Some thoughts after a couple of weekends...

[Gabbiano]

thanks a lot, that fact just broke the tie

 

[Link]

thanks a lot commodore. never having had a pontoon before I hope you can understand my dilemma. I have been boating on Long Island for over 65 years but now do my boating in Florida. I have a 27ft searay amberjack in florida and want to get into a pontoon. Lots of low water down here (my boat draws 30 inches) and I don't go that far offshore anymore. I went for a ride in a rental Bennington yesterday. It was really was pretty beat up but the ride was great. Definitely told me I need some kind of assisted steering. The rental was hard to steer. Thanks for the encouragement for me to make the leap., Enjoy your boat

I am a little surprised to hear that the rental was hard to steer as I can't imagine the rental having 150HP or greater. Bennington STARTS to suggest adding power assisted steering at 150HP. I suspect the rental may have had a cable steering issue.


If you are looking at 90HP or less I can't imagine you need it. At 115HP IMO it is not really necessary either but if you want great ease in steering go for it but I might rather spend the money on an underdeck wave shield or some other goody

 

[Gabbiano]

in reference to the staples on the the bow seat. I was an upholsterer back in the day.  problem is not really a matter of doing it differently but following through. what I mean is a simple cloth tape about 1/2 inch wide put over the staple will stop any damage that may be done by exposed staples. I would advise putting a thin small line of super glue over the staples and then press on the cloth tape. Due to the unevenness of the staples you will need more than the adhesive of the tape it won't stay attached for very long with out he extra adhesive being used. good luck. I ordered a bow seat on my boat and that is the first thing I will be doing before launching.

 

[Gabbiano]

The ideal solution to the staple problem is using "hide em" which is a vinyl strip that goes on top of the vinyl you are stapling . Hard to describe but you put the strip on top of what you want to staple down and spread it open and staple into that valley. When the staple is in, the valley closes and the staple is not seen and can do no damage. The problem lies with the thickness of the hide em, it is about 1/8 of an inch thick . In order for it to work as a bow seat  the bow seat would have to be constructed an 1/8 of an inch shorter so that the height  is level with the adjoining seats after the hide em is used.