Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys... I"ve been reading and posting on this forum for about 9 months now... alot of the information I got off this forum was used in helping me and my wife buy our first pontoon back in the fall of last year. But as I continue to read the posts here I am continually surprised by the amount of people concerned about "speed". Now having said that I have to admit that I too checked my speed by gps earlier this spring. But I was just curious as to how fast it would go. It seems alot of people are really worried about speed. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you wanted a "fast" boat, why would you buy a toon. To me it's about comfort and enjoyment out on the lake. I realize the newer boats are set up to provide greater speed, but again, I've never in my life thought a PONTOON boat was supposed to be fast, just comfortable... there are other boats out there designed for speed... not trying to piss anyone off here, just curious at to what seems to be an obsession by some. also thought this would be a good post to get some back and forth going.

when I was a kid I use to paint a number on the back of my pet turtle and race him on a straight track i built out of legos. No one wants to come in dead last.

To me, speed was everything. When me and my wife were looking into different types of boats to buy I wanted to be able to ski or wake board behind the boat and get from point A to point B without taking all day. She wanted the comfort and large deck of a pontoon to take out friends. I had been on other peoples pontoons and while comfortable they were dog slow and that just drove me crazy because sometimes I like to get where I want to go. Anyway, we came across a good deal on a year old model and it had the best of both worlds and we couldn't be much happier with our purchase.

Had a 2 log with a 90 for over 10 years. Enjoyed it very much. Well anyway I was kicked back sipping a cold one when a tritoon came into the cove. I watched an it just seem to glide along effortlessly, think maybe he had a 115. This was a big contrast to my boat which really plowed through the water an if you didn't throttle back slowly while someone was standing, it would just dump them on their face. Not sure of the diameter of the logs, but since mine was an 89 model, I am sure they were smaller than today. Then I got to thinking I had not been on the other side of the lake (about 35 miles) since I had my runabout. So right then I decided the next boat would be a tritoon. When I bought the tritoon, the dealer recommended I get the lifting strakes (glad I did). I think my toon is about as fast as the runabout I had with a 150, maybe a little faster. Half the fun of having a toon is to lay back an cruise enjoying the ride, but now I can vary my speed rather than running at wot as I did with the old toon. My tritoon was rated for a 200 but the 150 zips me along pretty good. If an when I buy another it will be a tritoon with near max hp. By then the motors will probably be more fuel efficient than now. So guess my answer would be to expand my cruising range an coverage of the lake.
doc

ROLAND wrote:Hey guys... I"ve been reading and posting on this forum for about 9 months now... alot of the information I got off this forum was used in helping me and my wife buy our first pontoon back in the fall of last year. But as I continue to read the posts here I am continually surprised by the amount of people concerned about "speed". Now having said that I have to admit that I too checked my speed by gps earlier this spring. But I was just curious as to how fast it would go. It seems alot of people are really worried about speed. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you wanted a "fast" boat, why would you buy a toon. To me it's about comfort and enjoyment out on the lake. I realize the newer boats are set up to provide greater speed, but again, I've never in my life thought a PONTOON boat was supposed to be fast, just comfortable... there are other boats out there designed for speed... not trying to piss anyone off here, just curious at to what seems to be an obsession by some. also thought this would be a good post to get some back and forth going.

Roland..........I have to agree with you.
The older I get, the more comfort I want.

To some people pontoon boating isnt about GETTING there its about BEING there

While I certainly dont use my pontoon to satisfy my need for speed...I still want to get the best overall performance out of my setup that i can..just the same as I do with any of my boats...and(as doc said above) usually getting the maximum performance from your setup translates into better fuel economy which is nice....I rarely run my pontoon as fast as it'll go but its sure nice that the speed is there if and when I need it...like running from a thunder storm which is a common adventure on summer days in Florida.

I am a cruise guy and speed isn't important to me. Kids are grown so tubing isn't a necessary thing (thank God). In today's world you can have speed if you want it or low and slow and anywhere in between. Pontoons are replacing a lot of ski boats on our lake now and except for the wake board types and go fast and cruisers toons rule.

If I cared about speed I wouldn't have bought a Party Cruiser. To me, it's all about making as many topless women as comfortable as possible.

It's really about expectations. If you buy a pontoon expecting a certain amount of speed and don't reach that, your right to explore your options.
If your just fishing on a small lake, 11 mph maybe OK. If you want to be on that sandy beach/cove five miles away you may want to get there just a little faster, say 20 mph.
Sometimes that 30 mph pontoon may not be in your budget.

Most of the speed questions are from people that don't feel their particular combo is working as it should. Not that they are expecting to make it a speed boat.

I kept my last boat for 14 years and it was a 20' with a 40 horse smoker on it. My wife and I were so tired of being the last to get anywhere we were about to give up pontooning for good. I love the fact that performance toons are now available and there are many younger folks now buying pontoons who wouldn't have considered them a few years ago. The engineering and design that is going into todays high performance toons is also helping the lower end boats. And yes, I would much rather cruise at 24 mph then 12 mph.

For 6 years, we had an 18" Godfrey fishing toon with a 25 fs on it. Top speed was 11-12, depending on load. This was the type boat you opened the throttle and poured yourself a cup of coffee for the trip across a 2 mile lake. We would anchor, and if the fishing wasn't good, we would weigh anchor and move to another spot. It seemed to take a long time to move anywhere.

When we got our new 22" Crestliner, I wanted more HP to move along a little faster, but we didn't want a screamer. (my friend has one of those fly low,70 mph, bass boats if there was a need for speed.) We got a 90 fs on the new toon and are very happy with it. I have only opened it up several times, just out of curosity. We got 27.3 (gps) average on a two way run. our normal cruise is a comfortable 18-20 mph. We have a tow bar for tubing with the grandkids, so the uses of the boat has increased. Our old boat never would have pulled a tube.

With the increased hp, we have lots of options we never had before. I am not a bit sorry we uped the hp from 60 to 90. We felt with the 60, we would have been not much better off than before.

Economy wise, we go 8 days fishing with our 26 gallon tank. Obviously, tubing would up that consumption significantly.

The bottom line is we have more options with the added hp. You don't have to go full throttle everywhere, but still have a relaxing cruise.

Thanks for the reply guys... I have to say that all of you ( especially ed ) make good points... I think one of the best answers I got out of this is that boat manufacturers are adding speed and speed accessories to pontoons to widen thier target sales demographic.. toons are not just the "old mans' boat anymore, more features and more speed make them a better choice for more people. I should have figured that out myself. I have an uncle who has a deck boat and it will walk off and leave my little benny sitting in the lake. For tubing, skiing, I think that boat is great, but I'll take my little ol pontoon anyday when it comes to just crusing, being comfortable and even fishing. The thing that prompted me to start this post was a few weeks back I had my little benny running wot around 24 to 25 mph when all of a sudden some damn kid whips out from behind a bank of trees on a jet ski. I thought I was gonna kill him. First thing I found out about my boat when the kid darted out in front of me was "there aint no brakes.". I'm serious, my right foot was pounding the floor looking for the brake. Scared the hell out of me... I almost T-boned that kid and it really scared me. Of course the other side of that argument is, if I had a faster boat, I would have been long gone before he ever came thru there right? I guess another reason I'm happy with 25 mph, is one, 25 mph feels faster on water than it does on the road, and two, the lake we use most often is known for having alot of underwater stumps. Seen more than on bass rig all tore up from hitting those stumps at 40 mph.... Think I'll just tie up and do alittle fishing.. thanks for the comments guys.. appreciate the feed back.

To some people pontoon boating isnt about GETTING there its about BEING there

What HE said!!!

Roland, for me, I really am not a boating nut, my brother has a 42' fountain w twin 700 hp engines, does 108 mph, thats 42 feet of boat, that seats 5 people, I call that a waste. my pontoon is fast, but I dont have to go fast, I have plenty of power to pull skiiers, tubes, and wake boards. like I said, I am not a boat nut, but I do like alot of friends around me, so, my 26' boat seats 12 to 15 comfortably, vs, a 42' speed boat, squeezing in 5 people, thats why I have a fast pontoon, and not a speed boat. and as a added, bonus, I can smoke most boats on our lake, lol, JT