Pontoon Boat

Willi wrote:

Canoes are great but they're a pain in the ass to haul around,
especially wooden ones.

The cedar strip canoes of today are NOT your grandfather's cedar canoes.
My 16 footer weighs in at around 62 lbs. Before the invention of modern
day epoxies a canoe like that could weigh up to 100 lbs., depending on
how waterlogged the cedar strips.

As far as being a pain in the ass to carry around, I don't think a 62 lb.
canoe and its paraphenalia is anymore a pain in the ass to transport than
a float tube and all its paraphenalia. You were with me the first, last
and ONLY time I have ever been in a float tube. I know good and well I
could have carried a canoe and a paddle to that lake just as easily as
the tube, pump, fins etc. etc. With a canoe you just attach the paddle
and rod tubes to the thwarts, stuff your vest and lunch under the seat,
toss the whole shebang on your shoulders and go. MUCH easier, in my view,
than ****in' around with a float tube.

--
Ken Fortenberry

wrote...
http://www.kickboat.com/

Not a "pontoon" design, but, I love mine.

You won't find a better personal
craft for rivers, including very rough water, or one more honestly portable.

How would you know? See below.

I
bought a pontoon boat first and never got the damn thing
together the first time before I returned it ... if you have to fight with
frames and tools and little pieces and then keep it assembled and strapped
on top your car ... it ain't portable G

You never got it together and yet claim it isn't portable? Following
your logic, I've never put together a F-16 so they must suck as well.
I have packed a pontoon boat on my back up to a high mountain lake,
thrown them in the back of a truck, strapped them to vehicles and
never had problems with them being portable. It all depends on your
motivation I guess.....

I would advise against a raft like Larry suggests. I have used one
before and thought a pontoon was much, much better. You sit higher
in a pontoon and can cast more easily, you don't drag as much, you
have more storage, you can maneuver the craft more easily, have more
storage if you get one that has a rear deck, can mount an anchor that
is more functional and so on. There are far more advantages to a
pontoon boat than a raft IMO. While a raft may not blow as much as a
pontoon boat, they sure aren't as easy to control in the wind. I
have rowed rafts, boats, pontoons, used float tubes and one of those
raft contraptions that Larry posted a link for. For a personal
watercraft, a pontoon boat wins IME.

If you want to try one of those rafts, go buy a cheap one person
raft, cut a section out of the floor (assuming that the air chambers
are not connected, which most are not) and give it a shot. You can
make a seat out of some sheets of thick polystyrene to raise you up.
Then borrow or rent a pontoon boat and compare the two. I am sure
you will chuck the raft and go with a pontoon after trying both.
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt (at) yahoo to reply via email)
For Conclave Info:
http://www.geocities.com/troutbum_mt...nConclave.html

"Warren" wrote


You never got it together and yet claim it isn't portable?

My logic is that I wanted a craft that I could easily carry IN my car,
assemble quickly, and disassemble quickly and put back IN my car. My
search started because I developed a bad case of rotator cuff syndrome from
yanking on dogs and getting my 8ft pram ON my truck was too painful to
accomplish. Getting a pontoon boat ON my truck would have been, too.

When, in on the floor of my shop, I found putting the pontoon together to be
time consuming and frustrating, it was clear that it wasn't the craft to
suit my needs. I have called that need "portability" and I don't think it
is that far off the mark.

Use what you will, and I wouldn't buy any high ticket item on one person's
advice, mine included, but I love my WM, it suits my needs.

A V-boat, or open-ended float tube, is the ticket for me. 5 pounds, no
assembly, just air from arm pump, very portable.

Toney


"Larry L" wrote in message
...

"Warren" wrote


You never got it together and yet claim it isn't portable?

My logic is that I wanted a craft that I could easily carry IN my car,
assemble quickly, and disassemble quickly and put back IN my car. My
search started because I developed a bad case of rotator cuff syndrome
from
yanking on dogs and getting my 8ft pram ON my truck was too painful to
accomplish. Getting a pontoon boat ON my truck would have been, too.

When, in on the floor of my shop, I found putting the pontoon together to
be
time consuming and frustrating, it was clear that it wasn't the craft to
suit my needs. I have called that need "portability" and I don't think it
is that far off the mark.

Use what you will, and I wouldn't buy any high ticket item on one person's
advice, mine included, but I love my WM, it suits my needs.

wrote...
My logic is that I wanted a craft that I could easily carry IN my car,
assemble quickly, and disassemble quickly and put back IN my car.

I could see trying to fit 9' pontoons into a car as being somewhat of
a problem. What was it that caused you problems when trying to get
it into the truck? The weight or trying to handle something that
size given your condition?

My
search started because I developed a bad case of rotator cuff syndrome from
yanking on dogs and getting my 8ft pram ON my truck was too painful to
accomplish. Getting a pontoon boat ON my truck would have been, too.

Pontoons are pretty easy to load in a truck IMO. Take the air out of
the pontoons and put the frame in with the pontoons still attached.
Take out, inflate and go or take out, go and then inflate depending
on the situation. Of course I have only done it about a dozen times
but found that they were quicker and easier than what it takes to put
my drift boat in the water and get everything ready. Pontoons can be
a difficult to carry when hiking into a high mountain lake in my far
too painful experience. I know what to do differently next time
though... A kickboat is probably better in that regard.

When, in on the floor of my shop, I found putting the pontoon together to be
time consuming and frustrating, it was clear that it wasn't the craft to
suit my needs. I have called that need "portability" and I don't think it
is that far off the mark.

Once you put it together though, do you really need to take the whole
thing apart? Most people I know don't disassemble the frames. Of
course they aren't using a car either......

Use what you will, and I wouldn't buy any high ticket item on one person's
advice, mine included, but I love my WM, it suits my needs.

That's why I suggested a comparison. I totally prefer a pontoon over
one of those kickboats. For you the kickboat is better. Who knows
which one the inquirer will like better. g It depends on
preferences and usages I guess.
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt (at) yahoo to reply via email)
For Conclave Info:
http://www.geocities.com/troutbum_mt...nConclave.html