Well, delivery of the boat is scheduled for next week. I went by today to look @ the slip at the marina i am going to put it in. I want to set up this dock to protect the boat and hopefully get it protected enough that my wife can try and dock it! 
I have shopped around @ West Marine, etc. but most of their products are for wooden docks. This dock is made of concrete panels atop a floating steel frame w/ styrofoam to make it all float.
Here are a couple of pictures:
There are plastic/rubber rail cushions installed on the posts at the edge of the dock but they are fairly destroyed. The marina told me today they will replace them prior to my arrival:
So i am trying to figure out how to protect the boat from this dock. My initial thought was to just strap on a bunch of oversized fenders just out of the water (put them sideways) but then i saw that could cost $1,000 if i did most of the slip perimeter!
My other idea is to somehow bolt (recessed u-bolts maybe?) 2x6's around the perimeter of the slip and then install carpet or something on that. This would probably be the most complete protection but more than likely a major pain to make it all fit well.
One idea i saw another boater do was this:
Basically, just bolt on trailer rollers to the side posts. This would work very well for the body of the boat but would not prohibit the swim platform hitting the dock if a sudden wind came up or something.
So, since we all love talking about boats and thinking about boats and finding solutions for boats and boating related stuff...how would you protect your boat from a dock like this? Have you seen any other good ideas that may work on a dock that does not have any wood to nail/screw into?
I would love to just move to a dock that is wood and then this is not an issue. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of slips of this size at the marina i want to be at so i kind of have to figure this out or alter my marina (this one is 10 minutes from the house, others are about 30 minutes).
I have shopped around @ West Marine, etc. but most of their products are for wooden docks. This dock is made of concrete panels atop a floating steel frame w/ styrofoam to make it all float. Here are a couple of pictures:
There are plastic/rubber rail cushions installed on the posts at the edge of the dock but they are fairly destroyed. The marina told me today they will replace them prior to my arrival:
So i am trying to figure out how to protect the boat from this dock. My initial thought was to just strap on a bunch of oversized fenders just out of the water (put them sideways) but then i saw that could cost $1,000 if i did most of the slip perimeter!
My other idea is to somehow bolt (recessed u-bolts maybe?) 2x6's around the perimeter of the slip and then install carpet or something on that. This would probably be the most complete protection but more than likely a major pain to make it all fit well.
One idea i saw another boater do was this:
Basically, just bolt on trailer rollers to the side posts. This would work very well for the body of the boat but would not prohibit the swim platform hitting the dock if a sudden wind came up or something.
So, since we all love talking about boats and thinking about boats and finding solutions for boats and boating related stuff...how would you protect your boat from a dock like this? Have you seen any other good ideas that may work on a dock that does not have any wood to nail/screw into?
I would love to just move to a dock that is wood and then this is not an issue. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of slips of this size at the marina i want to be at so i kind of have to figure this out or alter my marina (this one is 10 minutes from the house, others are about 30 minutes).