I am currently working on organizing a trip for 12-15 people from Texas to Lake Powell in mid-May of next year. As none of us have ever been to Powell I would appreciate any advice or recommendations that can be had. We are planning on arriving on a Sunday and leaving on the next Friday. <BR> <BR>Best place to rent a houseboat <BR>Best type/size of houseboat to rent <BR>Typical other necessities used <BR>Amount of gas needed for boats <BR> <BR>Thanks for the help! <BR>

Zack, <BR> <BR>I am going to email you some info that I put together for a trip last summer. The last page has a cost estimate for stuff that was pretty accurate. We had 15 people, with 2 skiboats. <BR> <BR>As for some of your questions above. <BR> <BR>I believe only aramark can rent houseboats. <BR>You probably want the 59 ft admiral class. <BR>your gas usage will depend on how far away along the lake the houseboat travels. You won't be using much for the generator on the houseboat since you won't have to run A/C much. <BR> <BR>I got some great tips about places to check out and ways to make things easier. One of the best tips was to get there early enough on the day before the rental starts and check-in/preboard. It costs ~300 bucks, but you can stay on the boat that night, either in the marina or take it out for a short cruise to a beach. You will get a great start on the next day (thanks Mike B. for the tip).

Bobby - thanks for the PPT - that's exactly the type of thing I was working on.

<a href="http://www.wakeboardnebraska.com/powell/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.wakeboardnebraska.com/powell/index.htm</a>

Zack, Bobby is correct on the rental issue-only aramark as they have the concession contract for the lake. There are diferent marinas to rent from though and I see you are in Texas so you will probably go out of Hite or Halls crossing at the more eastery end of the lake, I have little experience at that end but have heard some good things about it. <BR>You will for sure want the Admiral class boat with 12-15 people. Obviously enough food, drinks, water, sunscreen, etc. for the week, as far as gas goes bring as many plastic fuel cans as you have room for, we bring 90 gal. in plastic drums and our houseboat has a 140 gal. toy tank and this works for 2 boats for the week. <BR>here are some sites to check out. <BR><a href="http://www.elakepowell.com/freds/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.elakepowell.com/freds/index.htm</a> <BR><a href="http://www.summittech.com/LakePowell/LP_WaterDB.php" target="_blank">http://www.summittech.com/LakePowell/LP_WaterDB.php</a> <BR><a href="http://www.wayneswords.com/" target="_blank">http://www.wayneswords.com/</a>

leave the hens at home. if you do decide to <BR>bring the wives bring lots of "patron", it will start to ease the tension after 9 days out. <BR>i'm just sayin!

One piece of advice that really helped us...when driving the houseboat and towing your ski boats, use about half throttle. Full throttle will get you there about 15min sooner and burn twice as much gas.

Hey Zack, just curious about your profile, what aspect of offshore oil do you work in. Dallas is a long way from either the heliports or docks. I spent 9 years in S. Louisiana as a commercial diver, mostly pipeline construction and platform inspection. The Powell trip sounds like a blast.

Jonathan - my company (National Oilwell) sells drilling equipment to the major drilling contractors. I've spent a good bit of time in S Louisiana (Venice, Cameron, etc).