2025 - My Season By The Numbers

2025 My Season By The Numbers

2025 was a good year. I traded in my 22 Stingray 182 SC for a 23 Sun Tracker Party Barge 22 DLX pontoon demo boat with a 115 HP Mercury Pro XS outboard at the Detroit Boat Show in February. Price was right. I never saw myself as a pontoon boat owner until my Son purchased one in 2019 and I found I liked the stability a pontoon boat has along with the room to move around.



I did most of my boating on the Detroit River, Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. I did trailer up to northern Michigan and I launched on Lake Superior, Higgins Lake, Houghton Lake, Elk Lake, Lake Skegemog and South Lake Leelanau. That’s one of the reasons I trailer my boat. Can go anywhere and launch.



I think I can say I had a pretty good season overall.

The numbers:

23 Launches

5 Day trips to Put-in-Bay Ohio

70.0 Hours on the engine

803.7 Miles travelled

209.964 Gallons of rec fuel used

3.82 MPG

2.99 GPH

$874.00 Dollars cost of rec fuel

$900.00 Boat storage fee Gibraltar Storage

$476.99 Garmin ECHOMAP UHD2 53CV+TRANSDUCER

$904.18 Mount 3rd cleat starboard mount Garmin GPS/Sonar

$125.25 Put on MC#’s and boat name

$33.39 Pkg. of 4 rail mount fender holders

$36.72 2 rail mount flag poles and American flags

$84.75 Amazon for plow style stainless steel anchor

$198.68 Quicksilver Spare propeller

$232.14 Mercury propeller to replace damaged propeller

$202.44 Replace unrepairable trailer tire

$374.51 Replace broken trailer tail lights

$67.83 Starbrite canvas waterproofing

$146.61 New battery (left master control switch on)

$13.76 Bought spare set of keys for boat

$1139.71 Winterize engine grease hubs shrinkwrap boat



$5810.96 monies spent on boating. Worth every penny. Some of the expenses are one time expenses and shouldn’t be repeated.

My ff tracks total time turned on. I have a log book with total hours. And all maintenance and new boat gear.

Is that 23 days on the water? If so that’s about 35m per trip. That’s a lot. How do you find towing that wide of a rig?

Ifishmuskie2 said:

My ff tracks total time turned on. I have a log book with total hours. And all maintenance and new boat gear.

Is that 23 days on the water? If so that’s about 35m per trip. That’s a lot. How do you find towing that wide of a rig?

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This past season I towed it with a 2024 Ford Ranger with the 2.3 ecoboost engine. The Ranger did OK. No real issues averaged about 10.6 MPG towing. My longest tow was up to Lake Superior about an 800 mile round trip.

Being a pontoon it sits much higher on the trailer than a monohull boat does so it catches a lot of air. Plus it is much wider than the Ranger. When I bought the Ranger I was still towing my 18' Stingray so big difference.

A couple weeks ago I traded in the Ranger for a 2025 F-150 Hybrid with the 3.5 ecoboost engine and I expect it will tow the pontoon much better than the Ranger.

Interesting, Thanks for sharing. It really never occurred to me to keep a detailed accounting of money spend boating/ fishing. I should do that one year.
My boats are more of a tool used for fishing. I never go out for any other purpose. Now that my boats are set up the way I want them I like to think my cost would be minimal.

that's interesting to read.
How have you found operating on those great lakes with a pontoon?
Is that a tri-toon?
What diameter are your toons?
Have you determined what water/wind conditions are your minimums in operating?
What size prop (blades/diameter/pitch) are you running on that 115?

I'll be into my third year operating my pontoon on the upper chesapeake.
It's a 2006 with 25" twin tubes re-powered with a 2021 Merc. 115 CT.
I'm going to run my Merc. 4-14x14 prop this year.
If sustained winds are 10+ mph, in the bay proper is usually too rough.
I have the echo 53cv also. Can't do without it. The depth finder section quit after one year and a new transducer didn't help, so I installed a separate depth finder.

jlh3rd said:

that's interesting to read.
How have you found operating on those great lakes with a pontoon?

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I find that 2' waves the boat handles them well. 3' is a bit more of a challenge.

jlh3rd said:

Is that a tri-toon?

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No. Just two toons.

jlh3rd said:

What diameter are your toons?

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24"

jlh3rd said:

Have you determined what water/wind conditions are your minimums in operating?

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Maximum winds around 15 MPH. Waves 2' or less the boat handles them very well. 3' and it gets a bit more challenging. So that is probably my limit as pontoons are nor rough water boats.

jlh3rd said:

What size prop (blades/diameter/pitch) are you running on that 115?

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Mercury Black Max 13 Pitch prop. 10 1/2 inch diameter

jlh3rd said:

I'll be into my third year operating my pontoon on the upper chesapeake.
It's a 2006 with 25" twin tubes re-powered with a 2021 Merc. 115 CT.
I'm going to run my Merc. 4-14x14 prop this year.
If sustained winds are 10+ mph, in the bay proper is usually too rough.
I have the echo 53cv also. Can't do without it. The depth finder section quit after one year and a new transducer didn't help, so I installed a separate depth finder.

Click to expand...

Very happy with the boat so far after only 1 season.

Our camper behind the ecoboost does about 9 mpg and thats below 60 mph. The only thing eco I've found with it is the name. Pulling the 4 winns it does 11-12. My colorado does 16 mpg. That being said it has power for days with the turbos. It's just it likes to stay in boost. I'm interested to see how the powerboost helps. Most people love em... but do you factor the trade in to the yearly operating cost or does that not count?