[LIforrelaxin]

Something I have learned over the years, is that All Marina's ask when you store your boat, when you will want it out... Most of them also send a notification asking for the same information as spring comes into view....

The question is when does this information really mater..... Because it doesn't always matter.....

If your boat like mine is stored outdoors in a field or storage yard... Then what you tell them in the fall is very important, because its position in the yard will change... If you tell them your going to want it early... they don't surround it with other boats, and block it in....rather they position it to be available early...

If your boat is in a storage building, that has good access with no blocked slots there really is no importance to these request...because once the have the building open, they can get to your boat....

What is important is when you talk with the service dept, and schedule the actual pick up..... What has to be scheduled is the service work... you can answer their requests, and it helps them plan, but until you confirm a pick up time with them, they are really not going to plan to do a darn thing with your boat....

My worst nightmare was storing my boat with Winnisquam Marine... I told them in the fall I would want the boat right after ice out... When they sent me the spring request I told them I want the boat immediately after ice out... I then called and set my appointment to pick up the boat and confirmed it with the service dept. I set the pick up for a Friday, the ice was declared out over the prior weekend... I called Monday and double confirm that I would arrive to pick my boat up on Friday, and they confined they would have it ready... Thursday afternoon, I got a call, that they couldn't get to my boat...Not because they didn't have a mechanic to work on the boat... But because despite the fact that I told them I would want my boat immediately after ice out, and despite their best efforts to make sure it wasn't buried in the storage yard.... It was in fact buried behind several other boats in the storage yard, and while they hopped they could move enough boats around, to get it out, they didn't want to promise me that my boat would be ready that weekend...

I wasn't mad at them... I don't think they where negligent... the bottom line was despite best efforts on everyone's part, there is only a limited amount of room for them to move around and store boats... and well... the odds just weren't in my favor that year.... so they asked, if we could hold off a week and I told them it wasn't problem...

What the moral of this tale... work with the marina, give them your best guess, hope for the best... and realize Spring is a busy time... we all want to get to on the water as quick as possible... realize the only way to gurantee that will happen is to do the work yourself... if you leave your boat at a marina, their are many things that effect how soon you get your boat..... and sometime you have to end up disappointed...