Thinking about pontoon. Am I crazy?

M

mave234

Recruit
Joined
May 26, 2012
Messages
3
Re: Thinking about pontoon. Am I crazy?

A tri toon is a must. Make sure you have a 150 horse motor or larger . 12 people is a lot for a pontoon without the third tube. You will do a lot of submarining without it.
 
S

Silver Eagle

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
852
Re: Thinking about pontoon. Am I crazy?

There's nothing happening on the DB. We have a very large Mobile Home On the water below Earlville MD on the Chesapecke Bay.The boat ramp that we use is five miles away at Stemmer's Run. So you see I'm at the head water's of the Chesapecke Bay. I usually go to LLyods Creek or Cabin John's or Hack's Point with the boat. When your out in the bay this year and you see a large Pontoon boat with Diamond Plating corners that's us.
 
C

Campylobacter

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
503
Re: Thinking about pontoon. Am I crazy?

Went down to SC and pulled the boat home, no pictures as its dark now. Its pretty much a blank slate, no furniture and EVERYTHING has been removed. It has a title, a trailer, and a motor that at least idles (all are 1991), all for $1500.

I started this whole deal thinking I could get a boat where I could take all twelve, but thats not going to happen. The boat was advertised as a 22'er (may be a little shorter), and the deck is only 16'.... and its got the dreaded 19" tubes. At least now I have two boats that will hold all twelve (I have a 19' bowrider). I measuring my dock and anything bigger than 22 feet is going stick out quite a bit, and we almost never have more than 8 people normally so it will be a decent size every other week.

I will have a ton of questions as I try to get this thing presentable for the crew. I'll likely start a resto thread as well. On the 3.5 hours ride home I started getting some serious "what have I done" thoughts, but there's no taking it back! Thanks for all the advice, even the stuff I ignored :D.
 
ahicks

ahicks

Captain
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Messages
3,957
Re: Thinking about pontoon. Am I crazy?

Congratulations! Thinking you're into it right, and now, with just a little work you'll come out smelling like a rose!

Re: the 19" tubes, on inland lakes that don't get real rough, and 4-6 people, I kinda like them? They ride SO much better (with a reasonable load) the difference is very noticeable! Where the bigger pontoons refuse to do anything but sit on the water's surface, the 19's are small enough to actually penetrate waves, smoothing your way? Proper balance is more important though. Pretty easy to get the back end loaded up to the point it floats too low, or too many big guys up front causing the opposite? Keep that in mind if you're considering relocating the motor mount, deck railing (forward/backward location on the deck?), and console?

Worst case- If you do a nice job, try it and it doesn't work out to your satisfaction, you can very likely sell it for more than what you have into it, and use that towards the next one? The trailer is likely worth nearly what you have into the whole thing?

Absolute best of luck! -Al
 
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