Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 22/98) - You don't need a your own boat to enjoy boating season. Choices, however, are limited.

With the closing of Above and Below last fall, the only place to rent a kayak or canoe is either Narwhal Paddling Adventures on Back Bay or Overlander Sports.

The two have a co-operative arrangement to ensure paddlers will be able to find boats when they need one.

Kayaks and canoes go for $30 per day, $50 for the weekend, $150 for a week or $500 per month. Narwhal also offers evening rentals for $20. Rates include all the necessaries -- life jackets, paddles, pumps and, for kayaks, spray skirts.

Boats for both places are conveniently located on Back Bay, so you don't need a car to go paddling.

At the luxury end of the business is Sail North's houseboat vacations.

Stationed in the picturesque East Arm of Great Slave Lake for most of the summer, houseboaters can motor around to various anchorages or scoot out to fishing holes in the 12-foot aluminum boat with outboard that's included.

Sail North has two houseboats, one that sleeps 10 and another that sleeps four.

Mid-season rates are $2,795 a week for the larger boat and $1,800 a week for the smaller. The price does not include the $300 trip (each way, per party) from Yellowknife to the boats.

The houseboats are part of a veritable armada of rentals at Sail North, from a 12-foot aluminum with outboard to the 42-foot sloop Gandalf IV.

Fisherman can expect to pay $225 a weekend for the 12-footer. Gandalf, an ideal platform for corporate getaways, goes for $1,099 a weekend. A skipper costs another $85 per day.

Sail North also has cabin cruisers for the motor-cruising set.

As wide-ranging as the above list of rentals is, there are others available in town. Adventure Rentals specializes in Zodiac inflatables with an outboard. Last summer, at least one person was making rumblings about offering sailboard rentals.