Pontoon House Boat

[Seon]

I’ve owned several fishing boats most of my life. Then last January I bought my current Pontoon and was a big hit with my wife, children, grand children and great-grand children. We used it as the "headquarter" while they cruised in their boats then they'd tie up to the Toon for BBQ'ing and all. So the Toon passed with flying colors.

Now for my next adventure…a houseboat. We recently sold our motor home so spoke to the wife about buying a Pontoon Houseboat so that we could cruise the Delta, anchor up and spend the day or even spend a night or two without a care in the world.

I didn’t want to lose the “openness” of the Toon but wanted some shelter for the evenings so I started surfing the net and liked the ones that’s trailer-able like the 30’ Sun Tracker Party Hut.

She loved the idea so now the hunt begins for a lightly used clean one.

If anyone has or know of one that’s clean, reasonably priced in the high teens (yeah wishful thinking) and is in a “turn-key” condition please let me know.

[curtiscapk]

Quite a ways from cali and more $ than you wanted but this is in fantastic shape!

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/bod/5083445794.html

[Seon]

Quite a ways from cali and more $ than you wanted but this is in fantastic shape!

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/bod/5083445794.html

Yeah, I saw this on my search. Doesn't mention "trailer" only "available... for delivery".

[BobG]

This arrived on my lake the other day - home made...

20150625_161713.jpg (113.64 KiB) Viewed 6210 times

[Seon]

Looks very interesting to say the least.

[Seon]

Talk about luck!! Checked out craigslist this morning and ran across the title, "28' Tracker Party Hut Pontoon" so I called and made an appointment to view it this afternoon when the seller got home from work. He lived only an hour away and the reason he sold it was because they bought a larger 30' Tracker Party Hut Pontoon which was parked in his driveway.

He's owned it since '05 and has always been parked under a carport when not on the lake. He walked me thru the entire boat, I bought it which made both seller and buyer happy.

I see many overnight anchoring in the Delta, starting with watching the Barron Hilton fireworks display at Mandeville slough this Saturday .

[ROLAND]

Seon, congratulations on the new boat!!! from the pics she looks to be in pretty good shape... just curious, were you able to check the motor out before you bought it?

[justrfb]

Wow, good for you... I wish you many happy, uneventful and safe hours aboard you new to you vessel. Safe boating...

Sincerely,
Rich

[Seon]

Roland, yes the motor purred like a kitten.

The seller made lots of mods on the Toon so other than installing a chart plotter, I can't think of any thing else I have to do to her, but I'm sure the wife will come up with lots of things . She's already hinted that an LED TV mounted on the wall would be nice, so I'm glad I have a Honda eu3000i genset.
The sun screens will be the big hit for the passengers as well as the roof for the grandkid for jumping off into into the river to swim.

[NonHyphenAmerican]

Not trying to be a smart-aleck, well not much.......


But is there enough water left in CA to float it?


Cause it looks like it'd be fun for you and your crew.

[curtiscapk]

great find!

[RcgTexas]

I do like those party huts. There is a guy on the pontoon stuff forum that has turned his into a hitech wonder!

[Seon]

....But is there enough water left in CA to float it? ...

The Sacramento Delta is fed from the Pacific Ocean. If that dries up, then we're all in trouble .

[Seon]

Well I've had the Party Hut in a marina for a couple of months and has be great for the kids to meet us there and all jump onboard for the day's outing. The Merc 115 runs great but I just don't like 2 strokes so brought it home last week and started the repower project. LeilaJade (named after our 1 yr old identical twin grand-daughters)



Oreo cookies




will be fitted with a Yamaha 115 4 stroke by tomorrow.

[Bamaman]

The houseboat business has essentially fallen on its face, and there are really only one manufacturer of pontoon houseboats. That's Catamaran Cruisers making fiberglass hulled units south of Nashville, TN. Since they're not aluminum, they're really popular rental units in the Bahamas, etc. See http://www.catamarancruiser.com The price is right, and they're probably a pretty good value.

The only aluminum houseboats being manufactured for all practical purposes are out of Lake Cumberland, Kentucky, and they're more like 85-100' units and cost mega bucks. I have a friend that bought an 85' houseboat on Center Hill Lake, TN for only $169K.