Leaving Boat in water
 

I am moving to the lake but the house only has a slip with no lift. The lift is on order but it will probably be at least 3 to 4 weeks before it is installed so I am wondering how everyone on here feels about leaving their boat in the water for a couple of weeks. The thought of it makes me a little nervous but I guess as long as the bilge pump is working and the battery is charged it should be ok right? The boat is 97 Supra SunSport.

I would not do it.

I wouldn't say I wouldn't do it b/c I know I would if I was in your situation. I just would take as many precations as I could. I would however take it out if a bad storm or something was coming. So have trailer ready if need be and just do everything you can to protect it when at the dock. Padding padding padding.

My boat sat in the water for years. Pull it out and clean it, check in on it, make sure the bilge pumps, and that it won't get beat up on the dock. It'll be fine.

I would not worry as long as the bilge is working. Check the bottom of the boat and make sure you don't have any small get coat blisters or rough chipped spots because all that will get worse sitting in the water. If all checks out, it will be fine. Just be prepared to clean the bottom of the boat after you get the lift.

I wouldn't do it, for the plain and simple fact that I would worry about it non-stop and it would drive me crazy. I'm sure the boat would be fine, but I would kill myself if something happened to it. I've left mine in the water for 3-days, and that was the most I was willing to. How close is your ramp? If it's not far, it shouldn't be that big of a hassle. If you know you are going to be using it for multiple days straight, I would be ok with it. But if it is going to sit and not be used for a week, why not be safe and just pull it out??

We used to keep our boat at the marina at the local lake and it was never and issue. Our lake is really clean so scum or algae wasn't an issue. I think it all depends on the water it's sitting in. My boat is quite low in the water as well ( 2000 MB) and it did fine being on the outside even thought the lake can get quite rough. I would say you'll be fine as long as others have said regarding the bilge being bypassed on the batteries.

I have rented a wet slip for a month a couple times. We did it for convenience during summer when we had our houseboat. Just make sure your bilge pump and battery are good, and you don't have any major leaks beyond normal drip at the packing gland. It's really not a big deal. I wouldn't do it for more than about a month at a time for fear of blistering, but I know a few people that leave their boats floating for months with no bottom paint. As long as you at least start the motor to charge the battery every week or so, you'll be fine.

Make sure the bilge runs in auto if you have a Perko switch that you plan to leave off. Many bilge pumps are wired thru the Perko, even from the factory, and will not run with it off. You need to leave the Perko on, or run a dedicated power wire.

As long as your dock is not on a waterway where it is going to be constantly bashed by other wakes, do it.

An old friend of ours left his in all summer long for several years without a problem. His dock was a good drive from the ramp and he didnt live on site, jsut came down on the weekends.

I know many people wet slip their boats all season, you jsut have to take the necasary precautions. FWIW, it would still make me nervous unless I could check on it daily.

Seems like the older boats do just fine in wet slips besides the normal hull staining issues. I have heard a lot of things about gel coat blistering and it is almost always on newer boats. I have had my 99 Tige in the water for two weeks one time. I would do it again but would have waxed the crap out of the hull first to make life easier on me after i pulled it out.
It sure is nice to have a boat locked and loaded anytime you want to go play!

It sounds like most of the people who have done it havent had any problems which is what I wanted to hear. :)

My perko does turn off my bilge so I will have to leave that on so I think I will hook up a trickle charger just to be safe. The slip is pretty protected from the open water and I will be able to check on it every day so I dont think I will have any issues but I am paranoid so I needed some convincing. lol.

I have mine wet docked 40mins away and see it about every 5-7 days... Never had an issue, 3rd year doing. I have two bilges which are hooked to a float sensor so if it rains or what not they turn on and then turn themselves off. Works great. I have yet to see someones boat sink sitting at a wet docking slip, although I have seen a couple storms wipe out an entire marina on the other side of the lake. If you can see it every couple of days and just do your do-diligence you should not have any problems at all. And it is such a convenience to have it already in the water ready to go!!!

IT'S A BOAT!!

Geez, guys. Their made to float. They will float without you being there 24/7.

I'm on my 5th boat, 3rd inboard. Kept them all on the lake for weeks, even months at a time. Pull it out every couple weeks & clean it up. Wax the hull so the lake funk doesn't stick very well. I don't even use bumpers, just suspend it in the slip. It can't hit anything. And it's ready to go out anytime.

On my Vride the bilge pump works when the Perko is on 1, but not on 2 (which is all the stereo gear). So I just make sure the Perko is set to 1, cover the boat & walk away. We have 17 boats on our dock, including 2 Vrides, a VLX, a Sanger v-drive, an X2, a Centurion Avalanche & a bunch of I/Os & outboards. When I lived on Sammamish we had 38 boat slips, lots of Malibus, Mastercrafts, Supras, Nautiques, etc. Not one of them ever sunk. Yea, you have to keep them covered, make sure their tied up well, check on them every day or two, etc. But they do just fine living on the lake.

Don't sweat it. If you have no leaks in the hull and your bilge and float switch work then you'll be fine. If it stays at the dock and not at a mooring make sure your dock has lots of padding and bumpers and such. I'll be leaving tomorrow night and mine will stay in the water for a bit over a week on a buoy. No big deal. If you leave it in long term just pull it once a month, let it dry out, clean the bottom, and you'll be fine. My family has a waterfront place on a lake up North and they leave their I/O (more chance for leak than an inboard, bellows, etc.) in the water about 4 months out of the year. No bottom paint, no blisters after 17 years of that, no stains, nothing. They don't even pull it at all during the season and it'll sit for weeks with no one at the cabin. Just a thorough cleaning at beginning and end of each season. As Bill says, they're made to float. Have fun and don't sweat it.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Gel Coat blisters. I don't know how long it takes before you have to worry about that but, fiberglass boats without anti-fouling paint are susceptible to blisters. You probably won't have to worry about that, just thought I would bring it up.

Guess I wasn't paying attention. Blisters were already mentioned. Sorry.

My boats have always sat on the water for a couple of months at a time.
I guess I have to agree with Bill. It is a boat.

Got to a marina and you will see fiberglass hulls that have literally sat in the water for decades. The convenience of having your boat ready to go far outweigh the risk IMO. My first two boats pretty much were in the water from April to Oct without any issue. It helps if your slip is in clear water, but any hull staining can be easily taken care of with some regular cleaning/scrubbing while in the water and some acid based products (toilette bow cleaner, hull cleaner, CLR) when you take it out followed up with a coat of wax. Blisters are the main risk and would keep an eye for that and you really won't know if your hull is prone or unless you know persons with the same hull in the same lake that have kept them in the water.

i have mine sit in the water, the docks are full padded all the way down the dock, and then for my own precaution i put a couple side pad's on the side, then what i do is tie it real snug against the dock where the side pad's are constantly against the dock, the less movement the better imo. it's held up pretty well so far, been couple months, every 2 weeks i'll pull it out and store it on trailer for a couple days and clean the outside and front bottom from the algea build up.

oh and i bought a nice new cover just for mooring, make sure you have a real good one that ties snug around the boat my boat would be destroyed if it wasnt for my new cover, i live just off lake michigan (store the boat on inland lake) it gets really bad lake effect weather over here, had my boat tied up and had 60-70mph winds bad rain storms and i checked on it each day after the storms and guess what thing looked like nothing even happened, well... except the rain came down so hard one of my polls fell and had to get a bucket and clean out all the gallons of water that was sitting on top of cover, but no leaks, cover was still on like a champ, no dings/scratches.

IMO you are better off with some slack in your dock lines. Tight ropes break.

If you are only able to tie to one side then it is important to use 3 lines. You probably only need 2 fenders. G5's would probably be ideal. Try not to tie from your boat cleats other than the spring line. Use the U bolt on the bow and one of the rear U bolts from the transom. The from a cleat towards the rear half of the boat run the line forward to the dock. This keeps the boat parallel to the dock. If you can get nice fabric fender covers. Bare Fenders will rub the gelcoat and leave scuff marks.

The most ideal though is to do something like Bill mentioned. Keep the boat away from the dock. When I grew up we had a slip with a dock on only one side. There were pilings about 25 feet away from the dock on the open side. We actually had lines that stayed on the dock. The lines went from the dock to a clip. Then from the clip it dropped down with rope about 4 feet where it was tied to chain. The chain layed on the bottom and ran over to where it was secured to the pilings right at the bottom. The kept the boat about a foot or 2 from the dock at all times. If you have a slip with docks on both sides just use a line on both the back corners and then 2 lines that go to a clip for the front U bolt.

We left the boat in the water for 6 months a year. We probably took it out 2 or 3 times a year to go on trips. We did this for about 10 years. It took till year 8 or so before any blisters formed. They aren't really that noticable and weren't the kind that popped. They really didn't affect anything.

I agree with others. It is a boat. If you have it tied up correctly and check on it every couple days you will be fine.