Sailboats not wanted

[tjw in va]

My wooden sailboat in located on the James River near Richmond Va. l00 miles up river from Norfolk, Va. It needs to be hauled, the other day I approached Jordan Point Marina yard manager Jason to ask for a haul out, he informed me he would not haul any sailboat, his reason, they use to many of his jack stands, he would only haulpowerboats,however, He had numerous powerboat ready for the chainsaw using many jackstands,probably that was all that was holding them up. There is no other marina for l00 miles that will haul the boat, is this another message that we are not welcome as I have read in the woodenboat mag about woodenboat vs. fiberglas

[R.I.Singer30]

All I know is that it took a call to all the boathaulers in R.I.area to get my boat moved 15 miles(Thanks Frank, he was the only one). No one wanted to move the "wood". I think I'll be looking into my own trailer if I keep having these problems. Good luck to all,Dan L.

[Rocky]

Because it's a sailboat or because it's wood?

[Figment]

Something's fishy there. "too many boatstands" is a silly reason.

As a businessman, why not just CHARGE MORE if a given boat is going to use more resources than others? For example... local marinas are beginning to add a surcharge to boats that are equipped with air conditioning to cover the skyrocketing electric bills.

why turn away business, especially if he's got the monopoly you describe? there has to be some other harebrained reason.

Anyway, you have my sympathies. Take solace in the fact that the discrimination cuts both ways, however.... powerboaters in the barnegat bay area (your neck of the woods, rocky?) are in uproar over a recent decision to declare much of those waterways as "no wake" zones.

[ 04-09-2003, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Figment ]

[Ian McColgin]

Just to try out the devil's side for a moment:

It could be that the yard had a problem caused by some sort of ignorance or unsuitable gear.

Crosby (of all placed) refused to take Goblin out on their travel lift as they'd once had or maybe by waterfront legend invented an older boat that rolled its keel out in the slings. Goblin came out just fine on other travelifts but after the first year I was going to the Island for Benjamine and Gannon anyway and the railroad is nicer to the boat.

Granuail actually was dropped from a travelift (before I bought her) as the forward sling was too far forward. Actually an understandable mistake if they were picking her up with the masts in place because even with the head stay down, it would be hard to jam her up against the closed end close enough to get the forward sling in a good place. I've never tried to take Grana out on a travellift and I'm not sure I would unless we could tie the two slings together.

Unfortunatly, when a place gets a hair up about anything, it's hard to reason, but if there's any way you can talk to the folk after looking at and measuring their gear and being sure that it's really suited to your boat, grab some out of the water pix and have a try.

G'luck