Whate Water Rated Pontoon boat

Jeff Miller wrote:
sandy - ...and look at the sherpa here...85 pounds and stable, sturdy,
and capable of carrying loads...

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/sto...s/jw/index.htm




Opinion:
The Sherpa isn't a driftboat. It's got too much tumblehome
in the sides--and therefore not enough side-to-side stability for
standing up in roilly, wavey water.

A pointed end is a good thing for a heavy white water boat
(breaks big wave water left and right, instead of over the top).
But this isn't a white water boat...although I'm sure I could
run some fairly wild stuff with it. Last fall I watched Ray Heater
run his 11' Rapid Robert through the famous Whitehorse rapids
on the Descutes. The rapid robert is pointed at one end (the end
that points back upstream) and flat in front. Whenever Ray was
about to hit a particularly big wave (some easily 3-4 times
taller than his little boat) he just canted the boat a bit and
hit it with a front corner of the flat front end.
My 8' square-ender would be about the same as his pointed-at-one-end
Rapid Robert, if I added a point...although mine is a wee bit
narrower. I just want to keep it as small and lite as possible.


The important thing with new boat designs is to get started and
to actually make one. Then you can adapt and evolve the next
time around. I've been rowing my little 11' square-ended Buffalo
Boats for over 20 years now. They're damn nice two-person boats.
This boat is a lot like a Buffalo Boat scaled down to one-person
dimensions. My Montana fishing buddies like to refer to the
Buffalo Boat as "Sandy's pointless boat."
But that doesn't mean they don't think it's a damn good boat.