Trailerable boat

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Gedion

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Hi.... greetings all.
Newbie here... so pardon me if my question might sound silly.
I have been around trailerable boats for many many years. Since then have owned 2boats.
I’m looking to upgrade now to a bigger boat. Merry fisher 695.... again a trailerable boat.
However, my main purpose for this upgrade is to berth her as I find with age etc nowdays it just gets harder for me to launch n retrive boat at ramp.
My question is: Some suggested that if a boat is a trailerable boat it would be better to be on a trailer rather than being berthed/ moored.
ie. if you want to berth the boat then get a bigger boat that supposed to stay on the water that can’t be put on a trailer.
Is this a fair statement? If yes, why is it the case? I thought all boats trailerable or not are made the same?
Again, please ignore if my question is too silly to be answered. I tried google and read reviews in relation to this but found no articles in relation to this issue.
thanks.
 
Hi and welcome. My guess is that someone has said that because it’s almost certain cheaper to keep a boat on a trailer. And if on a trailer it won’t need anti fouling or washing to remove the inevitable underwater mess if kept in the water.
But as you have already found out, it’s much easier to use a boat kept in a marina or on a mooring.
 
Not necessarily cheaper - If you have a boat at the larger end of the "trailerable" spectrum you could be actually increasing costs.

I had a Merry Fisher 755 Marlin few years back. It was trailerable, so no crane charges, but the boat was really too big to launch and retrieve every time you wanted to go out - so I had a berth...so I had to antifoul...

In summary - I had an expensive trailer doing nothing - far more expensive than a lift in/out; a berth and the normal maintenance costs.

Oddly enough, having had the above and some 10m coded boats before that, I'm going back to basics - a 16ft Rib on an unbraked trailer - keep it at home and keep the hassle to a minimum . Can't remember where I saw it (probably on here) The smaller the boat the bigger the fun! :)
 
Hi my situation is similar to yours. Earlier this year just before lock-down i bought myself a 16' Orkney strike liner with the intention of launching/retrieving every time i wanted to use it but since then i have had a heart attack giving me issues at 69 years old. I belong to a club which has a slipway and i have a mooring at the club which the more i think about it the more i am inclined to keep the boat afloat. It must be physically less stressful to row out to my boat than to launch/retrieve the boat. Keep it on the water.
Jim
 
seastoke said:
Depends where you want to berth , you could do dry stack . Do you want to sleep on it .
Click to expand...
seastoke said:
Depends where you want to berth , you could do dry stack . Do you want to sleep on it .
Click to expand...
Hi mate. Im aware of other options and costings as well. Question is still on... is trailerable boat will be an issue if left on water (berth)? As to compare with a non traileable boat. Just worried tht maybe i should get a non traileable boat if my intention is to berth her.
 
seastoke said:
Depends where you want to berth , you could do dry stack . Do you want to sleep on it .
Click to expand...
Hi mate. Im aware of other options and costings as well. Question is still on... is trailerable boat will be an issue if left on water (berth)? As to compare with a non traileable boat. Just worried tht maybe i should get a non traileable boat if my intention is to berth her.
 
Hi mate. Im aware of other options and costings as well. Question is still on... is trailerable boat will be an issue if left on water (berth)? As to compare with a non traileable boat. Just worried tht maybe i should get a non traileable boat if my intention is to berth her.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Hi and welcome. My guess is that someone has said that because it’s almost certain cheaper to keep a boat on a trailer. And if on a trailer it won’t need anti fouling or washing to remove the inevitable underwater mess if kept in the water.
But as you have already found out, it’s much easier to use a boat kept in a marina or on a mooring.
Click to expand...
Hi mate. Im aware of other options and costings as well. Question is still on... is trailerable boat will be an issue if left on water (berth)? As to compare with a non traileable boat. Just worried tht maybe i should get a non traileable boat if my intention is to berth her.
 
jim.howes said:
Hi my situation is similar to yours. Earlier this year just before lock-down i bought myself a 16' Orkney strike liner with the intention of launching/retrieving every time i wanted to use it but since then i have had a heart attack giving me issues at 69 years old. I belong to a club which has a slipway and i have a mooring at the club which the more i think about it the more i am inclined to keep the boat afloat. It must be physically less stressful to row out to my boat than to launch/retrieve the boat. Keep it on the water.
Jim
Click to expand...
Jim...so in ur opinion it doesn't matter is it is a trailerable boat or a non trailerable boat? There is no issue here for me to buy a trailerable boat and keep her afloat most times in the year?
 
peteK said:
The easiest solution when I had a trailable boat was in the water all summer and bring it home in the winter.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what my intention is.
so in ur opinion it doesn't matter is it is a trailerable boat or a non trailerable boat? There is no issue here for me to buy a trailerable boat and keep her afloat most times in the year?
 
I used to keep my 20ft Mariah bowrider on a mooring after getting fed up with trailer launching and recovery. I made a lot more use if her as a result. However, what i also did was buy a second hand drive on floating boat dock, so that i did not have to antifoul. Yes there was an outlay for this, but i sold it after selling the boat a few years later and did not lose much money.
 
For us the benefit of trailering was to be able to sample various parts of the Med and Adriatic So we have experienced Croatia, west and east coast Italy, Spain and of course the UK. Trailering does get wearing and you will eventually get a larger boat and a fixed mooring but I miss the flexibility that trailering brings.
 
I'm pretty sure the glassfibre of a Merry Fisher 695 will be the same as a 30' or 40' Merry Fisher.

You won't be doing it any harm by antifouling it and leaving it in the water.
 
DavidJ said:
For us the benefit of trailering was to be able to sample various parts of the Med and Adriatic So we have experienced Croatia, west and east coast Italy, Spain and of course the UK. Trailering does get wearing and you will eventually get a larger boat and a fixed mooring but I miss the flexibility that trailering brings.
Click to expand...

Same for me, I just went and got myself a second boat so that I could trail again when I fancied it. Luckily the second boat can be kept at home, so there is very little extra ongoing cost in owning it beyond a bit of DIY servicing.
 
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