After some 20 years of renting (on various islands) we bought a place on Rattlesnake. We looked at a LOT of properties on varioius islands.
To answer a few questions:
Rattlesnake Island Association Dock:
The association dock parking area lower lot fills up on busy weekends, however I have never seen a situation where both the lower and upper lots were full.
We use the association lot mostly for visitor's or 2nd cars. A lot of people also keep their trailers there. Since you can't leave your boat there overnight (or unattended, for that matter), you will most likely want to arrange for dock space somewhere on the mainland. I use West Alton Marina, and keep the boat there year round.
Island Living
Island living is great!! There is mainland time and there is Island Time. Somehow, island time is much slower - everything is relaxed. No cars! If you want to go somewhere, you really think about it first - do I *really* want to leave this beautiful island to deal with all that traffic??
Sure, it requires a bit more planning about things you need - I ALWAYS have a list going of things to get and things NOT to get. And, figure that everything you bring over you move 6 times. But, that being said, island living is definitely for me. What do they say? "Once an islander, always an islander". It's REAL vacation.
The Association
I have, so far, found the association to be easy to work with, and fairly helpful. There are some restrictions on what style house you can build - more height than style - only 1 1/2 stories are allowed - but this isn't much of a restriction. There are lots of large 1 1/2 story houses on the island of all descriptions. This is probably an asset - looking at some of the mosterous houses I've seen on some of the other islands....some of them are really out of place.
Why Rattlesnake Island?
Speaking personally, I am very physically active. Rattlesnake, above all of the other islands, affords the most opportunities for exercise. The mountain is great to climb! I generally climb to the top every day, and often end to end (which takes a long time and is a fine workout).
Kayaking around the island is another nice thing to do.
The sailing is easy - at least where we are, and there's almost always a westerly breeze. In fact, no one (at least where we are) has a screened in porch! The breezes take the bugs away.
We always meet nice people here!!!
This next one I'm not sure about why...Our place is on the West side of "The Peninsula", heading towards Young's Cove. The water there is VERY nice for swimming - warm (and I don't like cold water). We stayed on the North-West side of Welch for many years, and the water there was always cold (ok, it felt cold to me). Either the water is just plain warm this year, or the particular location (the cove), makes for warmer water...
There is a work-in-progress Rattlesnake Island Web Site (which doesn't have much on it at the moment, but will) at
http://www.rattlesnakeisland.net
Anyway, unless you need to jump into your car every other hour to go someplace, island living is definitely more of a "get away" than the mainland - becuse you are - literally - "away"
Regards,
Steve