Boat Rentals

[PrivatePilot]

The boats your friends are looking at are probably more trouble than they are worth if home base is in Scugog. A 32' I/O cruiser will draft 30" drives up, 40" drives down, which limits operation in most of the lake to the nav channel.

They've had a 35' IO on Scugog for coming up on about 7 or 8 years now. It's perfectly fine, we can even belly it up to the sand bar without any issue. Yeah, you need to be careful when you're out of the chanel, but only a handful of times has water depth ever been an issue even in the chanel, about 4-5 years ago when they released way too much water out of the lake in the spring and then it was a dry summer.

Scugog has a bad reputation, but not all of it is warranted. Those who have spent any time on it know that it can actually be a nice lake. It's not Balsam or whatever, but it's also only 20 minutes from where we both live, so it's super convenient.

The only reason for what looks like will be a lateral move when it's said and done is that the current boat has an engine that has gone bad, and the boat may also be nearing end of life for other reasons so it may not make sense to repair, so moving up to something somewhat more modern as well at the same time also makes sense in the bigger picture.

 

[Mad Mike]

They've had a 35' IO on Scugog for coming up on about 7 or 8 years now. It's perfectly fine, we can even belly it up to the sand bar without any issue. Yeah, you need to be careful when you're out of the chanel, but only a handful of times has water depth ever been an issue even in the chanel, about 4-5 years ago when they released way too much water out of the lake in the spring and then it was a dry summer.

Scugog has a bad reputation, but not all of it is warranted. Those who have spent any time on it know that it can actually be a nice lake. It's not Balsam or whatever, but it's also only 20 minutes from where we both live, so it's super convenient.

The only reason for what looks like will be a lateral move when it's said and done is that the current boat has an engine that has gone bad, and the boat may also be nearing end of life for other reasons so it may not make sense to repair, so moving up to something somewhat more modern as well at the same time also makes sense in the bigger picture.

I’ve spent lots of time on Scugog, its at its best when frozen.

 

[85K100]

I've spent lots of time on frozen Scugog. Plenty of springs and shoals makes for bad ice at the best of times.

 

[Gary]

 

[Mad Mike]

I've spent lots of time on frozen Scugog. Plenty of springs and shoals makes for bad ice at the best of times.

Yup. Never went through the ice myself, lots of friends did. I remember going from a bar in town across to Goreski’s trailer park on a -30 night.

All my buddies had Olympics and Safaris they went thru right in the middle of the south end. I has an MXZ and made it over the open stuff.

Nice thing is you can stand up when you go thru in mist of the lake.

 

[85K100]

Fun times on Scugog!

 

[PrivatePilot]

Meh, my family had a cottage on Scugog growing up and we all like it as a result, it is what you make of it I guess. Convenience to home is a big factor for my sister and BIL. Rice or Sturgeon are both twice as far away, and there’s zero desire to put the boat on Ontario.

I did go through it once on a snowmobile however, I agree with its ice being unpredictable. You’d better know where you’re going, especially now that winters aren’t as cold as they used to be.

 

[crankcall]

Every lake has that spot you need to stay away from . Friends cottage on horseshoe lake has a rock shoal near him . Most summers two or three boats will find it and he tows them home . Last year was a new owner on the lake that whacked it with 21ft pontoon. Boat was literally 1hr old , he was 2miles from the launch ramp. We are building some self leveling bouys to mark it ( he feels bad for people) trouble is the shoal is about 60ft long so you need markers every 10ft or muppets run between them .


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[GreyGhost]

Every lake has that spot you need to stay away from . Friends cottage on horseshoe lake has a rock shoal near him . Most summers two or three boats will find it and he tows them home . Last year was a new owner on the lake that whacked it with 21ft pontoon. Boat was literally 1hr old , he was 2miles from the launch ramp. We are building some self leveling bouys to mark it ( he feels bad for people) trouble is the shoal is about 60ft long so you need markers every 10ft or muppets run between them .


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Be careful marking hazards. The same idiots that crash into hazards like to sue anybody they can as it's never the drivers fault. Drop the buoys anonymously in the night so you aren't on the list of defendants.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Every lake has that spot you need to stay away from . Friends cottage on horseshoe lake has a rock shoal near him . Most summers two or three boats will find it and he tows them home . Last year was a new owner on the lake that whacked it with 21ft pontoon. Boat was literally 1hr old , he was 2miles from the launch ramp. We are building some self leveling bouys to mark it ( he feels bad for people) trouble is the shoal is about 60ft long so you need markers every 10ft or muppets run between them .


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Never fails to amaze me the people that will spend $50-$100K on a boat, but won’t spend $50 on charts and 15 minutes looking at them to see where they shouldn’t go on any particular lake.

My BIl has a chartplotter app on an iPad that we use when on longer trips. I think it’s something like $50 a year. Cheaper than a single propellor much less anything bigger.

 

[mimico_polak]

Never fails to amaze me the people that will spend $50-$100K on a boat, but won’t spend $50 on charts and 15 minutes looking at them to see where they shouldn’t go on any particular lake.

My BIl has a chartplotter app on an iPad that we use when on longer trips. I think it’s something like $50 a year or something. Cheaper than a single propellor much less anything bigger.

That's insane. No different than going to a new city / town / country without a map/GPS. Why would anyone go onto a new / unfamiliar lake without having some type of map to identify hazards.

I guess it's the 'if I can't see it it's not an issue' type of mentality.

As a non-boater (yet)...safe to say that the big lakes have maps of the hazards and small lakes do not?

 

[GreyGhost]

That's insane. No different than going to a new city / town / country without a map/GPS. Why would anyone go onto a new / unfamiliar lake without having some type of map to identify hazards.

I guess it's the 'if I can't see it it's not an issue' type of mentality.

As a non-boater (yet)...safe to say that the big lakes have maps of the hazards and small lakes do not?

Most lakes you would boat on have maps. Paper maps are getting harder to come by but if you plan on visiting a lot of lakes, GPS with hydro maps should be good enough.

Even with maps, local knowledge helps. In-laws lake has literally hundreds of unmarked rocks and stumps that would be easy to hit it you didn't know where they were.

 

[Mad Mike]

That's insane. No different than going to a new city / town / country without a map/GPS. Why would anyone go onto a new / unfamiliar lake without having some type of map to identify hazards.

I guess it's the 'if I can't see it it's not an issue' type of mentality.

As a non-boater (yet)...safe to say that the big lakes have maps of the hazards and small lakes do not?

Garmin Navionics is a software you can get to help avoid Nautical disasters. It's pricy, $200+/year but easy and good. I used it for years when subscriptions were free to $25/year.

I do less boating these days, mostly small lakes fishing. I switched to iboating app and gpsnautical charts - $20/year and does everything I need.

 

[crankcall]

Raymarine has a deal with navionics so that’s what you’ll get in a Ray plotter . I’m using a Garmin plotter but it’s almost 7yrs old so a bit behind on tech.
Once the law changed and you are not required to carry paper charts they became like the dinosaurs. On small lakes there will be about a billion rocks that are not charted , charts were mostly updated for commercial traffic , bass fishing Fred is largely on his own


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[GreyGhost]

small lakes there will be about a billion rocks that are not charted , charts were mostly updated for commercial traffic , bass fishing Fred is largely on his own


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Add in level swings of 6'+ common on cottage country lakes and unless you have some fancy system linked to real time water levels, even with accurate hydro maps, you get a guide at best.

 

[crankcall]

So how accurate are these electronic plotters ? We leave New York harbour headed to Bermuda , boat owner sets the plotter for the bell bouy that is 5 nm north of Bermuda in the Atlantic, it’s 8ft around and 12ft high , steel , with a bell on it. At 3am we hear ding ding dong whack. Hit it almost square after 400 miles of sailing . That’s accurate.


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[nobbie48]

Add in level swings of 6'+ common on cottage country lakes and unless you have some fancy system linked to real time water levels, even with accurate hydro maps, you get a guide at best.

If the lake is a reservoir they can drain it completely to keep the Trent open. It happens so rarely people forget until they get to their cottage on a mud flat.

 

[Mad Mike]

Add in level swings of 6'+ common on cottage country lakes and unless you have some fancy system linked to real time water levels, even with accurate hydro maps, you get a guide at best.

Modern bathy apps have a programmable offset that deals with water level changes. Some of the better launches have depth markers, if not Env Canada publishes Real-Time Hydrometric Data for most of the province's waterways.

Real-Time Hydrometric Data Map Search - Water Level and Flow - Environment Canada

wateroffice.ec.gc.ca

 

[PrivatePilot]

These brokers, I tell ya'.....

Since I've been looking at nothing but boats for the last 2 months on Facebook Marketplace, now Marketplace feeds me nothing but boats of course.

One caught my eye today as a possible plan B option if the one we're looking at Monday doesn't pan out. So I went to message the person, only to discover I'd actually messaged him already about 2 weeks ago.

It was a broker, it turned out. Didn't seem to understand that FB blocks out direct contact info like he posted in ad, so big parts of the ad are "[Hidden Information]", but anyways, we exchanged a few messages via FB messenger on the boat in question, but then I asked some very basic questions:

- The photos didn't show a full top, only a bimini. But there's buttons for a full top in the photos. Does it actually include a serviceable full top?
- Is it Alpha or Bravo stern drives.

That was almost 2 weeks ago. Crickets since. He hasn't even read my message for that matter.

It's like half these guys don't actually even want to sell the boats they're listing.

In related news, if someone knows the owner of a Cruiser Yachts 3275 somewhere around Bobcaygeon, please tell him that his broker isn't really trying to sell his boat.

 

[nobbie48]

These brokers, I tell ya'.....

Since I've been looking at nothing but boats for the last 2 months on Facebook Marketplace, now Marketplace feeds me nothing but boats of course.

One caught my eye today as a possible plan B option if the one we're looking at Monday doesn't pan out. So I went to message the person, only to discover I'd actually messaged him already about 2 weeks ago.

It was a broker, it turned out. Didn't seem to understand that FB blocks out direct contact info like he posted in ad, so big parts of the ad are "[Hidden Information]", but anyways, we exchanged a few messages via FB messenger on the boat in question, but then I asked some very basic questions:

- The photos didn't show a full top, only a bimini. But there's buttons for a full top in the photos. Does it actually include a serviceable full top?
- Is it Alpha or Bravo stern drives.

That was almost 2 weeks ago. Crickets since. He hasn't even read my message for that matter.

It's like half these guys don't actually even want to sell the boats they're listing.

In related news, if someone knows the owner of a Cruiser Yachts 3275 somewhere around Bobcaygeon, please tell him that his broker isn't really trying to sell his boat.

Years ago there was a Bertram on a trailer for sale in Port Credit marina. A hull kicker had opened the hatches but never bothered closing anything. It had so much rainwater in it the trailer was developing a hernia.

No one from the brokerage had bothered to pull a drain plug or close the hatches.