Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hello everyone,
I'm a diver considering a pontoon, and wanted to ask for your thoughts before I got too hot and heavy on the idea. The reason I'm considering a pontoon is because I need a boat with a big platform that would let me pull gear into the water after I'm in and equally easy for me to pull the gear back on a boat. Traditional boats just aren't cutting it. Some have cute little platforms, but nothing like what I need. The platform needs to be able to store a 3'X4' raft (200 lbs). I realize you guys are a little biased, but would you guys agree that a pontoon is the right choice?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give this pontoon noobie,

Jake

Most defiantly it is a good choice. You can get a long dock ladder for getting in and out with plenty of room.

We have a diver on our lake that installs moorings, repairs docks etc.... and he has a nicely equipped pontoon.

I happen to have a picture of it. He leaves it in the water until the last minute.....

For me, the biggest part of the decision process is WHERE you plan on diving???

The 15 years I was boat diving (almost weekly), was 25 miles OFF of the west coast of FL....... NO WAY would I consider doing a pontoon that far off shore with pop up storms, etc. We often were in 4 ft to 6 ft seas.

I have a pontoon that I often use for scuba diving in lakes. It makes a great dive boat in the right environment but does have limitations. Nothing beats a large and level platform for gear storage, suiting up, or hanging out during surface intervals. However, there are several things to consider:

The biggest consideration is what you plan to use if for. If you are talking marine or big water I would not mess with it. That is not to say you can’t have a custom toon fabricated for diving but to get the size/strength and redundant features I would require for an ocean going boat would be cost prohibitive. Lakes and inland waters are dooable.

Another issue to consider is the boat size and weight carrying capacity. You want something with big toons and a tri-toon even better. Diving gear is heavy and adds up real quick. Tanks and weights alone are huge, factoring all other equipment and a single diver can easily exceed the rated capacity of 3 people. I used to have an 18' toon with smaller U-shaped toons. I took four of us out in the winter once (“once” being the key word). That means 8 Al 80 tanks plus 160 in weights alone for drysuit use + dive kits. I submarined that toon in relatively small chop. That is when I started shopping for a bigger boat with large diameter toons and limit my number of divers.

Other considerations include that you will likely need a custom or expensive ladder as many kitted divers usually exceed the load limits of the consumer ones available. In my opinion you don’t want a new or boat you hope to get a high resale value on because divers are hard on boats. Never let a kitted diver near upholstery, which means custom built benches or seating will be neeed. As you know, divers are very uncoordinated when kitted which means they can trip, drop weights or back their tanks into all kinds of lightweight parts of your toon. A loose or rolling tank in chop can do a lot damage real quick. That gets back to the fact that most pontoon boats are fabricated from very lightweight materials.

A whole other aspect, which I won’t get into here, but always leads to lively debate is the level of liability, you as a captain may be assuming when taking out people who participate in what can still be a somewhat dangerous activity. Heaven forbid something should happen, while your diving friends may not hold you liable, their relatives will. This subject always brings lively discussion as to the level of insurance one should carry.

I am not trying to discourage you just giving you some realistic things to consider, which you may have already done. I have and find for my personal use a pontoon can work for inland water diving when understanding the limitations.

Good luck in your decision.

'bob

Thanks for all the information guys. It's appreciated more than you know. So here is a bit more specifics about my diving. First, I will be diving in relatively calm water. Not offshore or anything. Secondly, I will rarely have tanks on board. I do what's called hookah diving, air gets pumped to me through a hose from an air compresser on the rafts I mentioned. I will have one or maybe two of those rafts, and they will be between 150 and 200 pounds each. Other than those, I will not have much gear on the boat that would have any weight.

So, I guess I need to find a model that offers big and low platforms and then get a nice ladder for it as well. I definitely want to get something used as I want to be able to really customize it. If anyone has any other ideas, send them my way.

You guys rock,

Jake

Hope I am not breaking any rules posting this but it is cooler than a ladder....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X63ANL8wjLc

Been a diver for 20 plus years and have dove off pretty much any type of boat you can name including 'toons. They are great for inland lake diving with basic gear like a single 80. For tech diving such as deep wrecks with big doubles, rebreathers, etc not so much. 'Toons are not conducive to a run of ten or more miles from the harbor, 5 or more miles offshore, on a large body of open water like the ocean or the great lakes. Four divers with all their tech gear is going to weigh 1000lbs or more. Weather changes have resulted in some real beatings on the ride back in on 28-30 foot dive boats. There is NO WAY I would wave wanted to be out there on a 'toon. For spearfishing on an inland lake...fantastic! Same for anchor hunting, recreational diving, snorkeling (especially with the manatees on the Crystal river, which I will NEVER forget). As a work platform in a marina or an enclosed harbor as an alternative to a "real" barge, okay depending. Keep in mind that in comparison to a heavy, deep V, offshore boat with a thick, tuff, glass hull and heavily bedded cleats, ladder, rails etc or a steel barge (even a small one), a pontoon boat is a very lightly constructed vessel. I love having one and playing on it but I'd never load it up with 3 buddies and all out dive gear and head out on 6 or 8 miles onto Lake Michigan even on the nicest day.

My dkvemaster had a huge pontoon boat custom fabricated by him.

What would be nice would be to have two oversized toons with dual engines. And on the rear, a fold up set of steps could get divers out of the water easily between the engines.

Don't know where you are located, but there is a custom pontoon to manufacturer in Springfield, Ohio that will build about anything you want.

Here is a link to there home page. I am not associated with them in any way, but I have been to their shop to look at there work.


http://custompontoonboatkitsetc.com/index.html