New Pontoon Owners- Tips?

[CodyMorris210]

Hi all! Glad to join a community with so many other boat and water lovers. My partner and I recently (February) submitted our build for our brand new Bennington (23SSBXP), and after a long wait extended by Covid, our new boat goes into production May 5th and should be delivered here in Upstate NY in about 2.5 weeks.. Cant wait!

So I’ve spent a decent amount of time on boats and on the water, I do not have a lot of experience on pontoons. I’ve never owned a boat, but I’ve driven friends speedboats so I know a good amount of boating in general. I’m licensed and have done a good deal of educating myself, but until I’m actually on our Bennington I feel like I won’t be able to know everything I need to know. So I figured why not ask folks of Club Bennington! Our boating style will be pretty casual, mostly cruising with some hanging out in a bay, we’ll have our two dogs with us sometimes, and we’ll be doing some tubing (200 HP engine) until I can work up to giving wakeboarding a try haha. We’re going to be docked on a smaller lake here for our first year, but I may or may not drive a half hour to the bigger, more scenic and lively lake (Lake George).

Also.. stupid question. I’m currently preparing and purchasing basic boat stuff, and curious because I’ve been told conflicting things to this question: Will our Bennington come with an anchor and fire extinguisher? Lol. Neither is on our order, but I swear I remember seeing fire extinguisher somewhere. Someone told me yes, someone else told me no. Another person told me to tell my dealer to make sure they’re there lol. I would just like to obviously be prepared, I could reach out to my dealer though.

Any pontoon tips, things every owner should know, little tricks or “secrets” to better boating experiences welcome! Thanks everyone!

 

[AZHEAT]

Welcome and congratulations!

Our ‘19 came with a fire extinguisher, but no anchor.

With boating experience, you will find that you will get used to the differences between boat types relatively easily. The two things that stood out to me relative to previous boats (runabouts and cats) were 1. Retrieving the Benny on a trailer is a PITA (no comparison to any of my previous boats). 2. I’ve found that simply putting the boat in gear around the docks, launching, and retrieving resulted in such slow movement of the boat that I use throttle as well, which isn’t a big deal, but wasn’t necessary with any of my other boats. (prop selection likely has something to do with #2)

The other differences I would consider to be all positives In favor of the Benny.

Make sure to post pics when it arrives! Enjoy in good health!

 

[CTBoater]

Congratulations on your new Bennington! We have a 2018 version of the same boat...you will love it. Ours came with a fire extinguisher mounted to the floor on the right side of the driver seat. It also came with a “useless” small danforth style anchor. We replaced it with a small Slide Anchor-Box anchor which works great!

 

[swiftm]

Our pontoon came with a Mounted fire extinguisher on the floor next to the helm and our dealer “threw in” 4 life jackets and a danforth anchor.

 

[Mike31406]

Ours came with a mounted fire extinguisher . I think the dealer “threw in” 4 life jackets. I purchased a throwable Cushion, whistle, 8 more life jackets, anchor, chain, anchor line, boat hook (comes in handy for many things (most recently retrieving my hat from the water) I would definitely check with dealer as to what will be included, no surprises that way. Welcome to the group, this is a great place to ask all your questions. You made a good decision buying a Bennington. Post lots of pictures.

 

[BigKahuna]

Welcome to the forum Cody. Also ask your dealer if he will throw in bumpers/fenders for when you're docked. Also you mentioned tubing, wakeboarding. This won't take the place of a good spotter/observer but you'll want a mirror to see what's behind you. ptemedge.com.

 

[rodsfields]

Welcome. As others above have said, it comes with a fire extinguisher but no anchor. I got the dealer to throw in all my life jackets (thirteen including ones for kids of different sizes) safety kit (air horn, flares, another fire extinguisher) and a danforth anchor (I use that for the stern anchor). I bought a box anchor for a much more substantial hold albeit a bit heavier than the danforth).
I’d say the most challenging thing to learn with a pontoon is docking/loading on a trailer or lift. 1) you really have to compensate for wind, 2)most trailers don’t have guide ons and even if they do, you have a squared off now and not a point.You can’t just get the nose in and let the guides position you.
Other than that it’s a much better ride than a VHull in chop.
Enjoy it. My partner and I have had ours for a year now and we have put 135 hours on it already.