Back to the main site

Who's on Lake Norman?

Carl - we (meaning you as I still don't know anyone on the lake) should put together a forum or Bennington raft up for locals early in the season. You know, Bennys, beverages, & buddies.
 
That could be done Chas. I belong to Pontoon and Deckboat Magazine forums and we've had 4 get-togethers in the past 5 years. We've been at Kentucky Lake, KY, Raystown Lake PA, Lake Norman NC (Suzi and I hosted) and last year it was at Lake Anna VA (Big Kahuna hosted). They've gotten smaller over the years, but we have a great time.
 
Hi Carl & Suzi, Spinzone, uncc103, Suzi Q and all the other thousand Bennington owners on Lake Norman, NC. that are not yet on this wonderful Bennington Owners' Forum,

My wife and I are hoping to join all of you in 2018 when we retire to Lake Norman.  I have 4 years and 1 month to go before I retire in December of 2017.  

Since 1976 my family has boated at Smith Mountain Lake Virgina and I had hoped to retire there.  But this past summer my wife told me that the Smith Mountain Lake area is too remote and too far away from civilization to actually live there full time after we retire.  It is OK to vacation there but not OK to retire there.  So this past summer we traveled to Lake Norman to check it out and we were so impressed that we decided that Lake Norman is where we would like to move when we retire.  

We traveled all around the lake--to Mooresville, Davidson, Cornelius and to Denver.  We like the 3 Cherry Way area in Denver, NC, but the properties at that particular location are not selling too well.  Of course that will probably change dramatically by the time we retire.  We were looking for some 55+ adult retirement communities and found a few.  There are some good apartments for rent (even some close to the lake).

We will also probably spend a week vacation at Lake Norman next summer to look around the lake some more at the apartment complexes, etc. and also look at the different towns to see which area we like best.  We will probably also rent a pontoon while we are there to further check out the lake and see some of the lakeside sights and restaurants, etc.  
 
Dave, any time you want to come visit, let us know. We always have an open door for fellow Benny owners. And, Denver has the lowest taxes around the lake.
 
Carl & Suzi,

I noticed that your Bennington has a 150 HP Honda engine.  Prior to ordering my Bennington with a Yamaha 150 HP engine, I really wanted to have a Honda 150 HP engine, but I was talked out of it by two different people.  The first one told me that I should really buy whatever engine my dealership offers so they can perform whatever warranty work may be needed, and the second one told me that there were no certified Honda outboard engine dealerships on Lake Norman.

I decided to purchase my boat from Boats Unlimited in 2013, and in 2018 store the boat at Lake Norman Marina’s dry dock facility (if they have room for it at that time).  Since Boats Unlimited in Raleigh is a Yamaha and Mercury dealer and Lake Norman Marina is a Yamaha and Mercruiser dealer, I felt compelled to order the boat with a Yamaha 150 HP engine. 

At this point, I am satisfied that I made a good decision about purchasing the Yamaha engine, but when I noticed that your boat had a Honda 150 HP engine on it, it made me curious once again about whether there were, or were not, any certified Honda outboard engine dealers on Lake Norman.  So this is my long winded way of asking a simple question, “Are there any certified Honda outboard engine dealerships on Lake Norman?”
 
They lied to you. I got our boat from Country Corner Marine in Mooresville who at the time was the Benny dealer. They are now a Manitou dealer and their techs are Honda certified. They still service our boat.
 
Carl & Suzi,

That's wonderful that there is a certified Honda dealer at Lake Norman and that he continues to service your Benny and your Honda engine.  But since Country Corner Marine is not actually on the lakeside itself, how do you get your boat to them?  Do you have to take it there by trailer?   Or do they come to your dock for service?  Or do they have a lakeside place they rent to do some of their boat and engine servicing?   

I had looked at their facility on the Internet prior to ordering my boat, but since I chose not to buy a trailer, I presumed could never be able to transport my future boat to them.  Perhaps I should have contacted them to ask them how they might service a boat on the lake, prior to my final decision.
 
For service, I meet them at Queens Landing (public ramps) and they pull the boat out and take it to their shop. I hang out in the shop with the guys and when done they bring me back to the ramp.
 
Any ideas about why more of the "more than 1000" Bennington owners on Lake Norman (per Suzy Q's quote above) are either not responding to Carl & Suzi's "Who's On Lake Norman?" blog or perhaps have not joined the Bennington Owner's Forum to begin with?    Are they just not bloggers?  Are they just unaware of the Bennington Owners Forum?  (Since the main page of the Bennington Marine Website has a direct link to the Bennington Owners Forum website, I would think that most of the newer Bennington boat purchasers since 2011 would have discovered our website already.)  Would there be any promotional or marketing advantage for Bennington Marine to further promote the awareness of all the Bennington owners on Lake Norman (or on any other US Lake, for that matter) by encouraging its dealers to promote the awareness of other Benny owners in the immediate vicinity?  Since I would like to retire on Lake Norman in 2018, I wouldn't mind at all if there were already a Bennington Owners Association in existence at Lake Norman before I arrived.   After my Benny arrives in the late winter or spring of 2014 at Kerr Lake, NC, I might try to find other Benny owners on Kerr Lake.  In fact, maybe I should start early and ask that exact question in a near future blog.
 
Did you take a look at the owner locator map?
 
Yes, I did.  And looking at the owner locator map is always a great idea.  I was both pleased to see 4, a little disappointed at the same time to only see 4 + 1 total Bennington owners in the Lake Norman area listed on the map.  Two of the owners listed on the owners locator map are already represented on this thread--Carl & Suzi (who started the thread) and Spinzone.  Uncc103, I read above that you are on Lake Norman, but are you on the owner locators map?  I looked but I couldn't tell if you were there or not.   I was hoping for many more Bennington owners to be located on the map, especially after reading about what the Lake Norman Marina sales manager (a Bennington dealer) was reported to have said in an earlier post.  Since I will be boating on Kerr Lake, NC for the next 4 years before retiring at Lake Norman, I had also looked on the owners locator map and found only three Bennington owners listed within about 40 miles of Kerr Lake, but one appears to boat on Lake Gaston and the other appears to boat on the Mayo Reservoir.  The third one is me (in Wake Forest, NC).  I've boated on Falls Lake, Gaston Lake and Kerr Lake on our Sea-Doos but we are selling our Sea-Doos and buying the pontoon boat to be delivered to Kerr Lake in a few months.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
David/Monica......we are at Lake Anna, probably about 2 hrs. north of you. We've boated and vacationed on Lake Gaston but we've never been to Kerr/Buggs Island Lake......we are currently in talks w/several builders at Lake Norman to have a home built. We've been scouting out areas down there for about 5 or 6 years and we've finally found one in Mooresville.........
 
Okay, Captain, I'll chime in instead of lurk!


I'm on Lake Norman but I'm not. I bought a lakefront home in Mooresville but I'm stuck in Colorado until my house sells. I expect to be there by spring. So I guess I count? LOL!


I don't own a boat either but a 2275RCL or RCLP is on my short list. I'm also considering a high end Manitou as well. Before I'm even unpacked I'm going to be shopping and test driving, etc. I always loved the look and performance of fiberglass I/Os so I'm probably going to try a Chaparral out too but not to worry . . . my extensive research proved to me that today's top end pontoons are superior in nearly every aspect.


Also, Captain, not counting whatever independent marinas do service, to my knowledge there is only one dealer on the lake and even that is a satellite to their showroom. Of course I could be mistaken but I looked up all of the big stores because I thought it would be fun to sell boats and I wanted to work at one that was right on the lake and was disappointed by what I found. So I'll probably end up being a real estate agent (shameless plug for a job I don't have yet!).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Daril,

Since you live in VA and have boated as far south and as far east as Lake Gaston, did you ever boat on Smith Mountain Lake in VA?  Other than Lake Norman, Smith Mountain Lake is my favorite lake.  I have been boating on and off at Smith Mountain Lake since 1976 but now I'm starting to boat at Kerr Lake because it's closer.
 
Yes, we have boated on Smith Mountain Lake but it has been years since we've been there. My brother in law used to be a cop in Roanoke and we used to go there, a good 4 hr. ride from Fredericksburg. We've always wanted to rent a houseboat there for a week but never did. Beautiful lake!

Nautical, where did you buy in Mooresville? We are negotiating w/a builder in Watertree Landing on Barber Loop off of Brawley School Rd. just before you drive into The Point...........We are putting our house up for sale in the spring..........
 
Daril, he's off the southern end of Williamson rd but I forget the name of the street. It's by what used to be Vinnie Sardines.
 
I'll move this part of the conversation with BK to PM. Carry on! I can't wait to get there and on the lake!
 
Carl and Suzi,

I just saw something on the Internet saying that Lake Norman had a world record raft-up of about 1483 boats in 2009, I think.  Were you involved in setting that up?  You seem like an organizer.  Were you part of the raft-up?

David
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nope, wasn't me, and I don't think it'll happen again. You get those that KNOW how to boat and those that THINK they know how to boat. From what I understand, it was a mess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top