> I just found out I can get undevelped land down here on a lake, cheap!
> Sort of unheard of around major cities. I thought cool ... get the land,
> build the boat, sell it off....wait a minute, why sell it build a house
> there and then sail the boat whenever I want...wait a minute since I'm
> building a small dock for myself anyways...build a bigger one and then
> rent out slip space...turning my hoby into a business that should at least
> break even..thoughts?

Heh, that's like people who try to break even in agriculture as a hobby! Not to discourage you, though, if it's a sufficiently popular lake that is scarce on slips for the number of people who use it, and you don't mind people driving through your "yard" at all hours of the day, then it might be a good income/life. Are you in an area where the use would be highly seasonal? If so, you'd get a good break in the off-season, but you'd also have a more limited income.

Aside from the drawbacks, you'd get to hang out with some pretty interesting people (correction: the interesting people would "get to" hang out with you!). You'd certainly get to see a lot of different boats and by virtue of your position, you could talk to their owners about everything. You could probably build small wooden boats-dinghys, tenders, prams, wherrys, kayaks, canoes, skiffs--in the off season and sell them (at a significant markup) to people in the busy season.

Not to mention that you'd never, never, ever have to make up excuses for buying boatbuilding tools!!

Shawn