Unfortunately, the pontoons that will work for us speed wise are out of our budget range. We started looking at $5000 pontoons, upgraded to $8000 for the deck boats. Even when we searched for $8000 pontoons, they still aren't going to be good for tubes/skiing.
I did find a 1996 Hurricane that looks very very clean. It has a Evinrude Intruder 175hp that I think is also a 1996. The motor looks new (from the pictures...I haven't seen the boat in person yet). That's a flat bottom boat, which would be good for our shallow lake. I am aware of the bad ride at speed on rough water.
He says it goes 47mph fully loaded. Yikes. I could get that for about $7000. Nice two axle trailer.
ezmobee, I have been thinking about that transom repair. I didn't take enough time to really look at the boat for the repair, but it almost seemed that there are panels along the back that could come off (rather than one solid floor front to back) that could give me access to the wood. It's not like a fishing boat...even though it is aluminum, it is built like a fiberglass boat with the deck on top of the hull, a splashwell, bilge area, etc.
Does anyone know the Princecraft deckboats enough to comment as to the feasibility of the repair?
I am restoring a fiberglass boat now, and I redid the transom on that, so I'm not unfamiliar...
once that cash is spent the dream might turn into a nightmare so may as well enjoy the ride!