I thought i would ask if there are any successful small businesses on your guy's water ways? Not talking Vessel Assist, oil rigs, or dredging, but vendors, bbq, bar's, bait, etc, that move around under their own power. What is it that they are selling and where are they located? Any names or pictures? Jaime

their is a 30' enclosed pontoon boat called water dog,,they sell hotdoge and hamburgers,theirs no fuel tank or any of its own power due to the coaste guard regulations...the boat is towed and ancored then at the end of the day its towed back to shore..

their is also a open bow boat with all the seats but the drivers and passengers out of the boat and their are small heater or alunimum boxs on board that keep pizza warm..ther are from a place called moretti's pizza and pasta.. boat boats are pull up and eat on your boat..

I really can't think of any successful ones in Texas on any lake even on Lewisville or Travis (probably the two most popular lakes in the state)

I think Travis had a floating Cstore years ago, but it seems to be long gone.....the prices were VERY high to the point it was like torture to shop there unless some girl was just bugging the hell out of you for sunscreen (who in the hell does not have at least one old bottle of sunscreen laying around somewhere on the boat) or a "drink" she had to have

and as for drinks I think that was probably part of the issue here in Texas I don't think you can sell beer without a fixed location and I don't think even a GPS point on the lake is a fixed location and even with a caterers license (the only way to sell away from a fixed location in Texas that is not an operating bar restaurant or Cstore or the like) I don't think a caterers license allows retail off premises sales (in other words beer to go) I think a caterers license only allows sales at the designated location at the designated times and to be consumed on the mapped premises location not to be taken elsewhere opened or unopened

alcohol seems to be one of the few things that it seems people will pay ANY amount of money for when they run out and they also never seem to bring enough of no matter how much they bring.....so without that market you are down to 3 dollar cans of coke, 12 dollar sun screen, and 25 dollar Tshirts and 9 dollar burgers and 8 dollar dogs......and people will just do without that or they will go ahead and dock and go to one of the few sit down places on the lakes with a dock and actually get off the boat to eat VS eating on the boat

add in the seasonality of boating even in a place like Texas with a very long season, the "trendy" and flighty nature of the types that have managed to get enough money for a boat and are still stupid enough to pay outrageous prices for things because of bad planning or because they think it is cool to pay too much for everything (and that many of those types are broke which is why Vegas and similar are broke) and you just don't make enough money

also at least on the major lakes in Texas I think there became an issue of no bathroom facilities, and also the desire by the operators of the lakes (LCRA, US Corps ect) to not have the lake turn into a floating junkyard of crap selling garbage and probably to also not cut into what they can charge for fees to put in docks and floating piers and the like

to me it is like food trucks (which I think are stupid as hell in 99% of instances)......you have fixed businesses paying property taxes, utilities, meeting restroom requirements, having waste disposal fees, being inspected regularly because they are easy to find at a fixed location......and then some idiot politician eager to collect that massive windfall of a $75 dollar food truck licensing fee allows those rolling junkyards to litter up an area and the next thing you know you have rolling garbage trucks parked in front of vacant buildings that used to be operating businesses and your property taxes decline, you have your PUBLIC garbage can over flowing and trash all over the ground and people pissing behind every dumpster and lamp post in sight......but yea our area is so hip and trendy and cool because people eat off a roach coach standing on a dirty sidewalk that smells like urine!!!.......in front of abandoned store fronts rotting.......and all that for a loss on taxes in the tens of thousands and a massive increase in cleanup, garbage cost, and spraying the piss off the sidewalk and gutters

besides seatow, boat rentals, docks/marinas, and the like (all the usual) I can't think of any single business or service that people are demanding (or especially that they would pay the needed price for) that would stand a chance of making it

even at Havasu, Mead, and the like when you watch the party vids on youtube (if you are really bored) I see nothing at all selling anything at all.....the closest I see is a large floating pontoon or old houseboat (usually doing a great impression of a floating junkyard with skulls and tribal armband/affliction/ed hardy/tapout "art" on it) and a bunch of massive sluts (the obligatory stripper pole of buffoons) and a REALLY REALLY poor sound system floating around crapping out the place with noise trying to promote some land or dock based business, but NOT selling anything and at most giving away a Tshirt per hour or something like that

Its been about 4or 5 yrs since a place called the Rockmore has been open in Salem harbor Mass. It is moored out in the middle of the harbor and is got to by Launch or you can tie up your boat on it. Its about 160 feet long by 30 wide. Serves mediocre food warm beer and frequently runs out of ice. But all that can be overcome because they have the location, location location. Its a perfect stop to make when coming back from the beach or having a nice evening of drinks and food on the water. It really is a great boating and tourist destination during the summer. The problem is , the owner is a total flake. A rich local trustfund guy who seems to piss off the local water police with his F-you I 'll do what I want attitude, he always seems to be in the dink. The last time it was open I was there at night. The local HM ratted it out to the Coasties for overloading and low and behold it was surrounded by a dozen boats with 50 coasties . The owner has been building a new float for a few years now and for those us in tune to the waterfront action , we are impatiently waitng for a re-opening. Maybe this will be the year.

Www.worldsbestboatcover.com, they come by pontoon and install track system boat covers, looking for dealers now!

www.thetipsyseagull.com
Bar on a barge

The Willy T

There was a one when Shell island use to be around that did VERY well. They sold drinks (no booze). food from the grill, cold subs, sun screen, beach balls, and things like that. Was a small barge like vessel and they looked to be doing very well from it.

A huricane came through though years ago and wiped shell island out along with some politics about the preserve. Since then I have not seen much of that boat these days.

At Tice's Shoal on Barnegat Bay here in NJ, there's a guy that sells hot dogs and sodas off a pontoon boat on the weekends.

No idea how well he does, but he always seems to be pretty busy.

There's also a guy that does the same with ice cream.

Guy and his wife up near the Tullytown Cove have a nice pontoon boat that moves under its own OB power and sells ice cream, sodas and snacks. great asset on those hot days. He comes to your boat while your anchored up.