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We dry-slip our boat (Olson 30 on a trailer), and that is by FAR the cheapest and easiest way to sail. Charleston is fairly muddy and barnacles/growth develop significantly within days in warm conditions and maybe a couple of weeks in winter. I just took my boat out of the water after 3 weeks of being tied up to the dock while the trailer was being repaired. It was completely covered in mud/growth (including barnacles) below the waterline, but took about 1 hour to blast everything off with a pressure-washer and scotch-brite pad. If you do wet-slip your boat, you would obviously need anti-fouling paint (and you'd be slower if you race), but ours just has some kind of two-part enamel- probably awlgrip. We plan to sand and repaint the entire bottom and hull this winter, both topsides and bottom, but will always dry slip the boat for all of those reasons.
Dry sailing has become a practical matter for race boats up to around 35 feet, one of our local clubs now is dry storing a number of Mumm 30s, a Melges 32 and an ID35.. all on dollys/trailers that can be manhandled to the hoist.
But the boat has to be set up to be single point liftable, generally, for it to be practical and many non-race boats are not. Another approach is a floating 'drydock' that sits in your slip and allows you to lift the boat out of the water between trips.. but now you're paying for the lift and the regular slip fees.
The rest of us live with the occasional scrub, annual hauout and antifouling paint...
I was just about to comment on this when I read your post. It is common (but incorrect) to refer to hauling a boat and storing, or working, on it on the hard as "dry docking." As hellosailor points out, a dry dock is a semi-submersible vessel that can be flooded to allow a boat or ship to be moved into it and then pumped out so that the boat or ship can be worked upon in dry conditions.
Storing a sailboat on a trailer or stand and then launching it each time it is used is properly called "dry sailing."
These 'hydro hoists' have been used for sailboats as shown below... even if you can't lift a fin keel all the way out, it makes for easy scrubbing of just that part of the keel and keeps the rest of the boat clean..
Marina would have to allow this, of course, and there's the original purchase too.
Thanks everyone for the input, and the education on the proper meaning of "drydock". I meant the practice of trailering it in & out during every use.
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