changing marinas

[Marcie Robson]

Our boat is located in Huron, Ohio on the huron river with access to lake Erie. We live closer to Cleveland and are looking into dockage there. The question I have is about the type of docks available. Im familiar with floating and fixed with docks running down the side of the boat. One marina which is state owned has a walkway down the middle with no docks on the sides. You back into the dock and board the boat from the stern and because we have a H25 have to climb over the rail, we looked at other boats trying to imagine this because we have an outboard also and wonder if theres a seceret to this. The mooring is different also it consists of 2 pulleys attached to posts at the end of the slip and lines run through the pulleys to the bow of the boat and then back to the dock at the aft of the boat with 2 other lines crossed at the stern. We tried to imagine what this setup is like when docking, my husband more familiar with powerboats is still mastering forward docking(were the entertainment for the evening) of course the wind dosnt help and we have to navigate around a power boat that should be in a longer slip. The new marina says this type of docking is better because its on lake erie and can get pretty rough even behind the breakwall, you dont have the boats pounding against anything because theyre kind of suspended in the slip. We would like to find all the angles before we make the 45 mi. sail in the spring. The other thing i noticed is that you cant hear the halyards slap against the mast over the sound of the squeaking pulleys..sounds like seagulls anyway..which is better than the train waking you up in the middle of the night in our present marina. Thanks in advance...Marcie

 

[Wayne Fredrick]

Not the Best Arrangement

Marcie, I have my boat on Sandusky Bay on Lake Erie. I believe I know the marina you are thinking about moving to. I docked at a marina in NJ with the same type of arrangment and it is not the easiest in the world to handle. Getting on and off the boat is not very easy, especially with gear. You also have to deal with backing the boat in every time you come back from a sail, and if the conditions are not perfect, backing a sailboat is not always the easiest thing to do. Also, consider that sailing out of Cleveland is limited to either sailing behind the breakwall or outside of the breakwall. Don't know if you hit the island or not from Huron, but think how far away they will be from there. Those docking arrangements are also very noisy. Unless you sail alot during the week after work, or do not stay overnight on the boat on the weekends, you ought to consider staying with the drive or if you are dissatisfied with Huron look at one of the marinas on Sandusky Bay such as Dock of the Bay, Battery Park, Cedar Point, etc. Just think, from there Put-in-Bay is a couple of hours away.

 

[Elaine]

another idea

We moved from Sandusky Bay to the Cleveland area a year ago. I am aware of the marina you mentioned in Cleveland and agree with the last post. We found that the Bridge Docks in the Rocky River met our needs. There are other docks along that river, and in the Clifton Lagoons though, that might be right for you. In our case, we used our boat more in the spring and fall with it being so close to home. We could sail for a few hours after work and avoid the tiring ride when the sail was over. ElaineH26