DON’T Bring your boat to Lake Minnetonka!

[Jackdaw]

Due to its proximity to Minneapolis and a relative scarcity of slips, Lake Minnetonka has developed a reputation as being the most expensive place to keep your boat per foot in the United States. With COVID-19 driving up the number of new power boaters this year, things just got crazy for slips. Look at this plea on Facebook looking for a place to keep their boat.

That’s $416 a foot, for those keeping score at home.

 

[Michael Davis]

At that price I’d have to give up boating ( or the house....ummmm)!

 

[MitchM]

worse than florida!

 

[Jackdaw]

At that price I’d have to give up boating ( or the house....ummmm)!

Here is the good news.

WYC owns our land, our building and docks debt-free. If you sail and race, the slip fee is $100/foot.

 

[Michael Davis]

Here is the good news.

WYC owns our land, our building and docks debt-free. If you sail and race, the slip fee is $100/foot.

I take it that is per year. Ours is $4.25cdn/foot per month and I sail year round.

 

[dlochner]

Well, I won't be moving my boat to Lake Minnetonka anytime soon for lots of reasons. Even the WYC slip fee is more than I pay for summer and winter here in upstate NY.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

How long is the sailing season there?
$$$/day must be pretty impressive.

 

[shemandr]

How's the ice boating? Cradle, some blades and Blue Jay will fly! For about a 100 yards.
Do you have any of those boat clubs there? I'm beginning to suspect that those clubs are putting a lot of people on the water who weren't. Not for the better.
On the East End of LI, prices basically put me out of owning a boat. I became OPB man. Florida is just as bad - and there's no Winter layup. I'll figure it out.

 

[berner73]

Sorry to say this, but if I'm reading it correctly these numbers are in line with what you'd pay in the larger markets of New England. Depending on where you're at and what's covered from a services perspective, you get to $10K pretty quickly. A lot of marina's charge by LOA or slip size, whichever is greater. So a 24' boat is paying for a 30' slip regardless. For in/out or 'valet' service, it's about $200/ft a Summer not including winter storage or any other services. Add commissioning, decommissioning, winter storage, shrink wrap, etc. and you're at $10K in the blink of an eye.

 

[shemandr]

Sorry to say this, but if I'm reading it correctly these numbers are in line with what you'd pay in the larger markets of New England. Depending on where you're at and what's covered from a services perspective, you get to $10K pretty quickly. A lot of marina's charge by LOA or slip size, whichever is greater. So a 24' boat is paying for a 30' slip regardless. For in/out or 'valet' service, it's about $200/ft a Summer not including winter storage or any other services. Add commissioning, decommissioning, winter storage, shrink wrap, etc. and you're at $10K in the blink of an eye.

Yep! I once figured with boat payments, insurance etc my boat was costing me north of 20K a year. Then the Great Recession hit ... No boat, no more.

 

[justsomeguy]

"Summarization".

 

[Jackdaw]

Sorry to say this, but if I'm reading it correctly these numbers are in line with what you'd pay in the larger markets of New England. Depending on where you're at and what's covered from a services perspective, you get to $10K pretty quickly. A lot of marina's charge by LOA or slip size, whichever is greater. So a 24' boat is paying for a 30' slip regardless. For in/out or 'valet' service, it's about $200/ft a Summer not including winter storage or any other services. Add commissioning, decommissioning, winter storage, shrink wrap, etc. and you're at $10K in the blink of an eye.

I am not saying that it’s the most expensive market in the world. And I’m sure there are other places that are similar. But if you get a slip that’s 25% longer than your boat and have to pay for that, that’s your own fault. In any case, it certainly skews the math.

 

[danstanford]

I am not saying that it’s the most expensive market in the world. And I’m sure there are other places that are similar. But if you get a slip that’s 25% longer than your boat and have to pay for that, that’s your own fault. In any case, it certainly skews the math.

The answer seems simple, buy a bigger boat!

 

[Apex]

Lake Michigan, Muskegon fees were very reasonable. Traverse City, slip fees was a jump up, but so are the amenities at just south of $100/ft for the season. It is the launch and retrieval fees that really hurts. I have a storage unit, unheated. So just haul out (on own cradle with a local launch ramp) and a crane to drop mast then a 2mile jaunt to storage costs in the 700-800range. Same for splashing.

 

[Jackdaw]

"Summarization".

I chuckled at that too. Newbies.

 

[Jackdaw]

How's the ice boating? Cradle, some blades and Blue Jay will fly! For about a 100 yards.
Do you have any of those boat clubs there? I'm beginning to suspect that those clubs are putting a lot of people on the water who weren't. Not for the better.
On the East End of LI, prices basically put me out of owning a boat. I became OPB man. Florida is just as bad - and there's no Winter layup. I'll figure it out.

We have many members with ice boats, But the problem is, you have to drive (often 100s of miles overnight) to find clear ice. Once snow covered, your lake is done.

WYC now has a SnowKite fleet. Here you WANT the snow on the ice; which is the state for 95% of the winter!

And there are no storage fees!

MN snowkiters, once a solitary group, are learning from Lake Minnetonka sailors

“Lone wolf” snowkiting enthusiasts in Minnesota have hooked their foils to an established pack of wind experts — sailors — and are hoping to ride into a stronger, more competitive futur…

www.twincities.com

 

[Jackdaw]

Do you have any of those boat clubs there? I'm beginning to suspect that those clubs are putting a lot of people on the water who weren't. Not for the better.

Oh boat clubs. Now talk about clueless. You don't even have to be able to DOCK the dumb boat; some kid will come and do that for you. But you're on your own on the lake, and that where the idiocy happens.

 

[dlochner]

Sailing in my neck of the woods has spoiled me, the season is short, but no tides and lots of deep open water. Even more so the cost of sailing is very low. Seasonal dockage at fixed dock with power and water a little over $2K, Haulout, winter storage, mast up and down, about $1.3K. Insurance $850, total about $4K to be on the water. This for a 36 ft boat.

On the other hand, the nearest West Marine is about 75 miles away and there is a dearth of skilled labor.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I chuckled at that too. Newbies.

It’s not funny - a frame of reference thing.

In the land where winterization means nothing more than pumping up the fenders, summarization is an onerous task. One year we were forced to take the boat to Antigua to store her. If we leave her here, summarization involves turning the knob on the A/C on and adjusting the temperature (on two controls), covering the teak seats, erecting the awning over the foredeck, putting the silly cover on the yellow shore power cable, etc.... summarization is a bit#h.

 

[RoyS]

I was happy in a nearby marina until it was bought by a power boat selling company. They really disliked sailboats. Said I could keep my slip but winter storage was for power boats only. At that time there were only six sailboats and about four hundred power boats in that marina. Had a difficult time finding winter storage last year. There is little land left that does not have condos on it. Finally found a suitable marina about twenty minutes drive away that is not hostile to sailboats and there I will stay. Looking around, the power boats are getting newer and the sailboats (and sailors) are getting older. Some of the older sailors are getting trawlers. We sailors are, I fear, a dying breed. Our time has passed.