Where to Anchor
 

Hello. I am new to the group. Can somebody suggest where to anchor or public mooring/berths for overnight? Anywhere in the Winnipesaukee lakes area is welcome.
Thanks

You can't anchor overnight on any lake in New Hampshire.

If you have a friend on the water I’d just ask to moor right off his or her dock .
As long as you don’t impede navigation it would be worth a try

Center Harbor town docks
 

For $250/night you can remain at their Center Harbor town dock, overnight, according to the posted sign, there. Believe this is administered by the Center Harbor Police as opposed to the NH Marine Patrol. ..... :laugh:

I believe you can anchor overnight so long as someone on the boat is awake.


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Just looked up a couple of different sites about anchoring on Winni, it is illegal to anchor overnight on all inland waterways in NH.
So I would say the only way to get around it is one person is away and constantly having the boat moving.
Looking, I am not sure that it is legal to sleep on a moring either. It only states that you can sleep on a dock, but the land owner needs to put in writing to the state that they are doing so.

Welcome
 

Welcome to the Forum. Sorry--no good alternatives for what you want.

The only way you can sleep on the lake is to be at someones DOCK and physically tied to it….no anchors or moorings are allowed…

Dan

Thanks for all replies. I am kind of surprised. How come they don't even allow anchoring in such a huge lake with so many available shallow spots. Has it been always like that? Is it the same in Maine and Mass? Thanks

Take it to an extreme and imagine 10,000 boats anchored all over the place emptying their heads, playing music and partying all night. And you can anchor right in front of someone's beach for how many days? Why stay in a rental? Get a junk boat and anchor it in some once pristine location for the summer. Give the homeless a place to live.

What's happening in Maine with floating camps?
 

Hey there ....... here's a related August 19, 2024 article from Maine TV station WGME ..... "Maine can't do anything to stop 'floating camps' popping up all over state" ..... about 20-paragraphs with six photos and 28 comments ..... no pay firewall to Google it and read it.

https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-ca...sks-boat-ramps

I checked the forum, but didn't see any overnight or weekend rental slips from private landowners. Everything is in classifieds by commercial marinas. Is there such arrangement where private landowners rent out their slips for short term? Thanks.

your best bet is to post a "situation wanted" ad on the Forum/FB Marketplace/Craig's List... I have never seen a listing service of private dock rentals for transient/temporary use.

Per NH laws from what I'm reading, even if you find a private land owner to dock and let you stay, they then have to let the state know that someone is staying over night on the dock. I don't know of too many people wanting to do that, but you never know, they might.

Do wonder the reason behind a state notification


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Sheesh
 

No reason. Just crazy ideas from posters pulling your legs.

You can legally anchor overnight on lakes and rivers in Maine and Mass. I have done it without any issues on Great Bay in NH, too.

And Maine is having issues with homeless people now living in floating shacks out on their lakes.

Very True
 

That is happening everywhere and is becoming a huge issue!

Dan

There's one of those in our marina here in Hampton Beach. The people in it are not homeless, they just enjoy living on the water half the year. I've been in it and it's actually a really cool "tiny home" that just happens to be on water. I have never heard anyone here complain about it. When the state tried to ban it, the owners mounted an outboard engine to it and registered it as a boat. Our marina loves it because they can put it on a dock that has extremely shallow water at low tide and is not great for a boat that leaves the dock routinely. It's a great use of less than desirable dock space. I'm surprised the marina does not have a dozen of them on airbnb, to be honest. It would be a fun place to rent.

I suspect the floating shacks in Maine are not owned by homeless people. I seriously doubt homeless people have the means and ambition to make something like that happen, but if they did, they wouldn't be homeless anymore. I also don't see these floating shacks as a continuous problem, specifically due to Winter. It's not really feasible to use them year round in Maine.

Like many things, it is cool in small doses. But it is completely inappropriate to make your home or your summer home in a state park. Even worse, you can be sure that many would be dumping all sorts of inappropriate stuff into the water

Well said, FS….the lakes would have monumental messes to be dealt with, at great expense. No thanks!

If you're at a dock rental that's totally different than living out in the middle of the lake. There are people that spend the summers on their boats docked at marinas in NH, Maine, and Ma but not out in the middle of the lake.
I remember seeing a lot more houseboats at marinas on the lake back in the 70's but that was before they went condo.
I suppose you could get away with it out in the middle of the ocean but if that was allowed on NH Lakes, I'd be out of here in a heartbeat!

Why do you assume they would be dumping stuff in the lake FS? Are all the people spending the summer on their boats at Mountain View bumping in the lake? Not everyone who likes to live a different way are nare-do-wells


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Not EVERYONE would be dumping stuff into the lake, but SOME would, and we don’t need to promote something that would encourage thoughtless behavior. JMO

My neighbor found a dozen beer cans and bottles by his raft. I found two broken beer bottles.

Where to Anchor
 

They probably didn’t come from people living in little houses on a raft or barge. They probably came from the same everyday boaters who throw their cigarette butts, and empty their ashtrays, in the lake. My original point wasn’t that some people don’t pollute the lake, just that you can’t assume that everyone who would live in a houseboat on the lake would be polluting it.


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I owned a slip at Mountain View for about 20 years, starting in 1995. Almost every summer someone from the state would come by and inspect the plumbing in every boat to be sure there was no overboard discharge. That inspection included the head as well as sinks and showers. The only overboard discharge that was allowed was bilge pumps and the water from the air conditioning system. When you passed the inspection they would give you a sticker for the window so that if you were stopped in the future the person stopping you would know you had already passed the inspection.

I don't know if they still do that but I hope they do.

I believe Fay's Boat Yard, Gilford, has the only public mooring field on Winnipesaukee.

They should continue the inspection.

I remember when the state would pour dye in shorefront property owners' toilets and check for leakage into the lake a few days later. They should do that on properties not upgraded to state standards. I know a few.

There have been talks in the state house about extending the sewage from Gilford into Alton on the old Lake Shore railroad bed. Unfortunately, Alton allows folks to build homes on the bed. Going to be a mess!