It is 2009 as I sit down with my granddaughter to write what our Lake Front cabin means
to our family. Sixty-five years ago my experiences on the lake first began
when my parents rented a cottage several weeks each summer for our vacation.
My dad fished, I went horseback riding with friends, swan, hiked, kept busy
all day. Both my mother and father and I had the same friends that kept
drawing us back each year, too. My family loved it so much that in 1956 they
bought property on the lake and built our cottage that still draws my whole
family even today. My two daughters and son have come here since they were
babies and have grown to love it from those childhood days.
Now my married daughters and son are coming here with my ten grandchildren.
(My son bought his own place.) The children begin their days fishing off the
dock, swinging in the hammock, riding on the zip line... Next there is
horseback riding, boating, waterskiing, tubing and hours of swimming... They
are happy here and the ten cousins "love" it when they can be together at
"camp". (They spend hours scheming of ways to get back here together.)
Very few places afford this simplistic life style where the quality of
shared time, so valuable to relationships, can be experienced differently
than almost any place else. How blessed we are to have a Lake front cabin where there
is always refuge and a place to find release from cares and responsibilities
when they pile up. When this place gets in your blood, it becomes a second
home!
Carole S.

This is a hard subject to write about as there are so many variables. Because of this, I am going to assume some things. You can modify them to fit your needs.

1. Lake size: Less than 1200 acres (smaller then Lake George, but big enough to need several hours to explore).

a. Usually you will not sleep in your boat on this size lake.

b. Usually you are doing activities that are 2-4 hours at a time

c. I will assume that you are doing some fishing and water sports.

d. I will assume that it is of general use for family.

e. That you need enough power to tube and water-ski

f. But enough economy so that an average middle class person can afford the gas and purchase.

g. Price range $5,000 (used) to $30,000 new

h. 16 to 20 foot in length

I. All require a trailer to tow them, possibly a truck.

2. Question to ask and research:

a. How much horse power?

b. What size boat?

c. Inboard or outboard?

d. Two or four stroke?

e. What brands?

What boat you pick depends on your needs and wants, as well as your wallet. I will describe how I made my purchase, answer the questions above with the assumptions in place.

My lake is 500 acres. It is in the top 10% of largest lakes in Vermont. There are about six or so lakes that are two to three times the size of my lake. Most people on my lake have a 17 foot “runabout” with a 70hp motor. In a general sense, this boat will tow a tube, pull young water skiers, and you can fish from.

My first boat was a 16 foot smoker craft stinger 161 (16 foot) with a 50 hp 2 stroke outboard motor. This boat was on the smaller size, but good for a 500 acre lake. You could not water ski, but you could pull a tube and fish. The boat would seat 5 people. This boat would top out at about 30 mph. It was hard to “plane” it if you had 5 people in it. It was good on gas. You could afford to buy and drive this boat. No complaints. This boat is probably a bit small for lakes bigger than 900 acres. The bigger the lake, the bigger the waves. Our kids were little, so we could fit all six of my family. It was a nice to fish off. You need a swim platform if you plan to swim away from your lakefront area. Cost $9000. This boat was purchased new as a left over in 2003.

My second boat was a bit bigger. I thought I wanted to fish more, and I wanted to water-ski. My kids were all teenagers. I purchased a 17 foot Smokercraft Mellentia Leftover, with a 90 hp. 2 stroke outboard. It was rated for 5 people. This boat was not as good on gas. When gas was around $4 a gallon, I was having a hard time filling the tank….25 gallons was $100. The 16 footer will fill for $50 and the gas lasted longer! This boat had a 4 speaker stereo system, and that I really enjoyed! It also had a swim platform. This was also fun as it was nice to swim in various parts of the lake, I could water-ski with this boat. It top out at 42 mph. It was a great fishing boat. While you could Water-ski it was not the greatest at this. If you are really into waters-skiing, I think that an inboard and/or more horsepower are needed. purchase in 2007 for $14,000

They make boats that specialize in pulling water-skiers. So if that is your main focus, focus on those boats.

So here is my recommendation based on the above assumptions:

ü 16 to 19 foot in length.

ü 50 hp to 150hp. (upper end for water-skiing)

ü Swim Platform

ü Outboard (allows you to change engine size if you wish)

ü Full windshield and Biminis top in case of rain

ü Stereo system

ü Live well for fishing

Brand? That’s a preference and financial decision. I can only say that I have seen and ridden in many high quality boats in this range of assumptions.

Search the different types of boats available. There are many websites that offer boats for sale. They also offer different categories of boats, so that you can pinpoint exactly which type will suit your needs. For instance, www.boatnationusa.com is one such site. In the boat search category, you can search for all types of boats for sale. Here you will find fishing boats, family cruisers, day boats, sailboats, and yachts. Remember the old rule about boats: “It’s a hole in the water into which you pour money.” Even a small boat will require maintenance, insurance, replacement parts, winterizing, etc. A small runabout boat can cost over $40 per hour just to run about, with gas prices high and likely to stay that way! If you’re not planning on using your boat for sports like skiing, and speed is not an issue, consider looking at boats with small motors. They go slowly, but inexpensively: $3.00 per hour of use.

Because I replaced my lake front cabin with a new house, I had to sell my 90hp boat. I now use what I started with. a 12 foot rowboat with a 9.9hp on it. This is a great starter boat. Can’t tube or water-ski, but you can get out the lake and fish. Less then a $1000 as my motor was used! Great gas mileage. The kids need to learn how to oar a boat before they drive. the basics are a kayak, canoe, and row boat. The motor boat comes later!

I loved my lake house the minute I laid eyes on it! After viewing the little mobile home I looked at for $80,000.00, this was a dream house. The price was a hefty $225,000.00 and it was worth it. 3 bedrooms, a large kitchen, an open dining room, cozy living room, even a little cove for the woodstove and a good size foyer. 1250 square feet in all, 2 outdoor sheds, crawl space under the house, new septic, new well and 110 feet of lake front.

As I stood on the long dock looking up at the impressive ledge bank that climbed straight up 20 feet from the water to the house I said to my realtor, “I want to buythis house, how much do you think I should offer?” We both thought that $200 K would be a good start. I was so excited that after hearing even more good things about the house (the furniture and house wares come with the house, and there’s outdoor lighting on the stairs, etc), I made the mistake (?) of saying that I was very interested in buying the house. About then my agent lead me swiftly by the arm out of the house, “Uh, we’ll talk about that later,” he said.”

I was a bit perturbed to find out that the realtor had not brought the paper work with him and while I waited about an hour for him to return my friend Pete took me for a spin in his boat out to see the house from the water. Well, just then I saw a woman standing on the dock looking up at the house and I gulped, “Pete,” I said, “That woman is going to buy my house.” It was then that I decided to make the owners a full offer! Sure enough, she put a bid of $220,000.00. I guess it was lucky for me that the realtor didn’t come with the paper work on this particular day, onlyhat was about where my luck ended for a while!

It seemed I waited an eternity to hear from the realtor. That’s because he was waiting on the primary realtor, Wenda Byrd of Century 21, to get back to him as to whether the owners had accepted my offer. Come to find out, Wenda had never given the owners the benefit of knowing that I was interested in their house because she had other notions as to just who would buy that house, especially since she stood to receive full commission for the sale by getting her client in that house. Finally, my realtor timidly asked my friend Peter to drop by the house to see what the owners knew, that’s when we discovered that the owner’s didn’t even know that there was another offer, although they do remember inquiring about “the lady from New York” who seemed so interested. Apparently, Wenda Byrd decided to keep that information to herself and I was lucky again when my friend Pete informed the owners of the truth, and since my offer was $5,000 more than Wenda’s client the owners accepted my offer, naturally.

The next issue was with the mortgage company (Magnum from LendingTree.com) after 4 weeks of grueling back and forth work, they dropped me 4 days before the scheduled closing. They simple stated, “We’re not doing this.” Apparently, they had never sold a 3 season, lake front property and were pressuring me to have a furnace installed (at my expense) to make the house into a cheap, makeshift 4-season home; Magnum Mortgage also wanted me to go with one of those prime rate mortgages but I was insisting on a traditional fixed rate loan. What made me mad was that I had asked them right up front if they had had experience selling 3 season, lake front property, to which they replied, “Sure we do,” NOT!

Well, I finally got a local mortgage company when my realator (Gilbert of Poultney) exclaimed “We get mortages on houses that are falling into the lake; I’ll bet they’ve already sold your mortgage.” So, I prayed that the owners agreed to wait another month for a new mortgage, this company (National City Mortgage) was superb and very creative.