Pontoon Surf boat. Will Bennington follow???...

Why not!
 
I was talking to a boat dealer the other day and he told me that his boat sales have gone from 20% pontoons, 10% wake boats, and 70% traditional V-hull, five to seven years ago to 50% pontoons, 30% wake boats, and 20% traditional V-hull boats in the last couple of years. It is not surprising that someone has engineered the combination of a pontoon and wake boat.
 
They did have one a few years back with a wake hull .


There may be additional pics here .
 
What do they run Jack???
 
I have no clue , and those pics are from 2014
 
Seems to make since. You get the best of both worlds with a wake surfing pontoon. Probably more room for ballast too
 
Holy Gazebo! This would be the only reason I would trade my current Benny. This is an activity my crew would love to do. But shelling out an absurd amount of cash for a craft that is basically useless for anything else is, “well just wrong”. Put an outboard motor with the prop reversed “I guess lower unit turned around” and tanks in the toon with the wave gates would be a dream come true. ARE YOU LISTENING BENNINGTON????
 
Having just come from a true wakeboard / wakesurf boat back to pontoon boats - I have to say this is really a joke. Pontoon boats do not make good wakes for anything - and the whole concept of a pontoon boat (less resistance by rising up out of the water) is antithetical to making a good wake for watersports. That said - and as TomS correctly notes - NEVER surf behind an outboard or I/O. I wouldn't even surf behind the forward drive units - unless they were mounted under the boat.

At the end of the day - pontoon boats are great for their purpose - they are not wakesport boats.

While I used to haul everyone around in my wakeboard boat - now I park, turn on the music - and everyone relaxes in my floating living room and I let the others haul the kids around when on the lake. Oh - by the way - I love my Bennington . . .

Here's what a real wake looks like.


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So totally eliminated a class of watercraft that totally rocks from doing something new. Why does a forward mount prop not meet the need? Do you fall under the boat when you fall? Doesn’t seem possible to me. Just wondering! Extend the stern deck far enough to protect the surfer??? I can’t believe you can’t add enough weight and proper wake devices to a Tritoon to provide a surfable wake. But I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night so I am probably wrong.
 
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So totally eliminated a class of watercraft that totally rocks from doing something new. Why does a forward mount prop not meet the need? Do you fall under the boat when you fall? Doesn’t seem possible to me. Just wondering! Extend the stern deck far enough to protect the surfer??? I can’t believe you can’t add enough weight and proper wake devices to a Tritoon to provide a surfable wake. But I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night so I am probably wrong.


Any prop protruding past the transom is dangerous. Period. When you surf - if you surf “down the wave” and can’t control your speed - you’ll easily surf into the back of the boat. Same is true if the boat has to suddenly cut the throttle. Props are sharp and incredibly dangerous.

And - it’s not about adding ballast. The hull will shape the wake. I’d regularly put #1500 of ballast on one side of my boat until the rubrail was at the waterline - put most of the hull underwater. Created a super clean and surfable wake. Which of the 3 pontoons will create the void big enough to create a big enough wave to surf? I just don’t see it.

Plus - The face of the wake needs to be clean to be fast. With three pontoons - the wake is likely to be too messy.

Why do folks think pontoon boats need to be able to do everything as good as other special-purpose boats?
 
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