Roger S:

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A dry dock is a big expense and potentially a huge loss, at least for me.  I did all the research I could, but couldn’t find a single review, but went ahead with the purchase anyway dealing with Dean Howard, the President of Fab Dock. I was so excited after talking with Dean, that I was planning to become his distributor for the Caribbean. I remember discussing a list of my concerns - hurricanes and propellers getting caught among other things.  He said they hold up great in hurricanes and never had a customer with prop damage.  He installed my new Fab Dock in April of 2017 and I never even got to use it once!  It’s now a total loss.

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The first part of my nightmare happened when I had to adjust the shift cable before I could go out for the first time.  I opened the door and put the boat in forward and reverse for one second each, but the propeller immediately caught the Fab Dock and wrapped up tight.  I Immediately contacted Dean, explaining that the air chamber still had air, but the valve was all the way open.  I felt that the door wasn’t going down properly because of this issue.  He said to cut the propeller free, which took me several hours with snorkel gear. I had to have my boat hauled out of the water and put on blocks.  After a month, my bill at the marina was over $1,900 and climbing!  My Fab Dock was getting destroyed by having sea water inside, so the clock was ticking in addition to the marina bill.

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Dean said he would come out to repair it and not to worry, but first, He said I needed to put a temporary patch on the Fab Dock to pump out the water, as that was the only way to get it out for repair.  This time I brought my scuba gear.  The first day was a failure and I had to go get different clamps.  The next time I was able to stop the leak enough to pump it out (after about two hours under water).  Six weeks later, no one had come to fix it and the barnacles were taking hold on the inside.  Dean then decided to inform me that he wouldn’t be covering the repair under warranty.  He said the air in the chamber wasn’t the cause and blamed it on me.  I’m not sure how shifting into forward and reverse is any different then entering and exiting? 

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I contacted a company that repairs inflatables and they couldn’t come out before I left town for a month, so I had to attempt to do the repair myself.  After considerable research and buying the tools and supplies, I did the repair.  I pulled the back end of the Fab Dock up onto the dock for repair.  It was already so heavy due to barnacles and algae that it took four men an hour just to lift it up.  I fully cleaned the material and installed about 20 patches. When I put it back in the water, I almost cried when it leaked. Some of the patches didn’t hold due to the marine growth and the affected area (prop pocket) wasn’t flat, making patching almost impossible. A month later, I called the inflatable repair guy again, but he was booked and couldn’t come out until September.  Unfortunately hurricane Maria interrupted that visit and now my Fab Dock has even more serious damage. My boat was on the trailer during the hurricane, but the Fab Dock suffered serious damage.  The rope rings ripped off and the right side tube filled with water.  I haven’t been able to get anyone to repair it and now it’s been so many months that barnacles have covered it inside and out.   The other boats on lifts at the marina were undamaged.

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My next problem was getting it out of my slip due to being full of water, to take it to the dumpster.

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