A Lake Geneva Buoy

For all their idyllic bobbing, buoys get a bad rap. A harbor filled with moored sailboats has captivated many a photographer and more than a few artists, but the little white buoy- the very thing that’s doing all the heavy lifting, is ignored. Even worse than being ignored, buoys are often scoffed at. While slips are cherished for their boat cradling abilities, buoys aren’t even given consideration by most buyers in search of a vacation home with accompanying place for their boat. Buoy’s are the Rodney Dangerfield of boat mooring.

Buoy’s haven’t always been the black sheep of the mooring world, in fact, there are plenty of geographic regions where buoy’s are all the rage. I was watching my snaggle-toothed friend on River Monsters the other night, and judging by the buoys dotting the shore of the Mekong Delta, the fishermen there prefer buoys over slips. Even on Geneva there was a time when a buoy was all that was required to provide a summer resting place for a leisure boat. For those ho doubt the capability of a buoy to hold on to your glistening 24′ boat, consider that many steam boats in the 40 to 70 foot range were once held in place by little more than a solitary buoy. Fixed keel sailboats have long been close with buoys, and to this day sailboats remain tethered to buoys anchored wherever there is water. At least sailors still appreciate the buoy.

I had a client give me an old wooden buoy that he found stashed away in the crawl space under his new Williams Bay vacation home. That buoy, a section of tree trunk fitted with two eye screws and some wraps of wire, now sits next to a fireplace in my home. The thought of that buoy bobbing dutifully in Geneva for decades is, as you can imagine, captivating to me. Wooden buoys on Geneva were ultimately replaced with foam and plastic models, but while the shape and materials may have changed, their effectiveness in holding on to floating boats has not.

Buyers today want slips. They want them so much they’ll gladly pay for them, and while they won’t pay as much for them as they used to, adding a slip to a Geneva lake access home or condo still probably adds between $100k and $150k in value. For a time, a slip might have added as much as $250k to the value of a vacation home, but not any longer. As much as a slip impacts the value, it would be hard to find any quantifiable evidence of a buoy positively impacting value. Buyers are wary of buoys, and to many, buoys are mysterious objects that are best left to paintings and photographs and to others. I’m here to tell you this morning that buoys needn’t be ignored any longer.

So what does it all mean (Basil), and what exactly is the process involving mooring ones boat on said buoy? It’s easy really. The buoy is chained to a very large, very heavy, usually concrete “anchor”. I use the quotation marks because it’s not an anchor like you’re thinking of, it’s a giant concrete slab with an accompanying giant eye screw sticking out of it. The buoy is chained to the anchor, and your boat is then tethered to the buoy. So how does one make ones way out to the boat that is now tethered to a buoy? You swim out there. That’s not necessarily the only method, as many will opt for the row boat or dinghy routine, but the shirtless swim to your boat is certainly the most heroic. Picture it with me….

Young family (or friends and old people or whoever it might be-don’t sue me for saying family all the time please) walking down the white association pier from their vacation cottage. Moored boat swaying in the breeze. Buoy floating dutifully. There is excitement as the group anticipates yet another fabulous Lake Geneva boat ride. Dad yells at son for having the gall to not go to the bathroom before he left the house. To cheers, dad rips off his shirt, or unbuttons it if he’s not in a hurry, and dives into the water. A few freestyle strokes later, he’s reached the boat. His family applauds. Dad removes the cover, fires up the boat, unlatches the boat from the buoy, and drives the boat to the pier to pick up his adoring, and dry, family.

That is the classic way to embark on a buoy based boat ride, but the dinghy method is less wet, even if it doesn’t ooze chivalry in the same way that the swim retrieval does. Either way, buoys are fine options for someone seeking to keep a boat at Lake Geneva. Since buoys are overlooked by most, that means they’re widely available both for rent, and through many associations. Glenwood Springs in Fontana has a buoy available to every owner there, and other associations like Oakwood Estates in Williams Bay have buoys open for new owners right off the bat (as of today). Buoys are also available privately, and a typical cost for renting a Lake Geneva buoy will run from around $1400 to $1800, depending on the location of the buoy. If you’re looking at lake access homes and your price range doesn’t allow you to search for a transferable slip, perhaps a private buoy rental is the way to go.

I once watched in horror as a guy donned a life vest before jumping off the pier and swimming the 40 or so feet to his buoy moored boat. It seemed a bit ridiculous to me at the time, but as I look back on it, I certainly appreciate the fellas willingness to embrace buoy life. It’s a good life, as anything that makes Lake Geneva boat rides even more convenient is fine by me.