First, the bad news. Assuming that you received approval for a breakwater - having first worked your way through the regulatory maze various levels of government have in place to protect fish habitat, lake quality, and your neighbours' properties - such a barrier is likely to be very expensive indeed. Floating breakwaters tend to be used for large-scale projects, such as creating artificial harbours for marinas. Tieco, in Lansdowne, Ont., manufactures floating steel tubes, anchored to the lake bottom, that are outfitted with underwater baffles which deflect and dissipate wave energy and cost around $300-$600 a foot.

A fixed barrier, such as a concrete wall or rock-filled gabion basket, would need to be designed and built by a professional specializing in shoreline work. It probably wouldn't be pretty, and it could easily cost you $50,000 for something that - with luck - might last 15 years before needing to be replaced, suggests Don Greer, who's in charge of watershed planning for the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). (It could also speed up the erosion of your neighbours' shorelines, since a hard wall, instead of absorbing wave energy, sends it scooting past your device with redoubled strength, to be absorbed by adjacent unprotected shorelines.)

The good news is that your situation sounds like one with a less expensive, and infinitely better-looking, solution that also happens to be environment-friendly. Mark Kolberg, an engineer with Baird & Associates in Oakville, Ont., who specializes in shoreline work, suggests that you sacrifice a little lawn, and extend the beach by adding a berm of wave-absorbing rock on the cottage side. The pebble beach that nature put there is doing its job by absorbing most of the wave energy, Kolberg explains - it's only in a big blow that waves come up high enough to lap at the lawn. A protective berm should consist of rocks - underlaid with geotextile filter cloth - that are similar in character to the pebbles, but larger. Kolberg suggests you go with rounded river rock in "cobblestone" size (about grapefruit to football size). Unlike the jagged-edged quarry rocks usually used as rip-rap to stabilize slopes, it's pleasing to the eye in a natural environment. A one-foot rise in a four-foot run, bermed up to overlap the area where beach and lawn currently meet, could make a workable defence.

Whether or not you build a berm, Kolberg urges you to consider reducing your lawn still further by letting a buffer of natural vegetation grow up adjacent to the beach. Native trees, shrubs, and grasses develop roots that hold the soil and resist erosion far better than the grasses normally used for lawns.

The local Conservation Authority (CA) is your first stop for information, guidance, and approvals. (If there is no CA in your area, contact the nearest MNR office.)