BMAB...
Welcome to the forum. Its a great place!
Just a little food for thought and break it down by cost vs usage. Especially where you are a relative newbie to boating. No offense, we all had to start somewhere.
There are approximately 12 summer weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day... undoubtedly you will not make it up for all of them due to weather or other issues(school, kid commitments etc). But lets use 12 as the number of times you actually get up here in a summer....
Maybe consider staying at a local motel for the weekend. On average rooms run $125 or so a night so for summer you are looking at $3000 cost. Maybe less if you negotiate ahead of time. This gives you plenty of room for family and guests.
A 28 ft Cabin cruiser for 4 people is a tight fit especially for sleeping... no room for you guys or the kids to have friends up etc. They guzzle fuel at an amazing rate, especially if you are trying to tube or ski.... they aren't bad at all if you just putt around... A gas bill for a single engine 28 Cabin Cruiser will be about $150/$300 weekend depending on usage.... and they are tough to trailer.
A 24-28 ft Bow Rider is a perfect boat for cruising, tubing sandbars etc... It has plenty of storage and is also a much easier boat to learn how to drive & dock. Especially on windy days. Great on gas with a small v-8 engine and a duoprop drive. A gas bill for a single engine 24 Bow Rider will be about $75/$150 depending on usage.... and its fairly easy to trailer.
A slip at MVYC or others runs approximately $3000+ or so.... a runabout lessens your cost somewhat as your docking options increase... private slips, rack storage etc approximately $2200 or so.
The boat payment is a wild card... it can be just about anywhere, but I am guessing you have a number in mind. Whatever that number is, it will go farther on a runabout than it will on a cabin cruiser.
Anyway, just some food for thought...
Woodsy
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