Category Boats

A few weeks ago I purchased a new pontoon for the lake house. Last week, I closed on the boat, and the guys at Skipper Bud’s gave me a tutorial on how everything works with the boat. I can’t wait to get it in the water this spring!

Last summer, I had a dock put in at the lake house, and am going to put in a boat lift next to it this spring. Ultimately, I am shopping for a pocket yacht / sport cruiser boat, in the 30 to 35 foot range, which would sit on a pier somewhere near the lake house. However, my wife and I wanted a pontoon to be able to keep at the lake house on the boat lift. For normal days on the water, cruising to party coves, and driving to the bigger boat, the pontoon would be well suited for Lake Wisconsin. With that in mind, this weekend I purchased a brand new 2018 Harris 200CX/CS. Pontoons don’t depreciate like normal boats, and factoring in dealer incentives it made sense to buy new.

It will be awesome to get it in the water in the spring!

Now that the dock is complete, I’m setting my sights on having a covered boat lift / boat house built, and buying a boat to go in it. Here is a (poorly Photoshopped) rendition of where I am planning on putting the boat:

I’ll post more updates as I go through the planning stages for the boat lift with Deano Docks. In the meantime, I’m starting to casually shop for boats. I’m looking for a cruiser in the 26 to 30 foot range, with a nice cabin. Ideally, I’d go bigger than that, but I don’t think we’ll be able to accommodate a boat longer than 30 feet. Here are some that I am looking at:

• http://www.skipperbuds.com/Page.aspx/diid/11361793/list/InventoryList/pageId/9033/view/Details/2005-Four-Winns-268-VISTA.aspx
• http://www.skipperbuds.com/Page.aspx/diid/11521547/list/InventoryList/pageId/9033/view/Details/2007-Four-Winns-258-VISTA.aspx
• http://www.skipperbuds.com/Page.aspx/diid/11560112/list/InventoryList/pageId/9033/view/Details/2005-Sea-Ray-260-Sundancer.aspx

These boats have pretty nice cabins, and would be the right size for cruising on Lake Wisconsin.

It’s too bad that we can’t fit a bigger boat though, since when you jump up to the mid-30’s in length, the boats start to get incredibly impressive. Here is an example that I found with an incredibly gorgeous cabin:

https://madison.craigslist.org/boa/d/2000-cruisers-3672/6207078778.html

At long last, we finally have a dock. It took months of work for the dock installation company, Deano Docks, to get the dock designed and fabricated, but it finally has arrived. It’s a floating dock, so it attaches to the stairs via a hinge and is able to move up and down with the water levels on poles that are anchored into the bottom of the lake.

In the spring, we’ll be adding a boat lift, so that you’ll be able to get onto the boat from the end of the dock section that turns to the right. For now, it’s awesome just to be able to sit on the dock, and see the gorgeous Lake Wisconsin views:

Update:

The stairs and railing that the dock is attached to have now been stained as well, so the project is complete!