After years of owning my own boat, a couple years without one, and a year as a member of the American Boat Club, we have pretty much decided that we NEED our own boat again.
We previously owned a previously owned 23' Wellcraft cuddy and a new 24' Four Winns bow rider and now we're heavily leaning towards a pontoon boat after our experience with the ABC. I got to use 3 different ones this summer...a 21', another was a 22' and our favorite is a 24'. Though I feel they are underpowered, the 24' sporting a 90HP motor, I really enjoyed the ride, especially on weekends, when I previously refrained because of the rough water. The pontoons take the rough water better than any other boat I've been on short of an Aircraft Carrier. These things ride so well that my wife hasn't hollered at me once this summer whenever we encounter a big wake or a rogue wave.
Talking with some current pontoon boat owners, i think me preference would be for a 24' tri-toon model with at least 150 HP. I would like to be able to CRUISE at 25 to 30MPH without haveing to be at WOT, and have enough oompf to pull our grandchildren on a tube of some sort.
Can some of you pontoon drivers chime in as to why you may have made the change to a pontoon boat? Positive comments appreciated, and any pitfalls of this kind of boat that I should know about are appreciated too.
Oh, and did I mention that one of the best features of the pontoon boats that we were able to use this summer is that we are able to walk aboard rather than climbing aboard. I know that might not make a difference to a lot of folk, but being of legal SS retirement age, that makes a huge difference to us.
Any leads for a 24 footer with 3 tubes and 150+HP is appreciated too.
