We mariners have love affairs with our boats! Many of us that decide to come to south Florida quickly realize finding the right dockage and home for your boat (and wife) is not an easy task. Sometimes finding a home for the boat is more important and sometimes the house is more important so you have to find a happy medium. One of the biggest concerns for multi-hull vessels and yachts that are over 50 feet is finding canal systems that can accomadate the additional beam that goes with it. Vessels with 25-30 feet of beam are going to enter the canal system at least 5-10 feet more than that when moored to their dock. Meaning a 5 foot wide dock or 10 foot wide dock plus the boat. A general rule (but not always) is you have to have 50% of the canal width open for navigation.
In short you need a canal width that is wider than a standard 100 foot canal, an intersecting canal situation or a tip lot situation that almost always coincides with a wider basin or intersecting canals. Punta Gorda Isles has plenty of cat hull owners and a few yachts as well. We have a home for you!
I keep a running list of home and vacant lot locations that are extra wide or provide options for boat owners with wide beam vessels. Below are two samples of situations where a cat hull vessel is moored. These are aerial views. The one is an intersecting canal with a cat hull docked (ignore the yellow location) and the other is a tip lot situation.
Punta Gorda Isles is actually one of the few places in south Florida that offers canal widths that offer options like this. Also, some canals are extra deep and most have adequate draft, 6 feet and sometimes deeper on mean low water. Check out the photos below. Call me if I can be of help 941-628-8040.
