Will My Boat Fit in My Garage?

I received some unwelcome news this morning: despite months of trying to make it work, my boat is just not going to fit in my garage. The space is plenty wide and long, but on the trailer the Whaler is just an inch or two too high. I spent hundreds on a structural engineer report and a city permit to modify the structure of the garage to raise the opening from 6’8″ to 7′ to allow for a 7′ rollup door. Last Friday the garage door guy confirmed that the new door would fit. This morning, right as my handyman was about to modify the door opening, the door guy contacted me again. He said he forgot to point out that having a 7′ door doesn’t mean I’ll have 7′ of clearance. I would only get 6’8″ (which is what I already have now if I do nothing!). Now I find out… Yeah, I could remove the windshield and a grab rail from the boat, but after spending all that money I want those pieces on it. The grab rail for one is a pretty necessary safety feature. I think I’m going to buy an air compressor. If the boat is close to fitting, I could let some air out of the trailer tires, and then pump them up again after I pull it out of the garage.

I of course began to question my choice of boat. There is a competitor, the Robalo R160, that has a fold-down windshield and would have fit with no modifications. However, they just quit making them, and they’re impossible to find on the used market on the west coast. Plus, well, it’s not a Whaler, and it wouldn’t have nearly the resale value. To make things worse, in the last few months even the dry storage marinas have filled up, some for the first time in history. I did get on a waitlist at Dagmar’s, but I didn’t budget for $211/month to park my boat there. I need to find a cheaper and more permanent solution. If I get my boat before I come up on the waitlist, I’ll wind up with a homeless vessel.

Some good things have come of this at least. I learned that I could safely remove the giant low-hanging boards that were attached to the garage ceiling joists. The structural engineer didn’t think they were necessary. I’m still going to proceed with a rollup door (probably the shorter 6’6″ one), but now I’ll be able to realize my long-held dream of actually garaging my car in the winter. The clunky 90-year old sliding door makes it impractical to park there on a daily basis.