How far away is your boat?

[n36511]

In the coming two years I plan on relocating my Carver 355 away from Atlanta and down to FL. I wanted to get some feedback from those of you that live a good distance from your boat (my travel time will be 8 hrs driving or half a day flying). What are some things I need to keep in mind when doing this? Hurricanes are a huge concern...however I think I can plan around that. I am more concerned about the weekend to weekend checks that I do on my boat now. Do you have someone at the marina, or someone you know occasionally check on her?

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[ksanders]

I live 4 hours from my boat.

I have an alarm system that keeps me informed in real time of critical system statuses, and several cameras onboard that I can view when away.

That said, boats take maintenance, you know that. The biggest risk in my opinion is when you have your boat a distance from you is that the maintenance does not get done anymore.

What I have found successful is to spend "maintenance days" on the boat. No trip planned, just puttering and keeping up on things. I probably spend 30 nights or so on my boat a year just doing maintenance and projects. You could do it in less time but for me the maintenance is part of the joy of owning a boat, so I take my time and enjoy just being on the boat.

 

[Rogerh]

Not sure where you are planning to make your port but you might want to consider one of the locations that has a haul out type marina. They put your boat in the water before you get there and take care of it when not usually in a hanger type building with racks for boat. Check out North Light in Niceville. North Light Yacht Club - Niceville Destin Florida Marina
Kind of expensive but all the worry is gone and the building is rated for hurricanes.
Good luck!

 

[Scary]

My boat is now only 1 hr away. The boat was in Seattle 16rs of hard driving away, or a flight and rental car. The adventure of boating in a new area was a lot of fun providing you have the needed time from home. I later moved the boat a little closer to Oregon only 12hrs away, same problem with needing several days to use the boat. I maintain my own boat so weekly maintenance is not possible when you have to fly or drive hours to your boat. This means the first day is blown cleaning and taking care of those nagley little things that just happen when don't use your boat often. I read somewhere that boats get used more often the further from home they are. If you want a boat to never get used, have it docked behind your house. This could be true, however I believe most boats get used as condo's. In my marina 99% of the boats never leave the dock, in my last marina, my boat was referred to as the boat that leaves the dock.

 

[alormaria]

20 minutes by car.

 

[Marin]

Our PNW boat is only 100 miles away. We go up to it almost every weekend year round unless I'm traveling for work or we're in the UK/France.

It's a slow boat so by keeping it up north we can go out into the islands for a weekend. If we kept it closer to home we would only be ably to go to the islands once or twice a year. Also moorage is much less expensive up north.

 

[Nomad Willy]

About an hour by car. I do TF and Starbucks on the way.

 

[Moonstruck]

My boat is usually about 11 hrs. drive away. The closest it has ever been in 6 hrs from home. In Florida your insurance carrier will probably require you to have a licensed captain, and a hurricane plan. I am docked next to a licensed captain's charter boat. I pay him monthly to keep a check on my boat, adjust lines, and move for haulout in case of named storms. He's a great guy, and has offered to do it for free. I would not feel good about listing him as responsible party and not pay him. So I just continue the payments. There is a certain comfort level there.

When I don't have a licensed captain to look after it, I have the boat hauled when I am away. That satisfies the insurance company. My boat has never come home. Nor did my last boat. We prefer living in the mountains, and boating on the coast. One of the bad things about being some distance away is the coordination of getting work done. That is also one of the good things as you will learn the area very well. You will get to know people who can help you in many ways not even related to boating. It is really nice having relationships with people from the Chesapeake to the Keys and Bahamas. There is always someone to call when needed.

You will have some hits and misses, but I will guarantee that you will get to know the area and it's cruising grounds.

 

[Rusty]

For a number of years, our boat was about 800 miles away. We lived in San Francisco, the boat lived in Seattle. Fortunately, for me, I flew for enough for work that trips to Seattle for my wife and I were free all the time. Now the boat is 10 minutes away.

We would visit the boat at least once a month, more in the summer. Sometimes for fun, and sometimes for work (those trips I usually made by myself). The big issue for us was maintenance. We had to pay to have work done by someone else that we could have done ourselves had we been closer. And that can really get expensive.

The other challenge for us was storage. There was no place in Seattle for us to keep the boating related things we only need occasionally, so we hauled it all around with us all the time.

When would take the boat for a week or more, I would generally fly up the weekend before and do what needed to be done to make sure the boat was ready to go, then fly home, then fly back to work.

Not ideal, but due to the unique circumstance we were in, it worked for us. I like the new arrangement better. Last weekend the sun was shining so we took the boat out, motored 10 minutes, dropped the anchor, made lunch, lounged around for the afternoon, and went home.

 

[ddalme]

My slip is 50 minutes away

 

[Steve]

20 miles away. Just off of the GICW at mile 57 West of Harvey Lock (New Orleans)

 

[Art]

99.8 miles - door to slider!

 

[MurrayM]

Two songs on the radio

 

[BlueYonder]

12 miles

 

[Pack Mule]

20 minutes from home. There almost every afternoon after work and on most weekends .

 

[markpierce]

Twenty-five minutes and $5 toll away, but boat's property taxes are one-third lower.

 

[Tomas]

1500 miles. We live/cruise her 7 or 8 months a year and leave her for 4 or 5 months. We disconnect the shore power and close all thru hulls when we leave her (and the last 2 years we have had to winterize). We allow a month at the front end for upgrades and recommissioning. We allow about 2 weeks on the back end to close her up. We also do improvements/upgrades while underway. When we leave we lock the doors and leave a key with the marina. Dock mates have been kind enough to check on the boat and send pictures.

 

[Ski in NC]

50 feet from where I sit now in Cudjoe Key.

75 feet from the house in NC.

If in ATL, coastal southern to mid SC down to N. GA would be my search area. Maybe even JAX. Get inland a bit at a marina with haulout, and you should be in good shape for hurricane season. Very few hit from Jax to Charleston.

 

[Heron]

30 minutes. I have a "security" cam, but the boat is behind that tree on the left, next to the schooner....lol...

Washington Cam

http://www.pamlico.com/washington.html

 

[Underway]

1,243 miles. On the first of May she will be awakened from her winter slumber in a heated building, freshened up, and thrown in the water. Four months later, she goes back to sleep.

 

[CPseudonym]

60 miles and still too far away IMO. Working on closing the gap.

 

[MV Content]

4,706 miles. Hmmmm.....

 

[chester613]

15 minute drive for me. I'm usually there every night, sometimes to listen to the Yankee game on the radio, have some take out with the wife, clean, fuel up, pump out, any excuse to get down there. We set our goal, each season to use the boat every weekend. It usually doesn't work out that way, but we try.

 

[Vashon_Trawler]

About one hour and 45 minutes from my home to the marina. I made sure to introduce myself to some very nice liveaboards in an adjacent slip who were willing to call me if there are any problems. Wish I was closer...

 

[BruceK]

It was about 25 minutes, short drive, short walk, short row out, to its swing mooring, about 1km from home. As of this week, it`s 45 minutes easy drive, on a marina at Brooklyn NSW on the Hawkesbury River, with ready access to great cruising grounds. Permanently, if it works out.

 

[GFC]

About 9 minutes from home to the boat. 11 if I don't hit the light right.

 

[healhustler]

Looking out our bedroom window, I can see my stripped down project boat.

 

[bunker7]

2 minutes.

 

[N4712]

4.5 Minutes.

 

[windmill29130]

2.5 hours, Why Florida, when you have the Georgia coast closer?