[Our Education](#Our Education) - A story about the first summer with our boat - full of surprises [Boating Costs](#Boating Costs:) - Some ballpark figures on how much it costs to go boating [Eric’s rules of boating](#Eric’s rules of boating:) - Just some things I’ve learned that may be helpful [Some new boating pictures](#Newer Boating Photos) - From 2007 [Older boating pictures](#Old Boating Photos) - 1998 to 2002 Boating Web Links Page
- Boating ABC a good message board to learn about boating. Say hello to Finger Lakes Boater, Adversary 98, Keith and all the other great people there.
In the summer of 1998, Kathy and I had been looking for an activity that the entire family could enjoy. Over Labor Day weekend, we visited the lake home of some neighbors, and the older kids were learning to water ski. We had a great time at their lake, and decided that a lake property would be fun. So we started shopping. We quickly found that lake front property is expensive. And we didn’t know a thing about lakes, or boats. We looked at a couple of places and decided to take it a little slower - we decided to buy a boat, take it around to several lakes, then decide where we wanted to stay.
Then we went shopping for a boat. We were at a nearby lake later in the summer and the marina had placed a couple of used boats out on the launch ramp with for sale signs. One of them seemed too old. Another seemed too small. But a third really caught our eye, it was a little bigger than I had wanted, it was about four years old and seemed to be in good shape.
We didn’t buy the boat that day, but I kept my eye on it, and being late in the summer, the marina didn’t sell it by the fall. I went in and looked at it again in November, and made them an offer and they took it. Early in December on a warm day, I took the boat out for a test run, and it ran great. They offered to winterize it and store it for me, and we would pick it up in April. Even better, the marina rents boat slips in the summer, so we could leave the boat there, in the water about 5 miles from home.
So, the Bryant was a good boat to learn with, but in the summer of 2002, we decided we needed a little more space on the boat. I’d been looking at other boats for a few months, on ebay and elsewhere, of course, and we finally decided to buy a Cobalt 240 - which we like very much (I later found out that our boat is hull number 1 of the 240’s and may well be the boat they used for this advertising photo - of course that’s not us in the boat)
In April 1999, we couldn’t wait to go boating, so I picked the boat up from the marina and cleaned it up. It is a 20 foot Bryant boat, 1994 model with a 5.0 mercruiser I/O motor. We got a real boater’s education that summer. Our first several outings with the boat were an indoctrination to boating:
Well, if you talk to boat owners, that’s pretty typical. Boats are a little bit of a money pit, and you need to know their particular idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately, no books tell you, so you just have to learn by doing. For those of you that are thinking about boating, it might be helpful to know the costs. So here’s an annual breakdown:
Purchase Price, 1994 Bryant 20ft $11,000
Insurance $150
Registration $125
Water skis and Tube $300
Ski and Tube Ropes $100
Life Jackets $300
Misc. equipment (first aid kit, anchors, ropes) $200
Boat slip rental $1200
Bottom Cleaning $100
Winterization $150
Shrink Wrap $150
Storage $200
Stainless Steel Prop (used) $200
Repairs $200
Fuel $200
That totals to: $12,100 non recurring
Plus $2,475 annual recurring cost
You could easily spend much more on a new boat with the latest toys, and you could probably spend less on a smaller and/or older boat and still have lots of fun. We could also skip the boat slip and pay per use to launch the boat, but it would add about 2 hours per use to launch and recover the boat, and we figure we wouldn’t use it nearly as much. Having the boat out of the water would probably increase the life of the boat, and would likely increase the performance. When the boat sits in the water, algea and other crud grows on the bottom, and you have to periodically pull it out of the water to clean it.
But let me tell you, I haven’t found a better family activity yet. My kids love to tube behind the boat, or simply stop and swim off the side. Both the older kids can get up on kid water skis, and It is very relaxing to be on the water on a hot day. So, if you’re thinking about it, don’t hesitate to take the plunge. Just remember Eric’s rules of boating:
No boat is as reliable as a car
Have a working cell phone at all times
Keep a close eye on the other boats, on a busy day, this is really hard work
It’s more fun when friends or family join in
Going fast with kids is not really important, slowing down and enjoying the weather is more important
Sunscreen and a cooler full of drinks is important
It’s easy to overload a small boat. We’ve had twelve people on ours, but it is slow, and that’s really the limit.
Make sure the boat is gassed and ready to run before the family and friends are waiting on the dock
A bigger motor is really necessary on a boat. The motor has to pull hard all the time and a bigger motor can get the boat out of the water quicker
Practice docking the boat before you have to do it in front of a crowd.
First, a few pictures from Lake Monroe, which is near Bloomington Indiana in the beautiful southern part of the state. Lindsey and Lauren will ride on tubes all day long - or at least as long as I’m willing to drive the boat.
We can pull three tubes at once. These are all Super Screamer tubes. I think we have about four of them now. The kids love them and they seem to be pretty durable. The red one above is the first one we bought, and it still works fine, although it’s getting pretty faded.
This is our boat setup. We have a 17 x40 foot covered slip, which holds our boat, that sits on a hydrohoist lift, and the waverunner is illegally parked on our leisure lift. For some reason the lake manager goes nuts when he sees two boats in our slip - I guess we’re not authorized. I think that means they don’t make enough money off us.
GP1200 waverunner.
At Christmas 2007, we had another boating adventure. I bought an electric motor powered boat kit. You had to put the motor together for it to drive the boat. Audrey and Alex are measuring out the wires.
Construction complete, and we’re testing the boat in the pool. It really worked, But the battery shifted a bit, and the boat listed to the side and sunk. We pulled it up dried it out and it still ran fine - even with the same battery, which surprised me.
This is a picture from our backyard dock on Geist Lake. The steam was just burning off the water.
Same dock in the summer of 2007. We had to buy something at Walmart and Audrey begged me to buy her a Barbie fishing pole. Well, we have some old fishing poles at home, so I convinced her to let us just buy some worms for bait.
I actually don’t much like fishing, but this turned out to be the best fishing expedition ever. I put a worm on the hook, Audrey dropped the line in the water, waited about 15 seconds and pulled out a fish. She did this 5 times in a row - no more than 30 seconds to catch a fish. It took me much longer to get the fish off the hook and bait it again. Kathy came out and took this picture, then when Audrey got tired of pulling fish up, Kathy pulled up three more just as fast. Must have been exactly the right time of day.
Anyway, our fishing expedition was done in 15 minutes flat.
Kathy must have got this unbelievable sunset off our back deck in the fall of 07.
Looking the other direction, you can see our Rinker still on the lift with the bright orange oak trees down by the sea wall.
Nice reflection picture from the dock.
This is the first slip we rented on Geist in 1998. The boat is our Bryant 200. I learned a lot about boating that year - most of it the hard way.
Geist can get a bit crowded - which is why we go down to Lake Monroe on busy days. This is actually right in front of the house we would buy a few years later.
Our slip at Monroe in 2001.
Kids ready to go: Look how little they are! Drew can drive now…
New Cobalt in the summer of 2002.
Boys birthday party. That’s our condo and boat slip in the background.
Drew on the wakeboard. He learned it pretty quick.
