Saturday Boating on Winnipesaukee

[Chubby]

What's with all the sad Saturday stories and the pontoon renters aren't as cool as we are posts ? Visitors have always been the most important component of the Lakes Region economy and hopefully always will be... just imagine the alternative. Try not to over play the grumpy old men persona.

[John Mercier]

The Lakes Region economy was based on farms and mills.

Even though the LR is second ranked in tourism after the seacoast... the total value of tourism in NH is only valued at around $6 billion.

The $6 billion has been pretty steady for a couple decades, but the underlying activities have been changing.

The big surge in economic activity in the LR has been building... lots of it second homes. Which is why Laconia has nearly the same population as it did in the 1980 census, but has a housing shortage even after all the building.

We saw a huge surge with Covid and remote work.

But a second home owner is not renting a room, and may not eat as many meals out, as a tourist here for just a week or two; and that is how they determine ''tourism''.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by John Mercier

The Lakes Region economy was based on farms and mills.

Even though the LR is second ranked in tourism after the seacoast... the total value of tourism in NH is only valued at around $6 billion.

The $6 billion has been pretty steady for a couple decades, but the underlying activities have been changing.

The big surge in economic activity in the LR has been building... lots of it second homes. Which is why Laconia has nearly the same population as it did in the 1980 census, but has a housing shortage even after all the building.

We saw a huge surge with Covid and remote work.

But a second home owner is not renting a room, and may not eat as many meals out, as a tourist here for just a week or two; and that is how they determine ''tourism''.

Mills and farms ? Good point, renting a room and hitchhiking sound viable in 2022. You're neglecting the stone arrowheads and Neanderthal elephant blood based cave wall paint.
Second homes aren't visitors ? You claim $6,000,000,000.00 is worthless ? Ok. Peace.

[XCR-700]

No idea whats going on with this thread talking about mills and farms and tourism money,,,

As for safe boating on Saturdays on Winnipesaukee, well looking at this picture (below) I guess we are doing a bit better than other places.

That said, it is interesting to see just how different the boating rules are from place to place that in one place you can have something like whats going on in this picture, and then have somewhere Winnipesaukee where you literally cannot hang your ankle over the side of the boat without getting a ticket (happened to me!)

And forget about beaching a boat at Winnipesaukee, that is possible more horrifying than keelhauling, and yet across America, boaters safely enjoy beaching their boats without incident or even raised eyebrows.

As I have said countless times we are an interesting county of contradictions.

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by Chubby

Mills and farms ? Good point, renting a room and hitchhiking sound viable in 2022. You're neglecting the stone arrowheads and Neanderthal elephant blood based cave wall paint.
Second homes aren't visitors ? You claim $6,000,000,000.00 is worthless ? Ok. Peace.

They aren't considered ''tourists'' under second home ownership as the measure for tourism declines.

[Descant]

Originally Posted by Chubby

What's with all the sad Saturday stories and the pontoon renters aren't as cool as we are posts ? Visitors have always been the most important component of the Lakes Region economy and hopefully always will be... just imagine the alternative. Try not to over play the grumpy old men persona.

Welcome to the Forum.
Actually, "I won't boat on Saturdays" is just a brag that some people have that as an option, where others have to work on weekdays. And, for some. it's not "when" you boat, but "where" you boat. If you live in Paugus Bay, the Channel and Weirs Bay are a fact of life.