Ahh, the 70s. When racial stereotypes, cracks about women's lib, and drunk people falling over were enough to make you a comedy.
This film introduces us to the Porterfield family, widower Jonathon, his son who doesn't matter to the movie's events at all, and his daughter who has one plot-relevant moment and gives us some exposition but is otherwise almost as extraneous as the son. They're in Florida because dad's booked a holiday on a houseboat.
Unfortunately, he booked it eight months earlier and the lush who owned the boat has drunk the money rather than using it to get the house boat ready. The Porterfields aren't easily dissuaded though and and squat in some of the boats in the area until the locals agree to fix up a vessel for them.
Naturally, repairing said junkheap leads to bonding between the newcomers and their hosts, and when Evil Businessmen attempt to drive out the locals in order to build a road to nowhere (which they want to do for reasons that are never made clear), the Porterfields and their new-found friends band together to indulge in a bit of larceny, stealing the machinery that is required to build the road.
For reasons to do with the movie needing a happy ending, the bad guys don't just call the cops on these criminals and instead cave to their demands, calling off the whole ill-defined nefarious plot.
With more focus on the younger characters and more energy overall, this might have passed for a cheap knock-off of an Apple Dumpling Gang-esque nature (which it couldn't be since it came out a year earlier). As is, it kinda uncomfortably tries to fit a lot of fairly sleazy humour into a G-rated film.
It's not awful, but you're not missing anything by not seeing it.
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