Dockwa

[beckyatdockwa]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Becky, has Dockwa tried testing your own systems by making a phone call to marinas or on a VHF to see what happens?

Have you thought about becoming a Sponsoring Member of CF to support the forum or even offer a good discount to CF members who use your booking system? I look forward to your reply.

Pete

Hi Pete,

We don't need to secret shop our marinas; we have a very open line of communication with boaters and are constantly discussing with them their experiences - the good and the bad. That said the Dockwa team members (at least half of us) who cruise or book slips for regattas get first-hand experience as well. With 500+ marina partners, boaters communicating with us is extremely helpful. I'll add to my to-do list to add an FAQ to the site that addresses this - that marinas can take reservations via phone/etc while on Dockwa, and that boaters should let us know if a marina refuses to input a reservation request because of Dockwa. I'll also brainstorm on what else I can do to dispel this misconception amongst marinas and, thus, boaters.

We can't offer a discount to CF but I'd be happy to take a look at sponsoring! Seems like a great community. Thanks so much for letting me weigh in.

Cheers,
Becky

[beckyatdockwa]

Hi Bruce,

I'm sorry about those experiences, and we'd like to learn more so we can get better. If you're able to remember which marinas those were, I really encourage you to message me so I can work with my team to follow up. Barring that, please let me know if there's anything I/we can do that might help.

Thank you,
Becky

Originally Posted by Bruce Beard

Our experience with marinas using Dockwa has been unpleasant enough that we now look for places that do not use the system!
I can’t tell you how many times a marina has refused to book a mooring or dockspace and simply referred us to the Dockwa app for answers to questions about availability.
It’s too bad as we also use online reservation systems to book campsites and have a much better time with them.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by CFS Klopas

The excuse is, if what Becky is say is correct, Dockwa marinas take offline reservations too. So Dockwa doesn't know if slips are open.

What Dockwa needs to do is adjust their marina employee interface so the employees can manually reserve a slip tjrough Dockwa and make clear to the marinas that it would be a good idea to use it.

I've worked on similar systems. Just about all are intended to be the whole booking solution, to be used directly by the customer, AND to be the booking tool used by the marina staff when doing a booking by phone or in person... that's the only way the system can maintain a minute-by-minute knowledge of availabilities. So I'm sure that Dockwa has some sort of admin or marina view for entering/checking/managing bookings.

I suspect that in the mentioned case of phoning in, and being told to use the website... the person who answered was not actually in the marina office; they could have been out on the docks, or working the store, or on errands, etc. (Because they sometimes use the booking system as a way to reduce office staff )

More generally... camping and boating are simply more popular, and the popular spots book up fast. In our neck of the woods, you have to book a summer campsite in late winter/early spring, or you could be SOL.

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

The most dangerous thing you can have on a boat is a schedule.

Man, I have to say this is probably the most quoted cliché in sailing. I literally crack up every time someone uses it.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Man, I have to say this is probably the most quoted cliché in sailing. I literally crack up every time someone uses it.

that and "a boat's like taking a shower in $20 bills" along with "the two happiest days are when you buy a boat and when you sell it!"

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Palarran

Man, I have to say this is probably the most quoted cliché in sailing. I literally crack up every time someone uses it.

Glad I got a laugh. I almost put it in quotes to indicate it's a cliché. But it's still very true, and a quick way to remind folks that cruising can be unpredictable. Unless of course your idea of cruising is to book a two-week vacation at a resort marina less than a day's travel from your home dock. In which case I guess it makes sense to do so months in advance. Not my idea of fun.

[u4ea32]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

I fear this may be a trend.

I'm old enough to have seen the same thing with campgrounds. Used to be you'd pull up and they'd find you a spot. In busy areas or times, you'd call ahead for that night's site once you had a feel for where and how far you wanted to go.

Now you need to reserve, using a third-party reservation system, months in advance.

Like camping has largely done, cruising is moving away from the model of going wherever and whenever you want. In many areas, it's already become more about the destination than the journey. Plan your two-week stay in the marina/resort months in advance. Travel directly there and tie up.

I only hope I don't live long enough to see it reach all the best cruising grounds.

I go camping like I go cruising. We go simple, with stuff we need rather than everything we have at home, and we go find beautiful and uncrowded places. Out RV is the truck I originally bought to tow our sportfishing boat: a Ford F350 dually long bed 4 door crew cab 4x4 V10. I removed the back seat and built a custom pillow top bed, so we can sleep in the cab. Great views of the stars, easy to run the engine for a bit for heat, well insulated for snowy nights. We cook on the tailgate, and the open truck bed (no shell) allows us to take bicycles, collect huge piles of wood logs or tumbleweeds for fires.

This allows us to find places to sleep that are in beautiful places, rather than campgrounds. We can and have gone for weeks and months (7 the longest so far). In the East, during the summer, we may need to stay in campgrounds. But after October 1or thereabouts, NE campsgrounds close, but we have still found nice places for the night (or a couple) all over the rural areas of New England.

Southeast is pretty much all camp grounds. Just the way it works. But we have still always been able to find some great place. We never settle!

[Palarran]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Glad I got a laugh. I almost put it in quotes to indicate it's a cliché. But it's still very true, and a quick way to remind folks that cruising can be unpredictable. Unless of course your idea of cruising is to book a two-week vacation at a resort marina less than a day's travel from your home dock. In which case I guess it makes sense to do so months in advance. Not my idea of fun.

I'm also glad you knew how funny that saying is

In regards to making reservations and sailing to a schedule though, why I personally think it's such a funny saying is how mostly untrue it is. We sailed 6200 nautical miles over a 4 month period this year and had constant crew changes. Every 2 weeks we had to be somewhere that was 1000 to 1500nm away. The schedule was very tight and I followed it pretty much to a tee - a plan that was put together at least 8 months beforehand.

An untrained crew, poorly maintained boat, and most importantly an unprepared mind is much more dangerous than a schedule.