Breakwater Cost?
 

We are on the south side of Rattlesnake (opposite Smith Point) and we get some decent chop coming down the lake on windy days. It hasn't been a big deal up until now as our boat is no show queen and can take some rough treatment.

This year, we are thinking about getting a new(er) boat and I am a bit more worried about the beating it will take. So I am thinking about adding a breakwater, but have no idea how much one would cost. We have LOTS of good rocks on the property, but the water gets really deep quickly and drops to 20ft by the end of the existing dock.

The other plus to a breakwater dock is not pulling the dock every year.

What do people think? Pros/cons? Too expensive? Other options for keeping a boat from getting too beaten up?

Breakwater cost
 

I was interested in a breakwater when living in Winter Harbor and had had my boat damaged by the high winds, but, to my surprise, when I inquired to the State I was told I was not in a "zone" that qualified for a breakwater. I double checked with a gentleman who worked for a company doing marine work and he was their "permit" guy, and he concurred, even though I had a roll of pictures documenting the damage. Several years later we sold, and wouldn't you know, the new owners 'mysteriously' received a permit and had a breakwater built about twice the size of what I applied for.

The moral of this little story: Before you make too many plans including your breakwater, check the permitting process and have a permit in hand before you so much as turn over one single rock.

And yes, when it comes to breakwaters, size does matter.

We built a house on the southwestern side of Barndoor in 2011. We hired Winnipesaukee Marine Construction to build the breakwater. The breakwater is L shaped 30'X36' cost ran around $30,000. They took care of doing all the paperwork to get the permit and did an amazing job. The late John Bridges was our realtor and always said a breakwater is an extension of your property and he was right on.

Lakes Region Marine, now Ambrose Marine, built my breakwater in 2010 for about $30K as well. They use a picture of it on their web site. I thought we had a lot of rocks too but our water drops quickly to almost 20' by the end of it they had to bring in barge after barge. Their "rock guy" at the time really knew his stuff. It was fascinating to watch him fit each stone into place.

Mine is in an area that is not in the designated zone and I can tell you from experience that if that's the case they do not just mysteriously appear. If memory serves you have to prove continuous waves of 2' or more lasting 4 hours or longer on 4 separate days between May 15 and October 15. Even if you have those conditions regularly its really tough to prove it. The wave heights are tough to judge from a picture.

Thanks for the information guys :cheers:

You could always get a lift. For a 20' boat you would be looking in the price range of $7500. This would be a good option if don't want to spend a lot of money on a breakwater. Judging by the depth at the end of your dock it sounds like a breakwater might cost you more than 30k. Northeastdockstore.com

Yeah but can a lift do this?
 

It's always fun this time of year to watch the wind drive the spring ice up onto the breakwater.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cKxUFXHm9cY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>