By Paul Post
Some people are fascinated by notorious underworld figures such as Lucky Luciano who hung out at the casino nightclub where world-famous entertainer Bing Crosby performed.
Others simply like to hang out with friends, take a swim or experience the thrill of being towed behind a powerful boat on an oversized fun tube.
These are some of the options Daleys Adventure Boat Tours offers with a new service on Saratoga Lake.
“I grew up on this lake,” said Mechanicville native and company owner Don Daley. “When I was 14 or 15, my uncle had a camp right down the road … We spent our summers here on Saratoga Lake.”
In 2016, three years into retirement, Daley founded Lake George Island Boat Tours, telling guests about the lake’s history.
“Eventually people wanted to go swimming, cliff jumping or tubing so we turned it into an adventure,” he said. “Out of 45 tours on Lake George, we’ve been the number-one tour on TripAdvisor for four of the past eight years. The difference between us and other operators is that we customize tours. We let people do whatever they want.”
This year, Daley expanded his company to Saratoga Lake.
“We always wanted to get here, but couldn’t get parking, a marina and dock space,” he said.
This year, the marina secured new off-site space for boat storage, allowing it to greatly expand its parking lot. This gave Daley a place to work out of and he jumped at the opportunity, renaming the company Daleys Adventure Boat Tours.
He also bought two new Silver Wave tritoon boats. The difference between a tritoon and pontoon is that tritoons have three large metal tubes that give boats more stability, allow them to hold more people and go faster.
Daley’s Saratoga Lake venture is run by his son, Nick, who has experience with digital marketing, sales and advertising in New York City. “He’s taken over that aspect of the business for me, which is why we expanded here to Saratoga,” Daley said.
Daley’s nephew, Joe Pearl, oversees the Lake George operation.
“Joe is a 200-ton boat captain,” Daley said. “Nine months of the year he’s all over the world doing scuba diving tours in places like the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Caribbean and Fiji. For three months in summer he’s at Lake George where we operate out of Fischers Marina.
“At Lake George 95 percent of our clients live outside the 518 area. We get them from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and the Midwest. And we’ve already hosted two Israelis this year.”
He added, “What we want to create here is something nobody else does.”
Bachelor and bachelorette parties are also popular, giving revelers a chance to have fun and relax without having to worry about how to operate a boat and the variety of rules and regulations that go with it.
“With us, they bring whatever they want to eat and drink on the boat,” Daley said. “A lot of them don’t know how to drive a boat, so they want to rent one … And with one of our captains driving, you don’t have to worry about getting stopped for Boating While Intoxicated.”
Daleys Adventure Boat Tours operates from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days per week. For information visit daleysboattours.com or call (518) 469-8745.