Re: Trailer Boat Home or Leave at Marina...
Around here, this is called a "dry slip." A parking place for your boat and trailer at or near the ramp. Very popular, and often hard to find.
IMO it is the third* best arrangement for your boat, if that is the main place you will use it, or it is close to home. When the boat is right there at the ramp, ready for an easy splash and haul out, you will use it way more often. You don't have to mess with straps, securing stuff, etc. or gettnig a tow vehicle. If you cover it, you don't have to tie it down for trailering, just for weather.
The nice thing about being in a dry slip rather than wet, you pull the plug and don;t have to worry about bilge pump failure, bottom paint, storm tides or other weather issuesm, and electrolysis.
Security for your stuff is simply a matter of where you keep it. Some marina's are safe, some aren't. At some, only loose stuff is at risk (toys, ropes, etc., often taken by the guy who forgot his). A cover often cures this. If your in-dash electronics are at risk, however, I would look elsewhere.
There are lots of places that rent a parking space in a fenced lot near the ramp. In that case, security is an issue, and you probably already have it hooked up for trailering.
Boating is a leisure activity. The more you can eliminate time spent on it that is not on the water, the better. Then you can enjoy that hour (or less) boatride by adding only 5 minutes to launch and 5 to retrieve, and an easy drive. Otherwise, to make it worthwhile, you have to commit the better part of the day to use the boat at all.
Obviously, all of the choices are affected by what's available and what you can afford. Nothing else about boating is free or cheap; storage and slipping is the same. Boating is a luxury and you pay for convenience.
*first is at your house in the water, second in the water at the marina, ready to go. I guess the "boat hotel" arrangement would be in the second, as well. Third is dry slip, fourth is remote storage, fifth at home if you have room, last is at home when you don't have room!
