Ocean pontoon boating

[Mdp228]

Good afternoon.

Well it’s 95 degrees here in RI and I’m daydreaming of being out on the water next season. I have been boating for over 10 years (gave it up when the kids were born) now looking forward to getting back out on the water with family and friends. I have owned 2 boats. A 22’ Stingray cuddy cabin (used in the Narragansett bay of RI) then a 22’ Tige open bow wakeboarding boat with an inboard (used 100% in fresh water). When I paused my boating life triple pontoons had just hit the scene and man have they evolved. I want one badly! Definitely looking at a triple in the 24-26’ range. We want to load it up with friends, their kids, and all the gear that comes with that for some water skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, etc. I have a few questions and looking for a little guidance from folks living the “toon life”.

#1 how much horsepower do I need to pull up a “full figured” skier such as myself? 200? 350? My ski boat had 340 and did nicely but I know pontoons are much different then a heavy fiberglass hull.

#2 as mentioned earlier I live in RI. Anyone have experience pontooning in the bay? I will definitely be picking my days carefully because it can get pretty roudy out there but will we be safe in 3-4’ chop if we happen to encounter it or some weather rolls in?

#3 if I do go in salt water I will bring it home, give it a full rinse and engine flush but are there any other maintenance items I need to consider? Should I bottom paint the pontoons? It will never be in salt water for more than a day at a time.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
See you out there ;0)

 

[BigKahuna]

Welcome to the forum Mdp228! There's another member on this forum that boats in the bay/Newport area. Hope he chimes in. My wife is from RI and I went to Roger Williams college back in the day. Know RI well! The bay can get rough at times as you know. A Bennington Tritoon can handle it up to a point. When it gets windy/choppy it's just not fun to be out there rocking and rolling with a Tritoon. You don't want to be in the bay with 3 or 4 foot rollers as you mentioned. We have a Mercury 150 on our current boat. It easily pulls up my wife and adult kids skiing/slalom/wakeboarding. Had an I/O before that. But if you are looking for a 24 to 26 footer on up and you're going to be boating in the bay I would suggest a minimum of 200-250hp.

 

[jcr159]

Welcome to the forum Mdp228! There's another member on this forum that boats in the bay/Newport area. Hope he chimes in. My wife is from RI and I went to Roger Williams college back in the day. Know RI well! The bay can get rough at times as you know. A Bennington Tritoon can handle it up to a point. When it gets windy/choppy it's just not fun to be out there rocking and rolling with a Tritoon. You don't want to be in the bay with 3 or 4 foot rollers as you mentioned. We have a Mercury 150 on our current boat. It easily pulls up my wife and adult kids skiing/slalom/wakeboarding. Had an I/O before that. But if you are looking for a 24 to 26 footer on up and you're going to be boating in the bay I would suggest a minimum of 200-250hp.

agree with all Big's points... while I'm a new Tritoon owner, I'll say this...

My family has rented a boat in the Cape Coral/Ft Meyers area in FL the last 4 years we visited... I've rented 2 Hurricane deck boats (26', 150 Hp), a 2600 Southwind (250 Hp), and a 29' SeaRay Cuddy Cabin (350+) that i won't talk about, lol...

Anyway, spending a week with each I can tell ya this... the waters down that way on the river and intra costal are a lot like you are describing... Some is fairly protected, but still big enough that it regularly has chop of various size... (i'll define chop as small/medium, no more than 2', very high frequency waves). All the boats ran pretty well there. You seen tons of toons of all types there...

If you get out of the inter/intra costal semi-protected waters... like around the south point of Sanibel island, you are in the Gulf waters and subject to the full swells. There isn't really chop out there, but more regular wave patterns that are lower in frequency, but typically bigger... We wouldn't venture out into that water on any of our rentals if the seas were more than 1'-3'... even 2'-4' is just uncomfortable in a boat that size. I'm not saying it was unsafe, but like @BigKahuna mentions, it's not a lot of fun.

Now for the more technical stuff... As you may have noticed, the Southwind had more motor... I'd say this. I wouldn't hit openish water with anything less than a 250... Here's why...

If you've spent time boating in these types of water, you know that it isn't just the wave height that makes travel uncomfortable. It is the frequency coupled with the wave size. Sometimes running slower to get the timing right to smooth out the ride is best. Sometimes more speed is better because you can skim the tops of the waves better... are you in a following sea, crossing sea, etc... the Southwind was the most comfortable by far.... partially cause it had more deadrise than the Hurricanes, and partially because I had a lot more options speed wise with the added power to get the best ride.

good luck with your purchase! if you don't go out when the conditions are beyond your captaining abilities, you'll be fine...

don't forget your flares, VHF, backup battery, and VHF though... did i mention VHF? I can't remember... lol

 

[LaurencetheAdventurer]

Can't speak to your locations, but:
I find my LXSB 26 barely has enough room to store everything we use, and that is with the Center Toon Storage and SB where I modified the privacy curtain to double it's storage capacity. Now, we have to travel about 5 hours to our RV park and store the boat in the water over the summer. In 115 degree plus Havasu heat, we don't want to be lugging stuff back and forth. See my prior posts on the privacy curtain modification and storage - I do have our Benny FULLY loaded. I have a 350m, with 8 people on board still no issues with tubing or skiers - I think a 250 would have been just fine, but do enjoy occasionally passing some "fancy" ski boats when doing a lake run (it's 40 miles long) - though it's hurt the pocket book a bit as my 2.5+ mpg cruise speed @28 mph on a clear day drops to 1.2 WOT. Oh right, BOAT...LOL.

 

[CLDave]

Only other consideration I'd add other than 250+ HP is to make sure you get the ESP hull or maybe even ESP with "rough water" package (thicker aluminum). In bigger water you need to run with some gusto to keep the bow above the waves, and I'm happy to report that even on big swells our new tritoon is much better/smoother than our old pontoon.

 

[Potomacbassin’]

Pick your days as you stated but I've eaten plenty of 3-4's, you just have to know how to drive 'em especially a following sea. I would not want to be out there with 8-10 people/kids though in those conditions, that's a recipe to end up on the Qualified Captain!

150hp + if not more if your going to load lots of adults, beverages and gear.

Get the saltwater package so the correct anodes are installed and they also seal up the lifting strakes to prevent growth (normally they're open on the rears).

 

[SEMPERFI8387]

Can’t speak much about any of your questions as I’m on an inland HP restricted lake, except, if you think you might stuff a wave, you may think about a Q with the curved nose. You stuff a wave with any of the flat noses and your gonna be fixing panels. You may even have to with the Q, but I’d think you have a better chance of minimal damage vs. the others.

 

[Jack M]

Plus the nose on Q's are glass .

 

[Mdp228]

Wow! I appreciate all of your input in such a short time. Nice to see all of the knowledge and passion.

 

[lakeliving]

I’m in south Florida on the coast. We have a 24’ tritoon that has the sps package and a Yamaha 200. Does everything well inshore. I haven’t built up the nerve or stupidity to take it into the Atlantic yet….

It lives on a lift behind our place when not in use and it’s held up quite nicely with a rinse and flush after every use.