We love to kayak, but that means leaving the dogs at home, so last year we added a pontoon boat to our fleet. She’s a beauty, a used 24 foot Crestliner with 75 HP. She was christened Lucky Dog (after our dogs and the NOLA culinary treat). The nice thing about skippering a used boat is that I don’t freak out when wet, muddy dogs jump back on.
Last year we realized what a huge PIA it is to trailer, launch, reload a boat that size. So this year we have the boat at a marina on the Allegheny River. We spent most of this weekend on board. Oh What Fun!
A crestliner, used a local marina to over winter it and get it delivered in the spring. It serrved us well for years, would anchor in the deep and spend all day hanging out, jumping off and swimming. Then it would be time to go and would forget to hoist the ladder and stow the inflatables (why aren’t we moving) :smack: Could pull tubers behind it too, but only little kids.
Night time, some of the more derelcit pontooners tend to party all night long, blasting their 70’s rock and hooting and hollering. SHoot fireworks at them and they just laugh their drunk heads off at the one who got hit by sparks.
What does one do on a pontoon boat? I saw them when we were cruising the Erie Canal last summer, but never saw one in use. It seems to open to the sun and bugs and stuff. Is it sort of a portable kitchen for visiting local picnic places?
It’s basically a floating lounge. We usually boat for a bit, then tie up somewhere close to shore on a calm place on the lake. Then we party on. We take turns on the jet skis, while the others eat, drink, fish, nap, swim, sun, and/or read.
We have a Bimini top for shade. It is basically a party barge. We have a cooler full of iced drinks, a propane grill, etc. after finding a suitable location I usually anchor for a while, put down the ladder for swimmers and relax.
People take turns on the tube pulled behind the boat.
Sometimes we plan ahead and meet up with other pontoons. Put out the fenders, lash boats together, and create an even larger party platform.
We’re moving back to Michigan this summer, and really want to buy a used pontoon in the next couple of years. Neither my wife nor I have ever owned a boat, and a pontoon seems perfect for the kind of stuff we want to do on a lake.
I’m a bit weary of buying one, though, due to that joke about the two best days in the life of a boat owner!
