most of us are honest after all. I say "45 feet on deck" even though the end of the sprit to the end of the mizzen boom is more like 57'. The only place that has measured my boat was the marina in Alameda where I kept my last one, they measured over all length from the tip of the anchor to the last bit of swim ladder and charged accordingly. I think if you were budget minded and less than completely honest, you could paint "Pirate 38" on the side of you 45' boat and get a pretty good break on dockage many places.

When I visited Tobormory late in the season I told the (female) dock master that we were 45 feet on deck, she said "I'll put that down as 40 - call it cold weather shrinkage!".