Lift or Sea legs and lift canopy setup?

[Chaws]

We just ordered our first pontoon for our lake place here in North Central MN. The lake we're on is a small and pretty protected 450 acre lake and our lake shore is a gradual sloped hard sand bottom at our location and mostly the same all around the lake. Our lake also connects into a massive lake with multiple bays, points, and islands that also have a fair amount of hard sand bottoms. We're considering what we'd like to do for daily mooring and we are contemplating between a regular lift, or putting Sea Legs on the pontoon and then purchasing a canopy system which is basically a pontoon lift, but without the lifting mechanism. The canopy system has augers on each corner to keep the canopy in the ground in the event of higher winds.

The pricing is about $1k more if we went with the Sea Legs and canopy system compared to just a lift but I have had a difficult time finding anyone with any real experience using Sea Legs along with a canopy system as their setup. I do know of some people that have used just Sea Legs and then had to snap on the regular cover to the pontoon each time they leave it, but I don't want to go that route as it would make it more likely to not be used due to the PIA factor of having to recover it every time it's used.

Thanks for the help!

[Tim in Michigan]

Neighbor has sea legs on his Harris, man those are expensive. He no longer needs a dock though. Not many canopy's over the pontoon boats on my lake. Mostly just mooring covers. I know the pain of installing that big mooring cover after each use, so last fall i had a complete set of individual seat and helm covers made. $1200. Set included two rear facing lounge seat covers, two captain chair covers and u shape bow seating cover including helm. Now i just take off covers to the seating i will be using.

[mpilot]

The moring covers aren't that bad really. I can cover and uncover my boat in 8 minutes.

[Bamaman]

Mooring covers are a pain to deal with, and I just use mine 1x per year--for winter storage in a boathouse.

Go for the separate lift with an integrated cover. T&M Marine (n. of Minneapols) used to have them in stock--new & used often.

[mpilot]

I just don't get the hate on mooring covers. I am willing to bet I can set up and take down as fast as individual covers. My method is pretty simple. Next time you have it on and take it off start by unsnapping the front and back that you can reach from the dock and the dock side. Once you get in the boat unsnap the back and front then fold in half where it's hanging off the opposite side you started on and remove my four poles. Then fold in half again so it's quartered in essence. Then start unsnapping the other side from the front and rolling the cover up as you unsnap. You get to the back of the boat and have a neat roll that easily fits in a corner seat compartment. To deploy basically reverse the process. Start with the roll at the corner you finished before and get a couple of snaps on to keep it from sliding then unroll and snap down the side. Then snap across the back and front as far as you can from inside the boat easily. Then do the other back and front snaps from the dock then go down the side, crawl into the boat and raise four poles and you're done. I can do the take down a little quicker, around five minutes and the set up in around 8 or less. I've seen people who just wad it up take down a lot faster but it takes them forever to find the right starting point. I can do it without a dock to by starting at the back and working down both sides with the same effectiveness.

[zoraduntov]

I considered buying sea legs as an alternative to a lift. However, I was concerned about the extra weight they add to the pontoon. I think the weight would impact the performance. Also, the stability in the wind was a concern.

So in the end I went with a lift with a canopy. I put the cover on the pontoon at the end of the weekend. It helps keep the boat clean when not in use.

[mpilot]

Saw this on Ship Shape TV this evening and it might interest some people on here. Instead of a canopy it's a retractable boat cover that has tracks mounted to the lift and retracts like a shower curtain.

http://www.worldsbestboatcover.com