Cleveland dockage (Lake Erie)

[Baddawgg]

Hi gang, I'm brand new here. I am dying to buy a boat for next season but all of the major marinas here in Cleveland (Whiskey Island, Edgewater, etc) are closed down for 2023, and won't let me know if I can get a slip for 2024 until January or March.

It's driving me nuts! I have the money and desire to buy a boat, but it won't fit in my condo, so I can't do that until I know I have a slip for next summer.

Does anyone here have any insight into the annual availability of dock space? Is there a lot of turnover from year to year, or do people wait 2-3 years to find a slip at the major Cleveland marinas?

I live in a high rise 100 feet from the shores of Lake Erie and from my balcony, I can see the marinas in Cleveland. I can be there in 10 minutes, door to door. I could go to Lorain for a slip but that's a 40-minute drive, and a long haul if I want to go to the Flats in Cleveland.

Thanks in advance!

Mike

[Jammer]

It's frustrating.


Generally marinas will not take you seriously until you actually own the boat and so it is difficult to gauge the actual situation.


What you want to do is have a contingency plan. Maybe you have to keep your boat in Lorain for a year until you can move it where you want. Not the end of the world. You will find out more about the pros and cons of the local marinas once you're staying in one of them, and that may inform your choices.


I don't know about Cleveland specifically but what I can tell you is that the situation in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior is that there are slips available in all the major metro areas but in some cases there may be a brief wait (usually less than a year) to get a slip at a particular marina. A problem that sometimes arises is that if a slip is vacated mid year you may have the difficult choice of whether to pay for the balance of the summer even though you already have a usable slip, just to be in the place you want to be and get your foot in the door.

[Baddawgg]

Thank you for the excellent, if not uplifting, advice. I hope it doesn’t come to that but in a few months, I’m going to have to decide on buying a boat or not.

Appreciate the input, thanks much. Fingers crossed.

[Ixium]

I know the ones around me say January and onward before they can tell you because they give the previous years people a chance to drop a deposit down to reserve their slip again, then opens to public mid winter.

[Love and Luck]

Depending on what size boat you are planning to buy, check out Northeast Yacht Club. It is located about where Bratenahl turns back into Cleveland on the east side. I think you can go up to 35’ there (we have a 27’). Don’t think swanky “yacht club”. We have required work hours and the bar is ‘put $2 in a box and pour yourself a beer from the tap’. You won’t know for sure if you have a slip until Dock Day in March, but it is very likely.

Dock selection goes by seniority and you have to be there in person. However, once a member has a dock it is theirs as long as they are a member. Because of that there are ‘float’ docks available, meaning an older member has a slip they don’t want to give up, but aren’t using their boat that year, so a newer member can pay for and use it. We joined in Nov. 2021 and were able to get a dock in March 2022. We’ll be offering our dock up to float next year, as we’re leaving to cruise the Caribbean (on our 41’) for a couple of years.

Annual dues are affordable, we have our own lift, winter storage is free/cheap, and there is an extensive workshop (including sewing machines) for members to use. There are always members around to help.

There are a few cons. It’s called Northeast because when the wind blows from that direction, the marina gets pretty beat up. You’ll spend about $500 your first year on a complex, required tie-up system. We took some damage due to being in one of the worst slips in the marina our first year (we were the last boat to get a slip our first dock day!). However, members are very helpful and now we have a new skill - fiberglass repair!