Life on the water is a ‘different world’ than the city

By Cassie Tomlin

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 | midnight

Waterfront property is hard to come by in the Las Vegas Valley. That is why some cherish their floating homes.

With no private lands in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for building houses or cabins, locals shack up in the next best thing: houseboats.

There's a stretch of slips at Lake Mead Marina you could call Houseboat Alley. One covered row of barges is a veritable neighborhood overlooking Boulder Beach on one side and docked sailboats, yachts and dinghies on the other.

On a Saturday morning last month, a pudgy Jack Russell terrier, Jack, pranced across planks up and down the front steps of a few side-by-side houseboats.

Patrick Riley wrapped presents in the living room of his 75-foot Bayliner, "True 2 Life," preparing for a friend's birthday party later that day. He said he hasn't missed a weekend at the lake on his boat in more than a year.

Riley, who runs a Las Vegas recycling and document destruction company, said he comes out to his houseboat, like a vacation home, for the tranquility and the community.

The dog exemplifies that sense of community. He doesn't belong to Riley, but he wanders onto his and the other houseboats as if he belonged to them all, and he is welcome wherever he goes, Riley said.

"Some of the best friends I've met have been out here," said Riley, who has lived in Las Vegas for 15 years.

His first boat was a 28-foot Bayliner, "and things blew up from there," he said. "It wasn't big enough to spend the whole weekend in."

So, in December, he found True 2 Life advertised online, bought it and moved it from its dock on Lake Lanier in Georgia.

"Houseboats happen to you," he said. "You see one and have to have one."

The boat came fully stocked with an electric fireplace, Bose surround sound, washer and dryer and full kitchen — "all the creature comforts," he said.

Riley said if he didn't have a large dog in his Las Vegas yard, he would practically live on the houseboat.

Next door, where Jack belongs, Pam and Bob Kirk cooked in their 56-foot boat, Voyager, their 10th boat and third houseboat.

The couple split their year between Utah and Boulder City, and spend every other weekend on their Lake Mead houseboat in the fall.

"It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta do it," said Bob Kirk, who runs a Las Vegas sewer cleaning business.

The Kirks take their boat out about once a month, anchoring it in coves, but Bob Kirk comes down every Wednesday and Thursday for maintenance and to meet up with a group of other boat owners.

"It's the greatest bunch of people I've ever met in my life," he said.

Pam Kirk, chopping vegetables, said the three-bedroom houseboat is so convenient all she and her husband need for a weekend is to grab the dog and drive five minutes from their house in Boulder City.

The boat is like their second home — the one with a helm in the living room.

Richard Keeley, a friend of both the Rileys and the Kirks, two years ago bought "Aqua Therapy," a 43-foot Carver motor yacht.

In winter, the marina looks as deserted as a ghost town, he said, but in the summer, Thursday to Sunday, it's like an active city block.

Keeley, who works as a producer on the Strip, owns a house in Summerlin but said he would rather spend his nights on his floating home.

"This is my backyard," he said, motioning the lake, full of boats on a blustery afternoon. "It's a different world. It gets me out of Vegas."

Keeley's deck is his front porch. His dog, Diogi, hops around the remnants of a recent party and down into the sunken living room and the bedroom with bay windows.

The boat sleeps eight people, and he tells his out of town visitors if they want to come to Las Vegas, get a hotel room. On the other hand, if they want to come visit him, come to the boat.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].