How much do you love your boat?

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

I figured that I would post on the great lengths that I have gone to; to ensure that my boat will be safe and out of the weather.

The first hurdle that I had to overcome was that I only had a two car garage with a wall in the way. It is amazing what you can do with a few...scratch that...a lot of beer and two crowbars. Once the wall was destroyed and rebuilt to the side, the garage was now a three car or rather a two car/ 1 boat garage.

The second hurdle was the fact that I have a 90 degree driveway with a 16' drop-off that would not let me get the boat into the garage. My Mechanical Engineering buddy Big E designed a mounting plate for a Warn works 3200ACR winch; which was bolted into the concrete with six 1,500 psi lags.

With a little finesse and a lot of careful measuring and planning, loading the boat in and out of the garage is now a breeze. Thanks especially to my wonderful wife for letting me "modify" the garage and to two of the best buddies in the entire world - "Uncle Pete" and "Big E" (Tommy would have helped, but he was working on his Mustang..broken rear axle from racing! imagine that..working on a Ford!) So does anyone else have proof that they love their boat as much as we do?

Check out the entire process in the following links!
I made this a little easier. Here is a webpage with all of the pictures listed below.
Boat Project Page

Individual Pics on these - same as above.
Garage Before
Garage During Deconstruction
Winch in the floor
Backing In
Jack Knife Alignment - Scary
Boat all Happy

[Smrtz]

Oh man.... FULL RESPECT!!!!!

Thats awesome... Im dealing with a similar situation right now in that I have a single car garage and I always kept my other boat in it ... but it isnt long enough for the outback. So the plan was to extend the garage and make it long enough for the boat . Behind the garage I have 4, 50 ft pine trees the roots are making it impossible to lay my concrete to extend the garage I will have to have all the trees cut down all the roots dug up and fill put in before I can lay the cement pad to extend the garage on. Just so this is clear I put my boat in indoor storage for the winter second weekend in October... I havent even been able to look at it!...Its killin me..

I know it'll be worth it just so I dont have to be away from my boat next winter!

104 more days until it comes out of storage...

[smokedog2]

Well,

You forced me to beat the forum into submission. Since I cannot post on this darn thing my pix are under:

www.boatpix.shutterfly.com

There is a pix of tube wars – finally, and a couple of my boat storage. I owned the storage before the boat and now rent out about half of it. My hope is that the property will appreciate about as fast as the boat depreciates, leaving me net zero in 10 years.

I’ll let you know if it works. The building coat about the same as the boat. I hade to reinforce the main support posts and fix a few leaks.

Yep it is huge and yep it is full.

SD2

[smokedog2]

Oh,

I had to build a road as well. 1000 feet of road. OUCH!

SD2

[smokedog2]

If you look close at picture 3 the left side is the tail light of a trailer and the right side is the hitch to my 18' Lund. When I say huge, I mean it.

Exhibit A for the theory that any man can fill any garage in less than a year

SD2

[Smrtz]

Lets all face it......It really is a small price to pay. Any task you have undertaken, any extra cash you have shelled out....totally worth it!

[AL02REDMOBLSV]

Thanks Smrtz a lot of prep and planning went into the entire project. Also, I forgot to add, the reason for the winch and chocks (by the way, the chocks are rated for a firetruck on a 13 degree grade) is that my driveway is sloped about 7-10 degrees towards the 16' dropoff! I know that it is over-engineered, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!

[Yellowmobius]

That looks like quite the project. I am glad to say I am lucky my garage did not need any modification (Glad to have the swing-away hitch). I have a little slope to my driveway I just back in at a good angle and then straighten out. I have about 2 inches on either side of the trailer when it goes through the garage door, depending on what we have been up to in the boat this can be a challenge at times.
As far as care for my boat I think I rate right up there with the best. It gets a wipe down every time it comes out the water, always stored in my garage, waxed frequently, vacuumed often with an occasional carpet shampoo. If the carpet is wet I always throw a fan in it over night to dry the carpet out.

[smokedog2]

I have found a few minutes work on the hull bottom while it is still in the water is way easier than 10 minutes after it is out of the water.

I just add that to the estimated pick up time.

SD2

[Smrtz]

Hey as far as wiping down the hull goes I have been concerned about that because I wipe it down with the rest of the boat of course the part of the hull that rests on the trailor I can never get at... anyone have any input on how I can wipe down or rewax those spots cause i figure those spots are where the most rubbing and removal of wax will occur

Thanks