Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Ill try and keep this as short as possible. I purchased what was advertised and titled as a 24' pontoon boat, the maximum length my lake allows. Apparently a complaint was filed stating by boat was larger than a 24'. Upon measuring my toons they actually measure a little over 25'.

The pontoon will never leave our little inland lake and all we do is travel from our dock to the swimming area. If I were to shorten the toons to fall in the 24' rule (approx 12") would that have any ill effect on the stability of the boat? Again our lake is not very big and the pontoon will not be used elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice!

so what you are going to cut a foot off the pontoons and weld back up sounds like a lot of work? sell and buy a 22 footer would be much easier if you weld back up you would want to pressure test them?

I can't believe you have a neighbor complaining about that. Unless your boat is hanging past their dock ,it's hurting nothing. Have you explained that it's titled as a 24' and never gave it a thought after that?

As far as cutting and rewelding, I wouldn't. That's a big job. Value wise it'll be ruined unless it's an old boat already. To do a good job you'd really need to remove each log. When we built my last boat we cut the end off of a third log and added a transom. I can't imagine how you'd get a nice straight cut without being able to roll the log as needed. My friend is a professional fabricator and he said it was a pain lol.

It amazes me that some people have so little to do, that they need to shove their misery onto others.
I would go to the board and ask for forgiveness. Hopefully they are not the assholes that one of your neighbors appears to be.

thall17 wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 11:21 am

Ill try and keep this as short as possible. I purchased what was advertised and titled as a 24' pontoon boat, the maximum length my lake allows. Apparently a complaint was filed stating by boat was larger than a 24'. Upon measuring my toons they actually measure a little over 25'.

The pontoon will never leave our little inland lake and all we do is travel from our dock to the swimming area. If I were to shorten the toons to fall in the 24' rule (approx 12") would that have any ill effect on the stability of the boat? Again our lake is not very big and the pontoon will not be used elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice!

First and foremost I'd contest it simply because it's titled as a 24' er. And secondly the rule needs clarified as it's to vague as you have posted it here. If you were to sign up for dockage at a marina the dock master would physically measure your boat for length for billing purposes. Their measurement will be from the very front of the boat to the back of the motor as it's sitting on its transom. This could in itself add an additional two or more feet to the boats length putting you three feet over the 24 foot rule making the solution of a 12'' chop-off impracticable.

From the article I linked below..."The US Coast Guard regulates LOA, and states that it should be given as the longest measurement of the boat only, not including any running gear such as outboard drives."

I would be curious to see the written rules on how the association is measuring the length. LOA specifications vary by all boat manufacturers and I would think the lake association would be forced to go by the USCG regs or by the title.

I would contest the complaint and if you lose, get another boat or another place.

Below is a pretty good article on LOA measurements.

https://pontoonopedia.com/pontoon-boats ... ent-sizes/

I would show them the title, then tell them to pound sand as I pissed on their legs...to establish dominance.
Now as a disclaimer...if you do that and go to jail...i was drunk and joking...

And i wanna see video on whirlstar or liveleak....or it didnt happen.