Has Anyone Else Noticed?
 

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that folks started pulling their boats out earlier than usual?

I am one of those "Early In, Late Out" boaters and have seen the marinas and boat yards have been busy a lot earlier than usual. Yesterday I was talking with owner of the boat yard that services and stores my boat and he mentioned he's been a lot busier than usual since Labor Day. His 'itinerant ' parking lot has been full every day and his crew has been working a lot of overtime working through the backlog. He said he's never seen so many boats come out so early and he can't keep up.

Have any of you pulled your boats early? I am pulling mine out about two weeks earlier than I usually do.

Yes, weather has been iffy at best


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Pulled ours last Wednesday. Out of valet and into storage. Last month of the season was lost as we were too busy building an addition.

We finished closing down this past weekend. Normally we stay out till mid November but projects at our main home required us to be there.

We had a great summer!

Dan

I think you hit it on the head with your "we had a great summer" comment. We had so much good weather this summer that we were "summered out" and needed to get to some of the chores we had put off. We usually bring Boatie Two in one of the last two weekends of October, but this year she went in the first Saturday of October.

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This year I pulled my boat early due to calendar constraints.

There was no hope of boating during October as I was going to be elsewhere.

My choice was the first week of October or November.

I went with warmer.

It was a great summer!
 

I have to agree that it was a great summer. We were out on the lake alot this summer, probably the most we've been out in over 15 years. We weren't 'summered out', but weather has played a small part in my decision as it has been a little cooler than normal.

I have a feeling we're going to see an early winter this year.

The weather has not been that good

When living on Cape Cod the boat went out in December, back in first of March.
Now, at my age it comes out real early. October 15 at the latest. Then wish it was still in.

_________________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

Anyone with kids in school likely has a full calendar of weekend sports. That wasn’t as big a thing “back in the day”. We rarely missed a weekend from Memorial Day to Columbus Day.

I pulled mid-September, but I was making the big move to Florida...can't take 22" snowstorms alone. Even if I had stayed longer, my seasonal place shuts water off on Columbus Day.

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Lake's Drawing Down, So...
 

Oversized boats have to come out earlier! :eek2:

My last boat to come out is my 17-foot canoe! ;)

Relatively low lake level
 

I'm assuming the relatively low lake level (lowest fall level since 2016) has a lot to do with it. People with shallow docks had no choice.

I for one, am enjoying the less populated waters and will do so through the month of October.

took mine out a couple weeks ago due to lake depth.

Sunday Funday
 

Took a 15mph round trip ride from Meredith to Wolfboro and back yesterday.
Saw about 25-30 boats total. Loved it and even the broads were fairly calm.
We take our pontoon out early November. We try to enjoy every calm / warmish day in October with the lake mostly to ourselves.

I think it all really depends on peoples schedules. Myself my goal this year was for my pontoon to stay in until the end of Oct. I am well on the way to achieving that... but a host of surprises have kept me from being up there to use it.

My Speedboat, is always out of the water, by the 2nd or 3rd week of Sept. because of depth concerns...... and I would rather not worry, then have to run up in the middle of the week and pull it out.....

People comment all the time about the lake being low, well it really isn't... yes there was oops momment last week when the dam was opened up, in case the nor-easter, dropped a crap ton of rain... But that didn't happen, so no the lake is a few inches lower then intended.... The goal is always to have the lake at 503 ft. when they close it after Columbus day weekend, to the minimum flow of 50 cfs. Why, because for the next two weeks, they can't open it back up... some years we get a lot of rain, and the pond ends up full again.... some years it only comes back up a few inches.... you just never know....

Overall the lake level has been very well controlled the last couple of years.... I think the bigger overall trend, is that boaters, on the lake are really only interested in the fun and sun... When they can't be basking in the sun, and floating in the water, they have no use to be at the lake, so the don't come.... Add in that your average Winnipesaukee water front home owner, is coming from further and further away, after a few months, long weekend trips get old.... When I started coming to the lake, most people where from massachusetts, and a few from Ct. and NY.... over the years, more people from those area's as well as NJ have started to become season home owners.... when you are coming from that far away.... you really only want to afford the cost when the weather is ideal......

Anyway I will stop rambling.... FLL seems to be rubbing off on me, as I am doing more and more rambling these days, if I ever mention walmart however, I may have to ask someone to smack me...

Valet ended yesterday so I'm all done. The service department said that a lot of other lakes have gone very low and they are getting a lot of those boats, who service/store at the marina, earlier than usual. It's been a juggling act to keep boats for valet available while parking the boats for service and storage. Now that valet has stopped they can layer the stored boats several layers deep.

Has Anyone Else Noticed
 

This story goes back close to 30 years. My secretary at the time, and her husband, had a place Morrison Cove. We owned one of the boat slips at Channel Marine. One Monday she came in and casually mentioned that the lake had gone down a foot. I thought that a little strange as everything seemed about the same over on my side of the lake. The next two Mondays she again mentioned that the lake had gone down another foot. That was three feet in a period of just over two weeks. They were planning on taking their boat out the following weekend because the water was so low. Being wise beyond my years I knew not to argue with my secretary. Everything still seemed fairly normal on my side of the lake and I always checked the depth chart by the bridge when I went out through the channel. The Mount was still making her runs so I assumed that I would still be okay out on the lake with my boat.

Then the lightbulb in my head finally turned on. I realized that she was telling the truth. The lake had actually gone down three feet in the past couple of weeks. She was measuring the exposed sand on her beach on Morrison Cove which had one of the most gradual slopes that I had ever seen. Three more feet of exposed sand in her mind translated to the lake going down three more feet. The lake itself, depth wise, had probably gone down an inch or two at most.

That's really funny. I am always amazed about how different people will interpret the same things completely differently.

At our place at LSP I was actually saying the complete opposite. I thought there were more boats than usual still in the water this weekend. Yes a lot were being pulled out on Sunday and I'm sure today (I had to work so was not there).
I was contributing this, at least at our park, to the fact that more and more people aren't winterizing it themselves. They are bringing the boats to marinas or having other companies taking the boat out. Our family is one of them, this boat, 25' bow rider, was just too big to pull out with the family Sable wagon at the time of boat purchase so we didn't get a trailer and just bring it over the the marina to have them take it out.
I guess it just depends on where you are and what your looking at, boats on the big lake or boats already out?

Awfully lot of boats out there!
 

Saturday the lake was practically a zoo! Didn't notice there was a lot of boats going into storage! Guess it was weather related.

Yesterday traffic was must better, but still a lot of boats!

My marina did send out the winterizing notice early. Since marinas increased boat storage, valet service etc. They need to get a big jump to do the job on the same amount of people or less. Hard to hire people!

Remember last fall, when the totally unexpected early freeze caught a lot of people of guard? I think that has to do with it as well!

Crazy at Wolfeboro
 

This Sunday at Wolfeboro was the longest I've had to wait for a dock all summer. When we arrived, there were 8 boats ahead of us, with 3 being very large cruisers that needed prime end spots. During the wait, a really nice 40'+ Formula pulled up, but didn't stay long. We usually try and go after the lunch rush ends, but people were staying long. But, was a top 10 day of the summer with calm wind and total sun!

We were there around 1pm sitting up at the bar overlooking the docks. I was surprised at how busy it was but it was a great looking day.

Alton's docks were also full Sunday afternoon. We watched a few boats waiting while we waited for our food at Shibley's (which was also packed). I'm glad we had some nice weather for what was probably our last cruise this year and I'm sure the businesses were happy people were out leaf peeping (although the staff may have been overwhelmed with the large crowds).