Hi All,
We bought a house that has about 150 feet of lake front property in October. Now that the lake has thawed we are getting excited to spend our 1st summer here and are thinking about water toys. The lake we are on is relatively small, 375 acres and it's part of the town water supply so they don't allow swimming or water sports but gas engines are allowed.
I met the owner of the local boat and dock store a few miles from the house and he took the time to explain everything to us and was great. He is building us an aluminum dock and will be out next week to install it. Once that is done, it will be time for a boat. He carries the Lowe line of Pontoon boats and told us he just wants to sell volume and is willing to show us the invoices and sell for 400-500 over invoice. The boat will be docked at the house from May-October and then taken out and stored at the local boat store and winterized. We aren't going to use the boat in other lakes, in fact we won't even buy a trailer.
We looked at a 2013 Lowe SS210 which is 21 feet and has a Merc 60hp 4 stroke Bigfoot on it. We are looking for a cruiser that will comfortably hold 6 with a push to 10 or 11 during 4th of July type stuff. 99% of the time there will be 3-4 of us on the boat cruising around the lake, having dinner and drinks and looking at the houses. The lake doesn't get very rough, a little choppy in the wind but no major waves. We have family with a house on the other side and will use the boat as a water taxi when the weather is nice.
We both have grown up on boats and feel comfortable jumping right in but I want to make sure we buy the right boat. I think I want to jump up to the 90hp motor, looking at outboard prices online it looks like it's only $1500 more to buy a 90 vs 60BF. I don't know what it is to have it optioned on the boat, I can't imagine it's much different. Should I go for the 90? My thought is that on a windy day if I have a loaded boat I don't want to be bogged down going back and forth across the lake which is about a mile.
We are going to a boat show this Sunday and hope to see some other stuff and then figure out what we want. Our price range is in the low 20s. Any recommendations or must haves that we should look for? I don't really care about the brand, it seems that almost everyone builds a decent boat, it's just more of a preference. I'd like to deal with the local guy since they are so close and will take care of us since we are going to buy a dock, boat, and have them store and maintain it.
Thanks!
We bought a house that has about 150 feet of lake front property in October. Now that the lake has thawed we are getting excited to spend our 1st summer here and are thinking about water toys. The lake we are on is relatively small, 375 acres and it's part of the town water supply so they don't allow swimming or water sports but gas engines are allowed.
I met the owner of the local boat and dock store a few miles from the house and he took the time to explain everything to us and was great. He is building us an aluminum dock and will be out next week to install it. Once that is done, it will be time for a boat. He carries the Lowe line of Pontoon boats and told us he just wants to sell volume and is willing to show us the invoices and sell for 400-500 over invoice. The boat will be docked at the house from May-October and then taken out and stored at the local boat store and winterized. We aren't going to use the boat in other lakes, in fact we won't even buy a trailer.
We looked at a 2013 Lowe SS210 which is 21 feet and has a Merc 60hp 4 stroke Bigfoot on it. We are looking for a cruiser that will comfortably hold 6 with a push to 10 or 11 during 4th of July type stuff. 99% of the time there will be 3-4 of us on the boat cruising around the lake, having dinner and drinks and looking at the houses. The lake doesn't get very rough, a little choppy in the wind but no major waves. We have family with a house on the other side and will use the boat as a water taxi when the weather is nice.
We both have grown up on boats and feel comfortable jumping right in but I want to make sure we buy the right boat. I think I want to jump up to the 90hp motor, looking at outboard prices online it looks like it's only $1500 more to buy a 90 vs 60BF. I don't know what it is to have it optioned on the boat, I can't imagine it's much different. Should I go for the 90? My thought is that on a windy day if I have a loaded boat I don't want to be bogged down going back and forth across the lake which is about a mile.
We are going to a boat show this Sunday and hope to see some other stuff and then figure out what we want. Our price range is in the low 20s. Any recommendations or must haves that we should look for? I don't really care about the brand, it seems that almost everyone builds a decent boat, it's just more of a preference. I'd like to deal with the local guy since they are so close and will take care of us since we are going to buy a dock, boat, and have them store and maintain it.
Thanks!
