For around here add in a waiting time too for a nice marina. For the top one around here it is in that price range and has a 6 month waiting list. Also they don't store your trailer, most around here don't. So add that cost in as well.

I am $300 a month for indoor on trailer storage that is an hour to the water. I pay it cause I know I am in good hands and around here that is hard to find.

My son is 9 and is all about speed and boating. Like me he has been on the water sence he was In diapers but only his friends on the dock know what its all about not one of his friends from the neighborhood or his school but when I was his age there where alot of kids that where boaters. People manly say $$$ is at falt that the youth is not geting in to it and that is true but I also think the younger generation just dont want to work for what thay want. They would rather have less and have to do less to get by. I bust my a ss at work every day being a concrete finisher go have what we have. And every young kid we try or give a job dont last they say f this. So I think that the kids r lacking what we all here have and that is the drive and will to work hard and bust r a ss to get nice things in life that we want.

My son, who is now 21, starting boating at age 5. At first, he loved it. Nothing like watching video of a 6 year old skiing and tubing. At 9 he was jumping off the "cliffs" at LOTO in the State Park area by Party Cove. At 10 he was running around the desert beaches on Lake Mead and had his own jet ski (started riding/driving at age 7 with me behind him. Solo at 10 on our local lake during the week when no one was around). Then the teenage years arrived. He became less and less interested in going out with Mom and Dad on the lake. He was still OK if he took some friends for watersports but if it was just him you could tell he was disengaging. At 16, I gave him the choice. You no longer have to come out with Mom and Dad when we go boating. Come out if you want, don't come out if you don't. Since then I think he has been on our boat twice locally, a bit more than that when we are at LOTO. His interests and his friend's interest lay elsewhere. I don't know what more I could have done to make it a lifelong enjoyment for him as it has been for me. It's not that I would expect him to buy a boat anytime soon. Cars, schooling, and housing at some point are difficult enough these days for young people to afford. I would have expected though for him to have wanted to learn to operate the boat and take it out with buds on the weekends. Heck, he doesn't even have to tow it. Drop the lift and go! He does still like LOTO but only once a year during the summer. That is the only time he shows any interest in boating.

Agree....

I dodnt have much growing up, since I was a kid on Kelleys Island vacations I would see the offshores up front and told dad I will be there one day....I grew up a die hard gearhead building engines starting at 8 with dad... I would go rake leaves and shovel snow to get cool bikes my parents could not afford, to this day I bust my azz to pay cash for everything I do... I use no credit whatsoever besides my house....I have made mistakes, bad deals, good deals, but I have drive to keep going, never give up.. no turning back.... if the kids of today had that we would be much better off as a society!

I have to blame it on the parents ..its " easier" and " cheaper " to give " Johnny " a Play station or an XBox than to spend the time with their kids , taking them some where ..I see it all to often , be it boating , or flying planes .. I am currently finishing up my sons first boat of his own , and he will get it for XMas ..but he has also completed and received his boaters ID Card , and has a years worth of taking out my RIB under his belt .

I went through this, grew up on the water, practically lived on my parents boat. The restaraunt across from our cove was full of Miami vice every weekend, fast loud boats drugs booze all the good stuff lol. Around 14 or so I started getting into drag racing and spent less and less time on the water. Then while doing that I bought a new Harley, trucks, etc still had a beater 19' boat I used like twice a season. Chicks loved the bike, racing not as much. All of a sudden I woke up one day and said "wtf are you doing?" I went to tracks all over the east coast spent all day or weekend in the sun in a dirty parking lot working on cars and track managers eagle eyeing around for alcohol. Took my boat out with a couple friends instead of racing that weekend, partying going to bars, water skiing, etc. been racing twice since. That was 7 years and 5 boats ago. Now you can't get me off the water again. Weekends are for boating, not backyard parties or weddings. Do that stuff when it's cold

TOTALLY agree!!!!

...because we're all a bunch of punks
I'll be 22 in April, been racing since I was 16. Grew up watching my father race, build engines and run the marina, now I'm lucky enough to race with him.

I think I was 5 in this picture.[ATTACH=CONFIG]533573[/ATTACH]

This was just on CNN in relation to the home market and lending for homes. Millennials have money. But they prefer quality over quantity and would rather spend $30,000 on a vaction than a car. They are more into "life experience" than keeping up with the Jonses.

Also, as several others have said, millennials arent typically mechanically inclined.

Pretty much same here. I grew up running small jon boats and the old man's sea ray as a kid but always wished the throttle twisted around a few more times. I wanted a go-fast ever since I was my first Cig haul azz past us on the river. I bought my 253 Checkmate at 24, at 25 started building the motor. Still same hull, but 3rd motor doing it mostly myself with good advice but a few mistakes along the way. I started working as a contractor to a major oil company when I was 21. I work full time, still attend college to finish my Mechanical Engineering degree at 29 years old now. I never was much into video games. Used to really like to build off road trucks, but that was just as expensive and then when you broke it, it was a scrape and scramble to fix it being it was also a daily driver. I got tired of that. Progressed into snowmobiling and ice drag racing. Yep! Ridiculously expensive there too. I don't care what motor sport it is, to go fast and have something out of the ordinary, it required a constant hemorrhage of money. Once I realized that if I sold the sleds I could afford boating (which was always my ultimate toy goal) I sold them and bought my Checkmate, and have little desire to go back. I always build my toys, but yes it is cheaper to buy it built....but where's the fun in that?