Hey everybody! Long time no post, but I've been lurking around. As a proud, card carrying member of the PADs club, I thought I better share that it has struck me again. First it was the 22 SX with a 90hp and twin 25's. Then it was the 2275 GCW with ESP and an F200. I didn't think I'd go up from the GCW, and it turns out, I won't. The new boat is unfortunately not a Bennington. But it's not really a pontoon either....
All photos by previous owner. More here: https://goo.gl/photos/q5ge1yr2LkCQeG586
Say hello to my new-to-me 20 foot rubber pontoon (aka cataraft). It has twin 30" diameter tubes and it will have a 30hp motor once I get it rigged up how I want (it has an 18hp now). Seems like a massive downgrade, but this is exactly what I needed all along for how I use it. Since it weighs so little a 30hp motor will actually push it in the mid 20's with a heavy load of camping gear and friends. And more importantly, I can beach/anchor it to shore just about in a lot more places at Lake Powell. With my tritoon, I'm limited to about .001% of the shoreline because almost all of it is solid rock. With this, we can let it bounce on rocks all day long. We can also just grab it and pull it up on the shore. I was getting very frustrated about being able to get off the boat and explore, and this solves that. And the cherry on top: I can take it whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon, Cataract Canyon and other big western rivers and have a far lower chance of dying in the process!
I was going to build my own this winter but I got lucky and picked this exact rig up. It wasn't up for sale but I reached out to the owner to ask him some questions and one thing led to another. Deposit is paid and I'm driving out to Chicago to pick it up soon. I'm very, very happy.
So now it's time to sell my Benny. It's still down at Lake Powell, but I'm going to go down over New Years weekend and take her out for one more night. I'm going to clean her up and tow her to St. George, UT and store her there and see if I can't sell it to someone in Vegas with it being a couple hours away. The Bennington dealer here in Salt Lake is officially off of the dealer list so it could be a tough sell close to home. Wish me luck!
So I guess I'm only officially in the Bennington club for as long as it takes to sell my GCW, but I'm plotting to put something from the Benny on the new boat so I can still hang like Wooden Pontoon with his Bennington furniture. So how do I change my username to Rubber Pontoon??
All photos by previous owner. More here: https://goo.gl/photos/q5ge1yr2LkCQeG586
Say hello to my new-to-me 20 foot rubber pontoon (aka cataraft). It has twin 30" diameter tubes and it will have a 30hp motor once I get it rigged up how I want (it has an 18hp now). Seems like a massive downgrade, but this is exactly what I needed all along for how I use it. Since it weighs so little a 30hp motor will actually push it in the mid 20's with a heavy load of camping gear and friends. And more importantly, I can beach/anchor it to shore just about in a lot more places at Lake Powell. With my tritoon, I'm limited to about .001% of the shoreline because almost all of it is solid rock. With this, we can let it bounce on rocks all day long. We can also just grab it and pull it up on the shore. I was getting very frustrated about being able to get off the boat and explore, and this solves that. And the cherry on top: I can take it whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon, Cataract Canyon and other big western rivers and have a far lower chance of dying in the process!
I was going to build my own this winter but I got lucky and picked this exact rig up. It wasn't up for sale but I reached out to the owner to ask him some questions and one thing led to another. Deposit is paid and I'm driving out to Chicago to pick it up soon. I'm very, very happy.
So now it's time to sell my Benny. It's still down at Lake Powell, but I'm going to go down over New Years weekend and take her out for one more night. I'm going to clean her up and tow her to St. George, UT and store her there and see if I can't sell it to someone in Vegas with it being a couple hours away. The Bennington dealer here in Salt Lake is officially off of the dealer list so it could be a tough sell close to home. Wish me luck!
So I guess I'm only officially in the Bennington club for as long as it takes to sell my GCW, but I'm plotting to put something from the Benny on the new boat so I can still hang like Wooden Pontoon with his Bennington furniture. So how do I change my username to Rubber Pontoon??
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