That depends so much on the individual dock. Do you own it? How high is it above the water? Is it subject to tides?

One thing I 've actually used is a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet over the edge of a wooden dock. Wetting the carpet made it slippery enough to allow the boat to be slid in and out of the water without having to support the entire weight myself and it reduced the scratching, especially with a graphite/epoxy coating on the bottom. This setup can be a trap, though, letting you easily put the boat in  but not being able to take it out again, especially if the tide goes out.

If you are allowed to modify the dock, you can put a trailer winch onto it to winch the boat back out over the carpet.

Another possibility is a piece of carpet-covered plywood temporarily attached to the end of the dock to form a ramp. There are all sorts of arrangements that would allow a temporary installation, as well as different lengths. These can be as simple as a piece of PVC pipe loosely lashed across the end of the dock and attached to the ramp. PVC pipe at the far end could provide lots of cheap buoyancy if needed. It all depends on the dock, permissions and your pocketbook.

I really don't know if any of these will work for you, or if they'll be less trouble to haul around, attach, detach and remove than your current setup. Maybe some more info about the dock, including pictures, would help inspire someone here.

Good luck,

Laszlo

+1 for Lazlo's comments above.  I have used an old carpet door matt to protect kayaks launched from high docks.

Unless you come up with some kind of protection as discussed above, I think that standard paints are going to scratch just like your varnish did.  Im my experience, scratched paint is even more noticable than scratches on varnish.  Plus, when the boat gets wet, scratches in varnish disappear.

A more permanent solution might be a tougher paint like Wetllander (Wetlander - The Ultimate Slick Bottom | The Best Boat Slick Bottom Coating, combining Ultra-Slippery with Rugged Durability (airboatcoatings.com)).  It is an airboat paint that is very tough and very slippery.  It is also expensive.  I used it on my Goat and it has held up very well.

Thanks for the comments, here's a photo of the dock. There's a fixed concrete wall along the edge with a wooden floating dock I currently use to bring it in and out. Waterline is about 18" from concrete wall, and about 12" from the floating dock.

Carpet over the edge seems like a good idea, but it's still quite a lift to get up onto the dock. I'm also looking at those transom wheels you can get for dinghys, and then the question will be how to install a (floating?) ramp from the concrete wall down to the water.

   Water depth is about 3-4 feet and drops off fairly quickly, so any kind of solid support to the ramp won't be viable. I can build a ramp here as long as I can remove it when not in use, which is why I'd consider floating. Guess the trick will be to get the ballasting just right for the weight of the boat.

OK, if that was my situation, I'd put 2 anchor rods into the grass (a couple of 2-foot lengths of steel pipe pounded in with a sledge hammer would be deluxe and almost permanent, a couple of screw-in tie-downs would work if you had to remove them the same day). For the ramp I'd use 8-ft long, 3/4-inch plywood with 2x4s under the long edges to stiffen it and covered with carpet. At the water end I'd put a piece of 4" diameter PVC pipe sealed at both ends. If the ramp was 4 feet wide, the PVC float would give you around 1 lb of buoyancy at the far end. Finally, I'd put holes in the near end of the pipe for lashings to tie it to the anchor rods.

With a setup like that and the ramp deployed without the boat, it'll be at about a 15 degree angle. As the boat slides down, the ramp will sink and get steeper until enough of the boat is in the water to start supporting its own weight. If you have a piece of carpet running from the grass over the stone and onto the ramp, you should be able to slide the boat from the grass, onto the ramp and then into the water.

Taking it out would involve pulling it up the ramp with a bowline rather than lifing it. If it doesn't slide well enough, rollers could take care of that problem.

When you're done all you'd have to carry away, besides the boat, is a 1/2 sheet of 3/4-inch plywood (with the 2x4s, carpet and PVC pipe attached) and the lashings. Possibly the anchor rods, too.

No guarantees, don't sue me if it doesn't work, but that's what I'd try based on your photo. And the airboat paint Mark mentions.

Good luck,

Laszlo

   Thanks, yeah I'll come up with something along those lines, but I do think I'm going to get those wheels that attach to the transom to make sliding/rolling around erasier, especially once it's up on shore. I have some old scaffolding planks that I can use for the ramp itself.

Going to be a lot of experimentation to get the bouyancy/geometry right, I think. 

Another option to explore is installing a jet ski lift. The electric ones can get a little pricey but there are manual ones that use hand crank for power - since you don't have to lift it very far in your situation that could work. A pedestal mounted one that would allow you to lift the boat up and then pivot it around so it was over your grass could work.   

  There are floating jet ski ramps, not lifts, that might work for you. You would pull the boat up on it, tie it off and leave it.