Choosing where to base power catamaran. How important is a nearby haulout facility?

[maardsma]

Hello! So grateful for all the advice and resources here.

I live in Illinois and I'm planning to buy a power cat and base it perhaps in Ft. Myers area. I am a pilot and plan to fly down to the boat whenever I can, and take longer trips when kids are out of school, etc. I want access to boating weather year round, and interesting destinations to explore.

I am interested in the Lagoon 43 PC model. This has a 21 foot 3 inch beam. I know some marinas cannot haul this out because their travel lifts are not wide enough.

How important is it to base the boat near a facility that can haul it out for maintenance? How far (in motoring time I guess) away from such a facility would you be comfortable basing your boat? How rare is it that a maintenance issue comes up that requires a haulout asap, vs being able to cruise for a few days or more before addressing it? How much maintenance gets done with the boat in water versus hauling it out?

Is there significant benefit in basing the boat directly at the marina that does the primary maintenance on it? Like rent a wet slip at a marina that also can work on the boat?

How do boat owners in Florida protect their boats when a hurricane is threatening where the boat is based? Maybe that interacts with where to base it and what kind of facilities I want nearby?

Thanks in advance!

Mark

 

[sjisailor]

Welcome! I'm replying mostly to bump the post & question, as I have no direct experience in FL.

The one thing I do know (because I've seen the FL boilerplate clauses left in some PNW insurance policies) is that haul out may be required by your insurance policy in case of a named storm. I expect others will add more reflection and detail.

As for haul out in general -- setting aside the hurricane questions -- I'd say it depends, and I have often gone 20+ nm for service at a boatyard. Variables like their schedule, availability, services, what they'll let you do, can you stay board if needed, and ease of access are all more important to me than distance as such.

 

[mvweebles]

Good question. Only thing I can add is the warm Florida waters require more frequent hauling than you might be used to. Diver ever 3-weeks and haul/painting every year if you want to keep the bottom in good condition.

Getting a slip is a bigger issue than finding a yard. I committed our of TPA (Tampa) for years. Decent connections and an easy airport to navigate. Ft Myers is nice, but for airports. TPA is more consistent. Flights to Sarasota and Ft Myers come and go depending on economy. Downtown St Petersburg is 25-mins from TPA and there are quite a few marinas within a 15-min drive from downtown. If you're a private aircraft pilot, there is a GA airport in downtown St Pete (Albert Whitted Field) and of course there is PIE at St Pete/Clearwater

I am not familiar with yards in Ft Myers but would think there are good options even for a cat (21 feet isn't too wide in today's terms - same as a 65 foot monohull).

Peter

 

[BruceK]

Haulout ability may be less limited at marinas which have a "railway" type cradle system instead of/as well as a Travelift system. My previous marina had one capable of taking large wide boats, and charged for it accordingly. Not common to get a problem requiring urgent haulout but it happens, relatively unpredictably. Wonder if the shallow draft extended hulls of a power cat give you the option of beaching if things go bad.

 

[Blissboat]

With respect to scheduled passenger aviation, Peter has accurately summed up the relative merits / demerits of the Tampa Bay area vs. Ft. Myers. As to haul-out facilities, both metros have adequate resources, though there are more options in the Tampa Bay metro area. As to hurricane planning, if the requirements of your insurance policy include hauling out for named storms, then you'll need an accessible facility and a haul-out contract. However, as we saw the 2022 Category 4 Hurricane Ian, even boats stored on the hard in the Ft. Myers area were at grave risk. That would have been true in the Tampa Bay area as well, had Ian veered north by a few degrees during its approach to the west coast of Florida.

If for whatever reason hauling out an advance of the storm is not an option, the alternatives are to try to run away from the path of the storm, or to secure your boat in the water at the most sheltered location accessible to you. For boaters anywhere on the Gulf of Mexico coastline, trying to run away ahead of the storm's arrival is a fool's errand. Until mere hours prior to landfall, forecasting the point of said landfall remains unreliable, making the initial decision (which direction to run) almost equal to a coin toss. Then, factor in the amount of advance time necessary to 1) make a decision, 2) locate and secure an alternative dock or anchorage, 3) prepare and move the boat any meaningful number of miles to its new location, 4) re-secure the boat, and 5) evacuate. If you are an absentee boat owner who can drop everything and get aboard the boat immediately, three days might suffice, but in the world of hurricane track predicting, three days is an eternity - your decision making inputs will be changing so continuously as to be almost meaningless. People who lack experience of trying to reason with hurricane season seem puzzled why boaters in Florida don't just move their boats out of the way of an approaching hurricane. That's why.

The one big advantage that the Ft. Myers area has over the Tampa Bay area (as well as over most other points along Florida's Gulf coast) is the Caloossahatchee River and Okeechobee Waterway system. Running away from the coast to some point well inland still requires advance planning and preparation, but at least the boat will be further away from the coastal velocity zone where winds and storm surge are at their most destructive levels.

All that said, the Lagoon is a wonderful boat for cruising the west coast of Florida, and the region is chock full of beautiful, interesting destinations. Would be interested to hear what you decide.