A first look at Lake George floating tiki-bar

Launched onto Lake George from a crane at the Harris Bay Yacht Club on the first day of summer, the boat-bar hybrid is believed to be the only one of its kind outside of Florida, where the first version was launched in February by a new company called Cruisin' Tikis.

Davis, an entrepreneur whose varied holdings include the Rensselaer-based tech firm CommSoft, saw the first Cruisin' Tiki in the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida, where, as he describes it, the craft so enchanted him he pursued it until he could read the name on the sign.

Nor did he consult his three fellow members of Dark Bay Yacht Club, which is a grand name for what in actuality is four guys with a camp on the east side of Lake George about four miles from Lake George Village.

The partners plan to use the floating tiki bar to cruise the lake with their guests this summer, then next year start a business to charter it, or a new sister vessel, and, perhaps, put future craft on Sacandaga, Saratoga Lake and the Hudson River for paid cruises.

Teresi is already familiar with this end of the business; he's one of the partners in Capital City BrewCycle, which owns 15-passenger, pedal-powered bar platforms that tour Schenectady and Troy.

During the few hours while the vessel was being readied for launch, two people expressed serious interest in buying a Cruisin' Tiki, which costs in the mid-$20,000 range, depending on features.

Pressure-treated lumber makes up the deck; the sides of the bar are bamboo; and the bars posts and thatch comes from cypress sourced from members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, who according to Darby are the only people allowed under federal law to harvest cypress trees.