tophatyachts.com

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:23 pm**

hi all
one more :idea:

BOAT BAG
has anyone use it?
does it work?
8philip8

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:12 pm**

I've seen them around in Pittwater, but they all seem to look rather shabby after a while. In reading the information on their website, they avoid the "How long does the bag last" question quite like a politician.

The RLYacht forum has an article on making your own from Bunnings parts. http://www.rlyachts.net/tips_boatbag.asp

The departure from the mooring seems easy enough, but how about arrival in a 30 knot wind? Not so easy methinks, but still a good way to save on the inevitable antifoul!

Michael

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:27 pm**

Hi Guys

Heard a whisper Maritime are going to ban them !Why ?

navigation hazards
:lol:

up sets the fish

Pollutes the water with additives

Sounds like :mrgreen:

at work

Cheers Bear

Posted: **Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:04 pm**

Hi All,
Boat bags were all the rage 10 to 15 years ago. They did work.
They were easy to get in and out of. There was a rope on either side at the back that you used to pull the boat into the bag with and then just pulled up to the quarters. They usually had a floating chlorine dispenser that had a pool tablet in it. The chlorine killed everything. They took up no more space than the boat they were intended for.
At one stage Maritime were going around sampling the water and fining boat owners if they had anything different to seawater in the bag, even fresh water. Yes fresh water is a pollutant.

I'd check with maritime to see if they are legal and how to use them if you're thing of getting one.
Cleaning off your boat in the water is also a no no.
I was thinking how practical those small floating docks are. Why not just raise the boat out of the water on the mooring. You don't need antifouling at all, you can have a perfectly smooth bare fibreglass hull, the boat can't sink.
Greg

Posted: **Tue Mar 15, 2011 10:37 am**

Dolphin wrote:Hi All,
SNIP I was thinking how practical those small floating docks are. Why not just raise the boat out of the water on the mooring. You don't need antifouling at all, you can have a perfectly smooth bare fibreglass hull, the boat can't sink.
Greg

I looked at two, Sea Pen, which is a great system creating a dry dock system. The other was a lift system, which was $27k for an 8m boat weighing 3 tons. That's 24.54 years worth of antifoul at today's prices. Plus, both these systems need to be cleaned of barnacles at some stage and I'd hazard a guess that they're not as easy, or cheap to clean as an anti-fouled boat.

Still, they're great ideas if they were affordable for an inexpensive boat such as a Top Hat.

Michael