enough finger pier to get off and on my finger pier goes all the way out to the last pilling so it is not a problem for me. In my situation the only negative was that my 25 foot shore power cord was not long enough and had to add a second 12 foot cord to the pedestal. Pulling in forward is easier for me than backing especially with wind although I have no current to deal with. As far as the comment about Town Creek Marina, I have Yanmars 6lp and I have used Town Creek one time and very satisfied. The mechanic Jeremy is in my opinion is excellent. He is a thinker, courteous, neat and respectful of your boat. Steve the owner is a worker and always accessible by phone or at the marina. Since you are from Raleigh you may know John Jenkins. John just recently purchased a 31 and he uses Town Creek and seems to be very pleased. He is the reason I went there. Look forward to seeing another Bert 31 in Morehead. I purchased mine a year and a half ago after waiting and wanting one for 47 years, Could not be happier.
John

[Marlin]

Bruce, I wrote a length narrative on how I keep both my boats air conditioned 24/7 on a boat lift with the use of a pool pump. I sent it off and it’s somewhere in Pat,s cyberspace, maybe u can find it in this space,thx

[Bruce]

Marlin,
I'll search the Web server but if Pat hadn't put it there or it was on his computer hard drive, that never made it back to me from his sisters house I wont find it. But I'll look.

[Marlin]

I was kidding about Pars cyberspace, I just tried to send it yesterday, he told me about the concept

[SteveM]

Marlin
I'd like to know how to keep the AC going while the boat is on the lift.
It would keep the boat dry and less prone to mildew.

I was thinking I could leave a trash can full of water on the dock and have the boat circulate. However, that looks quite odd and ugly.
Would love to hear your ideas.

Steve

[Marlin]

Steve, I have been cooling my 42, and 31 when they are on the lift by using a pool pump secured to the dock, a piece of 2” pvc attached to a tee onto the suction side of the pump, a check valve threaded on near the bottom end ( replaceable) that is about 12”off the bottom. On the other side of the tee I install a hose bib to prime the pump when needed. From the pressure side(discharge) I plumbed in another3/4” hose bib ,attach a 3/4” Water hose that connects to a bulkhead s/s hose fitting that’s often used as an inlet of a fresh water dockside pressure water system. I hard plumbed a 3/4” Ball cock valve to this fitting ,attach a piece of reinforced poly tubing to the valve ,go the the required 3way ball cock attached to the pressure side of the pump and that’s it. Operation when out of the water is quite easy, open the ball valve connected to the bulkhead fitting, orient the 3 way valve at the pump to allow the pressururized dockside sea water to pass, turn on the 220 vac pump, initially go thru the priming operation, look for water flow coming out of the existing a/c pump disgorge hull fitting , turn on the a/c unit, pop a cold one! I’ve have been doing this for 14 years on the 42 margaritavich and the Bertram for 6 years. Have gone thru several pumps as I live directly on the ocean and stuff kinda dissolves / corrodes in this environment. Have never had an issue . Had a couple sleepless nites initially as I was concerned about a hose breaking and sinking the boat while she is in the lift( not that the same thing couldn’t happen when she is in the water) installed a hi dB audible alarm on the bridge that gets the neighbors up ,which is hooked to the high water part of thevUltra switch Senior designed just for this application. Part of my weekly PM on all my boats is to test all the bilge pumps and the hi water alarms. I also use the bulkhead fitting to attach the descaling system I use every 6 months also as part of my PM system, that’s another story but quite necessary here and in the Bahamas’s !

[SteveM]

Marlin
Thank you for the info.
If you used a limited amount of water to cool the system, then you would not have the chance of flooding the boat. Like my trashcan full of freshwater idea or some other tank.
Or, you pull the plug on the boat, while it's on the lift. That way if you do burst a pipe it's going back out on it's own.

I just searched for descaling systems and found this. Is this similar to what you use?
http://www.rydlymemarine.com/portable-flushing-kit/
This page pdf even shows a diagram similar to what you describe.
http://www.rydlymemarine.com/assets/1/7 ... ctions.pdf
Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure they say!

[Marlin]

The trash can may work for a single a/c unit,don’t know, I have 3 a/ c units and 2 refrigeration units that need cooling water on the 42, there are commercial expensive cooling towers we rent when we put the 62’ into her summer out of the water rehab, they are containers as u kinda describe but have water chillers built into the systems, the exhaust water gets quite hot,about 5$ k . The descaling system shown is about what I use but u do have to connect the pressure side to the inlet of the a/c unit and connect the return discharge to a hose to take it back to the bucket full of barnacle buster stuff, I’m lazy and really don’t like to pry hoses off any more than necessary so I use a 3 way ball cock plumbed to the discharge side of each unit I want to descale, attach the 6’ washing machine hose to the extra ball cock outlet that is normally capped off with a garden hose cap, open the ball cock to allow the descaler to exit into the bucket, the same 3way ball cock would need to be installed on the intake side for a single unit application. My previous narrative details how I connect the pressurerized descaler and I turnaround the 3 way valves to the de scale position but leave the hose caps on all units except the one I want to descale for several hours. On the 62 ,I made a 4 zone pvc manifold for both the pressure side and discharge side and turn the respective valves all conviently located ahead of the motors, they are 7 things that need cooling and some were ganged together at the factory,same theory that works predictably by a captain that is not a gear head as I am

[Marlin]

My bigger boats don’t have bilge /garboard drains and u need to calculate the gpm of the fluid flow as the gravity bilge drain may not keep up with it, I doubt it would

[SteveM]

I was thinking the same thing about the gravity/bilge drain. It may not keep up. I have two drains. One stern, one mid ship.
However, the bilge pumps should kick in as well if needed. And if you are plugged in the batteries would not die.
My son and I were talking about these concepts last night and had a good laugh at the thought of filling up the boat with sea water and submerging the engines. OMG!

[SteveM]

I'd love to take some pictures of your hose connection setup on the 31 for all of this stuff. Otherwise I won't remember how to do it. Looking forward to seeing the boat AND the pool pump setup.

[Marlin]

Many boats have filled with rain water ,caused the /cables lift to break, last hurricane did exactly that on n Atlantic in Lantana,I have an email address ,I’ll try it, send u some images of the contraption