That's an awesome well as far as daylight goes. Those windows are just about due south. The other end of building 1 is DARK. Of course, there's no worry about sun damage over there, but I started to crave daylight before too long.
I have a section of shelf padding, on top of which I lay down a few sections of DryDeck. (padding to grip the deck, DryDeck to preserve the padding and to catch dirt) I put that on the highest part of the foredeck (in front of the base of the windshield) and use it as a step. I'm sure you could find a welcome mat to do the same thing - I just did this without making an extra trip to Walmart. It was no problem last year, but I had an ACL in EACH knee back then too, so I'll be boarding more slowly and lot more carefully this year.
MacRay doesn't put in ladders, but who knows, we never asked them to either.
Tim & Gina had a slick setup last year. They installed a chrome handle on the dock post, and then tied what I think was a doggie-ramp to the fwd rail and extended it to the foredeck. That way they could step much closer to the dock without jumping down to the deck.
There's also "Method B"... See, you just step up at the stern, and even though the dock is 3-4' above you, you set your drink down, palm the dock and do a push-up until your knees reach, at which point you retrieve your drink and go find a neighbor who is hopefully just about to serve snacks and/or drink refills.
Method B was my preferred method until late November last year, when the water level had dropped after sustained winds. This pulled the boat down and away from the dock, so the push-up required to reach dock-level was significantly more difficult. Too difficult, as it turned out... Fortunately, the before-mentioned neighbors heard the splash, and even more fortunately, while I was waiting for bouyancy at the bottom of the lake, I did NOT see the ghost of the man who's bouyancy never arrived in a similar incident almost a decade ago. (his ghost is said to activate the elevator call buttons on cold winter nights)
They took a picture of me, draped in a towel and dripping on the swim platform, but I've warned them that if that pic ever sees the internet, I'll remove their drain plug.
I have a section of shelf padding, on top of which I lay down a few sections of DryDeck. (padding to grip the deck, DryDeck to preserve the padding and to catch dirt) I put that on the highest part of the foredeck (in front of the base of the windshield) and use it as a step. I'm sure you could find a welcome mat to do the same thing - I just did this without making an extra trip to Walmart. It was no problem last year, but I had an ACL in EACH knee back then too, so I'll be boarding more slowly and lot more carefully this year.
MacRay doesn't put in ladders, but who knows, we never asked them to either.
Tim & Gina had a slick setup last year. They installed a chrome handle on the dock post, and then tied what I think was a doggie-ramp to the fwd rail and extended it to the foredeck. That way they could step much closer to the dock without jumping down to the deck.
There's also "Method B"... See, you just step up at the stern, and even though the dock is 3-4' above you, you set your drink down, palm the dock and do a push-up until your knees reach, at which point you retrieve your drink and go find a neighbor who is hopefully just about to serve snacks and/or drink refills.
Method B was my preferred method until late November last year, when the water level had dropped after sustained winds. This pulled the boat down and away from the dock, so the push-up required to reach dock-level was significantly more difficult. Too difficult, as it turned out... Fortunately, the before-mentioned neighbors heard the splash, and even more fortunately, while I was waiting for bouyancy at the bottom of the lake, I did NOT see the ghost of the man who's bouyancy never arrived in a similar incident almost a decade ago. (his ghost is said to activate the elevator call buttons on cold winter nights)
They took a picture of me, draped in a towel and dripping on the swim platform, but I've warned them that if that pic ever sees the internet, I'll remove their drain plug.
