Protect Your Family with a Fire Extinguisher

Posted on: 26 June 2015

A boat storage business does not have to be a seasonal business. In fact, you can operate a boat storage business all year long if you know what you need and how you will operate. If you have decided to start your own boat storage business then here is what you will need.

Dry Dock Storage

This could be a fenced in patch of dirt within a couple of miles of the water, or it could be dozens of self-storage units. If you opt for the self-storage units, all of the units should be large enough to accommodate a medium-sized speedboat, at the very least. You may also want to make sure that your business has several storage units that can contain small yachts and tall enough for the masts on sail boats. If the only dry dock boat storage you have holds little more than a u-boat for fishing, your business will not be pulling down the profits you hope to make.

Wet Dock or Slip Storage

For this type of boat storage, you will need to buy up a big chunk of waterfront. You will also have to build and create the slip stalls for all the boats from which you hope to collect rent. (A slip stall is essentially a parking stall in the water for boats, marked off by vertical poles in the water that your customers can also use to tie down their boats.) Just like dry dock storage, you will have to have several stalls of varying sizes to meet your renter's needs.

Additionally, you will still have to have dry dock storage if you live in the Northern half of the U.S. because of the colder climate, snow and ice during winter. If the boat's hull is wood, the ice and frozen water can cause the hull to expand, splinter, bow and leak. Most metal-hulled boats are fine in frigid waters but cannot move about when the rivers and lakes are frozen over. Because there are no ice-cutting tugs available to break up the frozen waters, people store their recreational boats in dry dock.

An Office--On the Site or Off the Site

Finally, regardless of what type of boat storage business you open, you will need an office. Customers like to come into an office, sign their storage contracts, pay their rent and talk face-to-face with you about any problems they are having with storage space or other boat owners. If you are trying to operate a boat storage business remotely, (i.e., more than ten miles from your storage business), customers will be uncomfortable about keeping their boats with you because no one is looking out for the boats.

If you run just a dry dock storage facility, your office can be right inside the gate. If you run a slip storage or wet dock, you just need a little hut on the shore or in the midst of the slips. If you plan on operating both wet and dry storage, then your office can be in the same building as your dry dock boat storage.

It's also important to think about how you will offer access. A business like Home Port Self Storage offers 24-hour access for the boats stored there.