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Front of your boat ever gone way up?

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 3:03 pm
by photonfanatic
Ever been going across the lake, and the front of your boat starting going up higher than you'd like? I am still learning to be a good boater, but one of my early lessons (say 8 years ago) was that you do NOT under any circumstances, take the boat out on an windy day. Ever. My friend really wanted to take his Champion brand bass boat out on the water on a windy day. I went with him, thinking the guy knew what he was doing. He had been boating all his life, since he was a little kid. I've known him since we were 5. He and his dad were always out on the lake in a fiberglass bass boat.

So to keep it short, at one point when we were on the lake, I was looking nearly straight up at the front of that bass boat. I was even looking over the side at the water, thinking about jumping out. Better that, than to be in that boat when it tipped over backwards. I look over at his face and I see panic. Luckily we didn't capsize. We got back to the dock immediately and our hands were shaking lol. This ever happen to any of you? And how likely is this in a pontoon boat? Seems to me like it may be even easier for this to happen to a pontoon (or a tritoon) since they have that big air gap underneath.

Now every time I see the front of my toon go up a little more than usual, I slow down. And I'm very conscious of wind conditions anytime I want to take the boat out. That experience put the fear of god into me.

Re: Front of your boat ever gone way up?

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:59 am
by steve1313
Bass boats with their huge motors and low profiles are a completely different beast than our pontoons. Most bass boats have the largest possible engine and will get into a very bow high position when the captain slams the throttle to the firewall. You've got a ton of weight in the rear, a wide hull and if they are going into the wind, that can increase the bow rise even more.

Pontoon boats are essentially displacement hulls, so they don't really plane like a bass boat would so the bow doesn't get as high. Also that bow rise can be caused by air getting underneath a traditional bass boat hull and getting trapped there. On Pontoons, any air channeled under the deck and between the toons just flows right out the back. Also, most of us don't have monster power on the transom that would cause the boat to bow to jump up.

You're much more likely to stuff the front end of your pontoon into the water if you hit a decent size wave than you are to ever flip your boat because of any wind or sea conditions.

Re: Front of your boat ever gone way up?

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 3:59 am
by photonfanatic
That's real good to know. Now maybe I won't worry so much when the bow goes up a bit on my pontoon.

Re: Front of your boat ever gone way up?

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:29 pm
by PlaynDoc
steve1313 wrote:
Tue Jun 26, 2018 1:59 am
You're much more likely to stuff the front end of your pontoon into the water if you hit a decent size wave than you are to ever flip your boat because of any wind or sea conditions.

yep. that's happened a few times..... seems like about 2" or more of water came through

Re: Front of your boat ever gone way up?

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:59 pm
by Bamaman
I have an old Starcraft pontoon with a very strong Yamaha 115 horsepower 2 stroke. Throw the throttle from a dead start and it accelerates really fast because the nose just goes straight ahead--not nose high. Planing hull boats always start with the nose high before planing off. The displacement pontoon hills are not like that.

I have a tritoon, and its lifting stakes fool it into acting like a planing hull when it is up to speed. When I get over 30 mph, air gets under the hull and I can feel the nose rising. But it is under control.