I've been looking at renting a houseboat for a trip to Lake Powell but they seem really expensive. The cheapest I found was 1700/wk offseason for an old, small one. <BR> <BR>I found a few that you can purchase outright for about 18K (it's also old and fairly small). Since I recently moved to Utah and I plan on going to Powell more often, I'm thinking it might be worth it to buy one outright and then rent it out (around 1000/week or something) when I'm not using it myself. Any thoughts? Are there cheaper places to rent them? Anyone have a fractional ownership -- do they work out well? <BR> <BR>Anyone own one and rent it out?

I was discussing this with my all-knowing friend Scot (aka mesamc on wakeworld) and I think he said that Aramark have got a monopoly on rentals on Powell, and the private parties are not allowed to rent their boats out. Also ownership of boats is limited to max 12 parties.

Hmm...Interesting. I didn't consider that. I seriously question whether there's not a lot of corruption in the National Forest Service giving monopolies to recreational companies on public land. Pineview reservoir in Utah is run by a concessionaire and their launch fees are ridiculously high -- as are the houseboat rental rates at Powell. That sure seems wrong to me. Am I missing something or doesn't that sound kind of corrupt? <BR> <BR>I looked on the net and couldn't find anything about Aramark being the only one allowed to rent but I also can't find anyone else that rents. Anyone else know anything about this?

This information sounds right to me. I used to go to Powell every summer on our houseboat and that was how it was when I was going. It does seem wrong to give somebody a monopoly when it is controlled by the gov.

If you are looking into buying a share on a boat, I would suggest looking at craigslist in either Denver or SLC. I know there are quite a few in Denver, in which the original price aren't very high but you also have to pay the fees for the year but from what i have found is that you can get into a relatively nice boat for (relatively) cheap.

the gov. works on contract. that is why aramark is the only people who are allow to "rent" house boats. they won the contract. sucks but that is the way it is.

slxm it is BS. last year a bought the Utah State Park pass for like $70 and I can go to ANY state park and launch. Then only to find out that pineview (concessionair)wants $150 for the season. you would think that the feds woud offer the same kind of deal for boaters like the state, they dont.

The only other consessionaire on Lake powell other than Aramark is Antelope Point. It is owned and Operated by a Native America Tribe. They have very nice rentals and all of thier houseboats are only about 3-4 years old. If you plan to go to Powell every year then Fractional Ownership is the only way to go. Over the course of 2-3 years you will have made up the money it would take if you rented each year. Expect to pay 12-15K to get into a good used 75' x 16' boat. Personnaly I would not buy into anything older than a 2003. Here are a couple of sites that may interest you. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.sunrisepeak.com" target="_blank">www.sunrisepeak.com</a> <BR><a href="http://www.windwalkerhb.com/windwalker.htm" target="_blank">http://www.windwalkerhb.com/windwalker.htm</a> <BR><a href="http://www.iboats.com/sites/execyacht/site_page_337/" target="_blank">http://www.iboats.com/sites/execyacht/site_page_337/</a> <BR> <BR>Its the only way to go: <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/552407.jpg" alt="Upload">

E double U, <BR> <BR>Thanks for all of the info. I'll check it out. I found a few on boattrader.com that looked kind of interesting (fractional shares). But, the annual maintenance fees seem really high -- 2K a year on some of them. I'll have to look into it more. <BR> <BR>Matt, <BR> <BR>I have friends that have wave-runners and will never go to Pineview again. First, they charged them the daily launch fee for each waverunner (meaning the annual pass would be $300 for 2 waverunners). Then, the husband had to go pick something up (leaving the wife, friends and the waverunners on the lake) and they charged him again when he came back in with an empty trailer.

Try <a href="http://ksl.com" target="_blank">http://ksl.com</a> under boats with motors. Yeah as far as renting boats Powell is pretty much a joke. I rented a 2-stroke outboard "wakeboarding" boat from the concessions for 350 per day. If I was you, rent a motorhome, you can park it close to the beach, you will spend far less. If you can find a bunch of folks to go in on the house boat with ya then it’s a lot more affordable.

I have looked at a lot of groups to buy into shares and it is hard to find a group that does not have a yearly fee of $1500 or more. By the time you add up insurance, maintenance (lots of things get abused on houseboats) and slip fees, you have a lot of overhead. Not to mention the soon to be frequent mussel cleanup. <BR> <BR>The insurance is pretty pricey, as it is not unusual for people who don't know what they are doing to blow and engine or sink it. Also, Lake Powell is treacherous. The big cliffs you see going up hundreds of feet...the underwater terrain is the same, so your depth meter can say 300 feet...the next thing you know, you have run aground.

We have a shared ownership houseboat at Powell. This is our 2nd one. We used to rent every year and that will add up fast. Rental boats comparable are about 10K a week. We went in on a share with another family so it isn't that bad on the wallet. We found the one we have now on ebay, 2yrs old. The yearly maintenance fees are about 1K and then you have to pay for launch and retrieval. That and misc add up to about $1500 plus fuel. <BR>It's worth it, one of the best family vacations on earth.

How can you be prevented from renting out your own personal property???? I don't understand... if you placed an add in the paper or online, it's not like the local police or the FBI are gonna come knocking on your door. So how does that work?

<a href="http://phoenix.craigslist.org/boa/593087645.html" target="_blank">http://phoenix.craigslist.org/boa/593087645.html</a>

Tanner, <BR> <BR>One of the obstacles to renting your week out is the insurance. If the renters sink the boat, you would possibly be SOL. I think the people who insure these are usually pretty uptight that one of the 'owners' be there at all times. I might be wrong, but I think that is one of the principle challenges there. <BR> <BR>Not to mention, that since the whole industry at the lake is regulated by the government, there are a lot of rules that restrict certain freedoms.

Tanner, <BR>The only person who can check out the Houseboat for that week is the one who has it ( assigned to that week) in the books. Most of these Shared ownership Houseboats are managed by a company who takes care of them. Thus if you are not on the Contract you will not be able to take the houseboat out. They also are the ones who launch and retrieve them or pull them out of the slip. Bottom line there is prettty much no way you can rent out your house boat unless you are physically there to check the boat out and in.

O I didn't know you guys were talking about "shared ownership" .... I thought you meant you can't rent your own $200+K boat out, that you own yourself.

<a href="http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ssd/boa/607518772.html" target="_blank">http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ssd/boa/607518772.html</a>

Check out the classifieds of KSL.com, if you want to buy anything in Utah they are the place to go. I buy bikes, atv's boats and snowmobiles off that site. They have houseboat timeshares go really cheap on there. We bought our share for $1,000 a couple of years ago. Costs about $1,500 yearly, plus gas each time. -Of course ours was a lucky buy. <img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/559042.jpg" alt="Upload">