pontoon boat
 

I am a new owner of a cottage on the water in laconia, Am interested in purchasing a boat. Tried a friends pontoon boat with 115 Merc. I plan on renting a tritoon from Channel next weekend. What is the difference. I am also still trying to decide on Pontoon vs Bowrider. Any thoughts?

Well
 

Pontoon boats are fun. It depends upon the type of boating you are doing.

Early or late season? I want to close the bow in and cut down on the wind and cool air.

Night dinner trips? Again, I want to close the bow in and be comfortable.

Lousy weather come up and you are 15 miles from home. OK, you get the idea.

All of your boating on sunny 75 or more degree days? You may enjoy a pontoon boat

^ This is wayyy too simplistic in my experience. We've got a pontoon and friends of ours have bowriders and deck boats--they're ALWAYS asking to come on ours because there's just simply more room to lounge around, there's no slapping or major rocking, there's more storage for drinks and clothing/towels, and it's easier to get on and off when docking.

Only TWO drawbacks to my 'toon: it's not as "sexy," and it needs a third toon and bigger motor. In two years, when my chillens are a little older, I'll look into a tritoon with 150 hp.

Good luck!

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This is our 2nd summer with a cabin on Winnisquam so I am in a similar situation. In the past 4 years we have rented over 10 different boats, including 6 last year, once we had our own dock. It was nice to see what fit and how they rode while tied up. It can be very frustrating being on shore with no boat, but I'm glad I took my time.

We tested pontoons , tritoons , deck boats and V hulls. I even built a wooden kayak over the winter. Well after all that testing the two standard Poodles let us know they liked the Pontoon style best. It's a very big purchase no need to rush into it. With that said, We may be boat owners tomorrow,:):eek: will update this weekend.

I love my tritoon. I have had it since 2012. We can go in the broads, even if it is rough, and we have a smooth ride. Friends just love it! They call it the floating living room.

Ths comparison does depend on how big of a hull the bowrider has, but the new tritoons run the lake well. My buddy has a 2578 bennington with a 225 yami. We love it for the room and it rides well in all but bad Winni conditions.

Thinkx... test ride when you are ready but I think a decent sized tritoon with a 150 will perform but you will likely wish for more HP. A decent sized deep V hulled boat will often require 10 additional hp to move it every 1 MPH faster at speed. I would think a tritoon would be similar. The above will do 40 gps MPH, I would think the same boat with a 150 would do 33 or so.

If the lake kicks up this Sat night I will be glad we were in the Wellcraft:) And I agree with Tilton, it is nice when cool to have bow cover on

This brings up two more tips:

1. DON'T be afraid to test drive! We were timid at first, but on the advice of members here, quickly realized marinas expect prospective owners to try boats out.

2. HP vs. efficiency. We can go almost a month, using the boat every weekend, on less than a tank of gas with our 70hp, but we top out at 22mph and getting places can take time (it's also very quiet). It's a great first boat for us, but we'll definitely go bigger on the motor next time.

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pontoon
 

A friend of mine has a new 24 foot pontoon with 115 merc, I drove it , it seemed to kind of drag, wondering whether more HP would make it feel less of a drag

My pontoon boat is 24' with a 115 hp merc and on a good day, if the boat is light it will do 28-29 mph. We are not speed demons so that is plenty fast for us. If I remember correctly the guys at Irwin told me if I upgraded to the 150 hp we would need to add the a third pontoon and could only expect another 5-6 mph. Didn't seem worth it to us.

We are in the same position... have a 19' 4 winns. Its a little old but it is a nice handling boat. I like it to tow the kids tubing and occasional skier.

Relatives just bought a nice 21' toon. It is nice inside with a 70 evenrude. Went 24 mph max'ed out. We did have 6 adults on it the other night and it seemed like it was struggling.

The kids... well young adults are now pushing for me to replace the 4winns with a toon. ... I'm surprised as they always have the "need for speed". I'm just concerned that we would not have enough hp to pull tubers or skiers once the grand kids start showing up....

I do have a 14' seam nymph for fishing and a jet ski. We can use the jet ski for tubes, but limited in the amount of people to enjoy.. driver/spotter /tuber.


Decisions..decisions..decisions

I don't think too many people ever said "I wish I got a boat with less HP".

It is a tough decision when shopping especially with outboards costing what they do ($75-80 per HP, 350 Yamaha MSRP is somewhere around 30K). Stern drive boats are not much better, where you often have to spend $10K to go from the base engine to something the boat should have had already.

If you are in it for the long haul, you need to juggle initial cost, performance, fuel economy and fun. Of course if you ask everyone on the forum what they think, we will give different answers!! Best of luck with your shopping!

Our 22' with 70hp Suzuki will do 20mph with three adults on board towing one adult and one five-year-old on a Big Mable.

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I'm in the rare minority who can't stand pontoon boats. I've rented a Bennington pontoon with oval tubes and a 150hp engine and a Cobalt/MarkerOne tritoon with a 200hp. Both rode well, but guzzled gas and had really sluggish handling.

I might be a bit biased coming from ski boats and bowriders, but I like being able to cruise across the lake at 45mph, spin the boat around between the docks, etc.

As others have said, make sure to get on a handful of boats before buying.

The important thing to ask is, how many rod holders and down riggers can the pontoon hold? :D

More HP makes everything less of drag.

If you had a 150 on your boat it would still take about 70 HP to go 22 MPH and you'd probably use less fuel at 22 MPH because you'd be operating closer to the engine's sweet spot (torque peak or where volumetric efficiency is best). The big difference it that you would be able to go 32 MPH with 150 HP when you wanted to.

It sounds like you will not be happy with a 2 toon. Buy a tri-toon for sure. the difference when pulling a tube, or getting across the lake is night and day.The new motors aren't bad on fuel.If you go any bigger than a 22' you will most likely need larger than a 150hp to hit 40mph. the drag isn't nearly as bad with 3 pontoons. last week I went fishing early morning, my friend saw me go bye so he got in his bow rider to follow,next day he told me he had to turn around, It was to rough. you will take a beating with any small boat under certain conditions.I have a small 18' tri-toon, with a 115, just me i can go 40mph gps. with a full boat still low to mid 30s depending on weather. But like I said, it is small. Good luck. Quick edit, almost everyone I know with a 2-toon wants more speed. They say it's not that important when shopping, 6 months later it's always the same conversation. save the time and money from buying and then upgrading. Do it up front.Good luck.

People have mentioned gps speed--why make the distinction?

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Nobody trust the speed from speedo. with a slow pontoon accuracy is bragging rights.:liplick:

More Motor!
 

I have a 26 Four Winns bowrider with the 8.1, 375 HP Volvo Penta. Never at a loss for power, handles well, and seems good on gas.

When my daughter came with 12 college friends it hardly made a difference. Still got on plane quickly and maybe about 4 MPH slower top end. But it would still reach those scary illegal speeds easily!

My way of thinking is that you can't have too much power. I have heard plenty of people complain about a lack of power but I have never heard anyone complain about their boat motor being too powerful.

pontoon
 

Thanks for all the input, glad I joined this blog, I will let you know what i think one I rent both bow and Pontoon, new to boating.

We have a tri-toon premier with 115 hp mercury. Love it and handles the lake beautifully! We love the premier--this is our second one. Irwin's will be selling premier now.