New Pontoon Time But Need Advice

The logic that has gotten me to this point is that I like to fish, my wife likes to read, we both like to scuba dive. That lead us to determine a fish/cruise pontoon boat with the two fish seats in the rear for trolling and to be removed giving us more room by the ladder for diving. I can only physically see 3 boat makes in my area (Sun Tracker, Bentley, Lowe) so I've had to do my research on the Internet. With all that, I narrowed down a short list from all the sites I've visited. I'd love to hear from you folks with experience with pontoon boat ownership. Do any of these stand out as particularly good or particularly bad? This is our first pontoon and we'd hate to have a bad experience especially with something so expensive. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

LOWE SF232 Sport Fish
Premier Alante 251
Godfrey Aqua Patio AP 220 DF
Crest Crest II 250 Chiller
Starcraft Starfish - 236 C-N-F
Sunchaser 8522 C-N-F
South Bay 522FCR

Re: New Pontoon Time But Need Advice

You might get more responses if you post this in the Pontoon section.

We bought our first "new to us" Lowe Suncruiser pontoon in July of this year. It's a 2003, 22' Trinidad with a 90hp 4-stroke Yamaha. It has the 2 fishing seats at the stern -- the one in front of the ladder has been removed because we don't use it (no fishing on the boat -- we have a dock for that). We love our boat but since it was our first, I didn't want something new (and expensive) to learn on (and tear things up -- as everyone does on their first boat -- already had to replace the rectifier in the motor :facepalm. The guy we bought the boat from had special ordered it so it did not have the live well (which would have been in front of the ladder as well). Apparently somebody at the plant didn't see the request to not put the live well on the boat because they went ahead and installed a pump for the live well -- so the hose just lays across the starboard tube and there is a switch on the helm. I'm going to rig this up as a way to get water to rinse the boat or our hands.

The previous owner was also a diver -- they enjoyed using the side door for this purpose.

Most of the other brands you listed, I've not heard much about -- except for South Bay. I've heard they have great boats but a little more expensive than several other brands. I was told to stay away from SunTracker due to thin-walled tubes -- but I have no proof if that is true or not.

I would suggest to stay in the 22-24' length and as big of motor as you can afford (you can always go slower with a big motor, but it's impossible to go any faster than WOT).

Best of luck on your search. This is the time of the year to find most good deals.

Re: New Pontoon Time But Need Advice

OK Toon said:

You might get more responses if you post this in the Pontoon section.

Thank you very much. I'm new to the boards and will move my post there. What are the odds that the first response would come from a neighbor. I'm also in Broken Arrow . Thanks again.

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Re: New Pontoon Time But Need Advice

Fish-N-Dive said:

OK Toon said:

You might get more responses if you post this in the Pontoon section.

Thank you very much. I'm new to the boards and will move my post there. What are the odds that the first response would come from a neighbor. I'm also in Broken Arrow . Thanks again.

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That's too funny. I didn't even notice your location. -- well get your pontoon and lets hit the lake. We are at Eufaula most of the time --- around Arrowhead.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

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