I havent babied the boat but I havent been abusing it either. I think of it as a tool. A nice shiny tool. I've been careful with docking and launching. Watch out for rocks or pilings. I've yet to beach the boat. I know there are light scratches in the clearcoat from my cover, rods or whatever. A rock ding/chip here and there from towing.
Today is my 2nd time out on the water this year. The 1st time was about 3-4 weeks ago and found out I had an issue with the motor so had to get that fixed. Finally got out today to make sure everything is working like it should again. It was breezy at the lake. Blowing right into the launch. I backed the trailer into the water to float the boat off. There it goes but I can see it's slowing down against the wind. I get out to grab the rope and by then, the boat is moving forward. I pull on the bow line and it starts spinning the boat. It's a floating dock, so I cant get to where the front of the boat will impact that section of the dock. The skeg of the trolling motor bumps the dock and I'm able to pull the boat onto the dock, even though now it's rotated facing outwards. Bumpers on wrong side but that's ok. Waves arent crashing or anything.
Motor works great. Get some good fishing in. I got too close to a piling. With the wind blowing pretty good, I wasnt fast enough to get the boat out of the way. The boat bumps into the piling and of course, I see there's a metal plate of some short attached to the top of this piling. It's just high enough to catch the top of the gunnel and skips across the top edge. They are deep gouges. Bummer. At best, I can get some white paint to make it blend in a bit better but yeah. PXL_20230605_212450775.jpg
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