House Boating Experience

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Very true! A poorly run boat can be a money pit. My wife was previously on a boat where the president of the LLC was a self centered tyrant. He disregarded input from the other owners, treated marina staff rudely, and paid all the bills late.

His payment history meant that repairs were not done on time, which lead to share owners missing their vacations because the boat was inoperable. One year, just before the LLC presidents trip, he started paying past due invoices so the things would be in tip top shape for HIS vacation. The share just prior to his struck a rock and damaged an outdrive. Several owners got together and visited the shop doing the repairs. The shop owner had the time and the parts, and said the boat would be ready to go for the next trip out, which was the presidents. The group of owners convinced the shop to "have trouble locating parts", and the president missed HIS trip. Poetic Justice!

The last time we saw that boat, it was in the docks at Wahweap, listing badly to starboard and down at the stern.

We bought into our current boat in 2006. We toured 22 potential candidates during a December 2005 inspection trip, when they were out of the water, talked with the shops that maintained the boats in question, and had phone conversations with share owners (not just the managers). I am shocked by the number of people who write a check based on a Boat Trader ad, never having seen the boat in person!

In spite of all those precautions, we still ended up with a management company that stole all the yearly dues from 5 boats, and ALL the money from shares sold on a new boat not yet built, who then invested all that money in the housing bubble that burst in 2008. We took control of our boat and ended up with a GREAT group who were determined to do it ourselves, and do it right. We are still on that boat 17 years after we bought in. Look for the best maintained 2004 Summerset at Antelope, and that is us.
 
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I and others on this site highly recommend Laketime Houseboats for multi owner houseboats on the Wahweap end of the lake. They have run a top notch operation for many years and have engineered then installed many innovations on their boats to make them user friendly and efficient. We've been on two different boats in Laketime and would go NO WHERE else to own a share of a houseboat. Their managed boats are clean, maintained expertly and use the launch/retrieve system, which is a zillion times better than a buoy or slip. Chuck
 
Discomamas said:
Hey all,

First-time poster, so please keep your pitchforks at bay.

I've been looking at shares for houseboats lately, but many of the listings require previous experience with manning a houseboat. How does one go about acquiring that experience if they are new to the scene?

Thanks for the help :)
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Just seeing this post now. You might try for shared ownership for a houseboat at Laketime. I bought a one tenth share on the Tuscan Vista in 2016. Our pilot had some experience on a rental bout of the same size(16x75) from the previous years. Laketime did not require any experience when they sold me the share. We kinda learned on the job, so to speak. We had a couple of sketchy anchorings, ripped off a couple of cleats at a difficult (for us) docking at Dangling Rope and got rolled pretty good, once by a tour boat and once by a pair of park ranger boats that flew by in the opposite direction when we were close to a wall.
 
I have no dog in the hunt but Lake Time does seem to be ran really well. I've met the owner a few times and he seems like a fine fellow, I see him dunking boats still driving the tractor at the ramp on occasion too. The only draw back at all to being in one of their boats, and it might not be important to some, is that it's not floating in the Marina which is essentially a huge RV Park on the water. That forces disciplined trips for going out and beaching or renting day slips but the convenience of walking onto your boat at will is precious to some. I like showing up anytime and having my boat ready to enjoy on the water and if the weather is daunting I may stay in the marina, it depends. I visit it year round and it's a getaway, like a second home. You don't get that in a land based time share, just say'n.

That is the only downside to an off lake operation but compared to all the heartache I see in timeshares I think it's a small trade off. Knowing that an outfit like Lake Time will have your boat in order can't be overstated but I think it's a better fit for explorers. If you have trepidation about going out and beaching, tying off and surviving storms and other challenges the marina bound experience might be for you.

Many timeshare owners simply don't go out, they love the boat condo or "Boatel" experience. (No right or wrong way) But no matter how well a marina based time share is managed stuff happens. If the folks before you had a breakdown or hit a sand bar and tore up a drive you may be out of luck for your turn. The worst is when folks show up ready to go and no one told them or the previous group didn't own up to it so no one knew. To me that's almost criminal but I'm a lover of getting out, so... For most marina based situations getting a boat off the lake, repaired and relaunched can take weeks if not months so it's a trade off of convenience for more reliability.

Lake Time is built for fast repairs and fast turnarounds, the guys who started it knew what they were doing. They have their own tractor and trailers, their own mechanics and parts. As I understand it their boats are mostly identical mechanically so they can do that. Brilliant!
 
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MB,
In our minds the advantages of Laketime Shore Launch program FAR outweigh any shortcomings you cited. LT takes very good care of the boats, seldom a mechanical problem and they supply frequently failing items on board for uplake use. Every boat has Starlink so everyone on board has full internet and mobile use. They have a system to track the boats uplake so if there's an emergency they know EXACTLY where you are. Share owners have the privilege of staying on the boat in their yard the night before early morning launch. Saves motel fees and since you can load/unload the houseboat by parking next the the boat their yard, no card load up and down the docks. Also they have their own sewer connection for pumping out the houseboats and their own fuel truck so you get Page, not ARA, pricing. Cuck
 
cfulton said:
MB,
In our minds the advantages of Laketime Shore Launch program FAR outweigh any shortcomings you cited. LT takes very good care of the boats, seldom a mechanical problem and they supply frequently failing items on board for uplake use. Every boat has Starlink so everyone on board has full internet and mobile use. They have a system to track the boats uplake so if there's an emergency they know EXACTLY where you are. Share owners have the privilege of staying on the boat in their yard the night before early morning launch. Saves motel fees and since you can load/unload the houseboat by parking next the the boat their yard, no card load up and down the docks. Also they have their own sewer connection for pumping out the houseboats and their own fuel truck so you get Page, not ARA, pricing.
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It's a great program, almost no drawbacks, lots of advantages, I agree. Most of my neighboring slips are filled with older timeshares, (like a dozen) I've seen a lot of sad timeshare heartache first hand. I would definitely do a Lake Time boat over most timeshares but I think I'd miss having a slip at times. Having the ability to decide to hunker down and stay in if it's windy or going just for a weekend if that's all the time you have is cool too. But I live nearby in Flagstaff and share with only one partner so I'm lucky to get up there a lot oftentimes on a whim. Freedom to go last minute, arrive late at night, wake up on the lake. Kinda fun!

Folks on lake based timeshares can get some of that too and often times their boats sit empty on off weeks or in the winter. I only mention the differences for the new house boater who was asking the questions. I wish I'd had Wayne's Word to get all the cool info from, to ask questions on, to hear opinions and discussions on, I had to learn the hard way, trial and error, lots of error. Lol
 
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