All,

Thanks for the replys.

I do already know the dimensions that I want (yes, long and narrow. Most are about 2200' x 250' with a max depth of 6 - 8'. However, with wakeboarding now so popular, you need at least 10' deep for good wakes. I'm not a big wakeboarder but some of the other potential investors are). It sounds like your turn areas were tighter than that or else you had a poor boat driver. Speaking from experience, at even 200' you can easily make the turn without worrying about running aground. However, most make the turn areas 300' wide for extra safety. The turn islands are optional but very nice. With a turn island, the boat driver needs to be more careful with the skier. To me the decision on turn islands depends on if you are digging the lake out and the islands are less area to excavate vs filling in the islands.

Regarding the digging time:
Please don't take this as a know it all answer because I certainly understand your point about how everything takes double the time and money than what you expected and that is why I am here. I know there is a LOT that I don't know!!!! However, I work for Caterpillar and have talked with some of our experts here about excavation time in clay soils. Of course it depends on the kind of dirt, equipment, weather, operator, haul distance, etc... I have even done some modeling on our internal software to validate the numbers. I made many conservative assumptions to come up with the 1,000 hrs. In fact a 637D scraper with an average operator should get the job done in 700 hrs. An ag tractor with 2-18 yd pull pans should get the job done in just over 1,000 hrs. These are actual working hours. You still have to add in operator time (usually you get 6 hrs of work in an 8 hr day) and you have to schedule 933 hrs for a scraper or 1,333 hrs for an ag tractor with 2-18 yd pull pans for the job. The contractor's "cost" for either of these projects should be just under $200k (scrapers cost more on a $/hr). Double that for Profit/Risk for the excavation company and it runs $400k to dig the lake. Yep, a lot of money but with enough investors together anything is possible.

Rough budget:
Land = $400k
Permits = $100k (I have no idea if this is even close)
Design / Engineering = $100k (Again I need to research more)
Digging Lake = $400k
Total = $1,000k (Divided by 6 investors and you get $167k each).

Compare that expense to a lake about 1 hr away and property there is $200k+ for a lot or $500k+ for a house. I would rather spend $167k + the house + lake maintenance expenses to live on a private lake than spend $200k + a second house to spend weekends on a very busy lake that I really can't ski much on anyway.

Yep. I dream big but is there any other way? I have committed to spending time this year to learn about whether it is even possible and what it would take to accomplish. If all goes well and we all commit to the project, we would start making offers on property in 2010. I know there are a lot of high hurdles to overcome between now and then but by the end of the year, I hope to have a much better idea of how high the hurdles are and how many there are.


Thanks again for the replys and help. We certainly need it.
Matt


Last edited by Matt Alger; 02/11/09 12:03 PM.