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If you live in an area that experience sub-freezing temperatures; changing out the engine's lower unit gear oil before storing the boat should be a priority. If the lower unit has any water mixed in with the old gear oil, it can freeze and burst the lower unit gearcase housing. Not a cheap repair....
My local lake is a reservoir with a water authority in charge. It's basically an HOA for water. Requires a hull sticker above and beyond the state requirements, tons of rules and regs, all set up to deter people who don't own waterfront property from enjoying the lake. It's known by many as Lake No Fun.
Two of the most important things in boating are boating COURTESY and driver AWARENESS! Drivers must remember that they are different than the passengers. No matter how comfortable you get while boating, YOU are still the Captain! Situational awareness is key! Giving other boaters extra room when meeting, passing, or especially crossing or simply slowing down if necessary is super important! Nothing beats a WAVE and a SMILE to each other which reminds us that we all SHARE this one great passion called boating!!!
Good info. My bud just picked up a 21'parry barge.. nice shape. Weve had lots of boats in our years. But this is the 1st toon. I'm 1st mate. Were going through it. Piecing together all its accessories and required equipment. Cleaning it. Making sure everything works. Weve talked about rules and safety.. and about passenger safety and etiquette. Keep it clean .. fun and safe and legal. Watch your drinking.. bring your own supplies. Bla bla. Still have lower end oil change and impeller. New bilge.. anchor light. Anchors. Rope. Life jackets and flotation devices. Test Launch is a month away . Have to scope out lakes.. levels and launches. Lots to do. Happy 2024 boating season.
Some years ago a tour boat sunk on Lake George in NY. The determining factor was it was overloaded. Although there were no more people on the boat than the rating called for it was their individual weight combined that overloaded it. People today way (usually) many pounds more than People did 60 years ago. So a 60 year old boat that has a rating for say, 20 people should not, today, have that many people on board. We're getting a little chubby here in America.
The most common mistake I see is overloading the front. Your deck shouldn't be angling down towards the front. Performance will be worse and you risk stuffing the bow. You are the captain. Make people spread out. Also, don't forget the weight limit. That is people + stuff. You can easily hit the weight limit before the person limit with adults and loaded coolers.
Stuffing the bow is an excellent way to wash the floor of the pontoon boat......ummm....NO! I stuffed the bow on my old '85 Harris Float Bote ONCE. Didn't care for that experience. Lesson learned.
Um, I thought that was a golden rule with ALL boats: never exceed the weight limit, especially if it could wind up stuffing the bow when under power...
#8 Docking lights. The name says it all. They aren't called "I'm scared to be out at night, so I will use them as headlights" lights. In fact, the local LEO's will pull you over for it. Pontoon boaters are especially guilty of this because they all have them (not very common on mono hull) and they are more likely to be a new boaters.
Came here to say the same. Docking lights don’t help you away from the shoreline and blind everyone coming towards you. It’s a regular occurrence on my lake, no matter how many people you inform annually.
I love the end of this video. Just waving! I always wave to people, even if I have waved to them before i still wave. To me its just a courtesy as well as good etiquette!
Speed is key! I moved to a new neighborhood in AZ and my daughters friend asked her to go out to the lake with their family. The Dad invited me to come along. He had recently joined the "yacht club" and and rented a speed boat to tow a raft for 5 kids to ride on. After about 30 mins of pulling the kids he asked me if I wanted to hop on the raft. I said no, let the kids have fun. but he insisted that it was fun. So I hopped on and he started driving the speed boat like a crazy man trying to shake me off...well, after 10 mins of hopping in and out of the wake...I tore all three of my hamstrings muscles from the pelvic bone. Surgery and 6 months of recuperation! I'm glad none of the kids got hurt!
A 10 minute ride without checking with the person(s) being towed is not cool. I'll go for a minute or two and check in with the riders. I go with what they are comfortable with. We also agree upon "hand signals" for communications, before they even start their ride. Growing up, my father drilled into us: 10-20MPH is plenty fast enough for tubing/water toys. 25-35 MPH is plenty fast enough for water skiing; the higher end of those speeds generally used for slalom, or single-skiing. If our boat didn't have a functioning speedometer, we'd use trial and error with the engine tachometer.
Nothing new here I've had boats for 43 years and on the water everyday. I have two anchors with chains , trolling motor with spot lock, two talon anchors and sea legs on board. I'm buying a bass cat STS with a 450R I need something with speed now.
My biggest recommendation- please, please don't use you motor as an anchor on the sandbar by sticking it in the sand at the sandbar! The worst thing that can be done to an outboard or I/O. Beats the heck out of the prop, bearings, and the lower. To add, your water intake gets filled with sand and eats the impeller and at start-up, sucks sand up into your engine's cooling system.
The chain is what matters the most. Use a heavy chain. It's like the shocks on your car. The Anchor line should be let out 3x the depth of the water or more.
The chain on Dandorth style also helps the flukes to dig in. Box anchor is by far the best anchor for all recreational boaters Don’t need any chain and easily stored with the collapsing design.
I anchor in 30-85’ of water on our lake with a danforth fluke anchor. I have a 6’ chain leader then 100’ of rope. It hooks Every time I drop it. Longer rope is better but mine always hooks as is so I stick with it for ease, 1 setup.
We cover pulling tubes, wake board and skiers and most of it is shot on a pontoon. Not sure exactly what you mean by floating carpets and floating islands as most of the are not meant to be towed.
@@BoatBuyersSecretWeapon I didn’t say anything about towing the floats, I asked about hooking them up to the boat. Every float (aka “lily pad”) I’ve seen on the water is always attached to the boat so it is not floating away from the boat.
@@timgledhill5167 no, we don't cover that in the program. Just tie them off on a cleat or bring a small anchor to anchor them out (I do this at the dock but usually just tie them off the boat when anchored in a cove)
One thing about lines, at least learn how to tie the bowline knot. It's the easiest one and is a good way to secure the boat for a short period of time. However, if storing for the winter, consider a different knot. There are tons of helpful videos by REAL sailors on youtube and they are very good at teaching how to tie knots that you will find extremely handy. And remember, it's free knowledge.
I'm going to make a guess and say they _ass u me_ that their new pontoon will handle exactly like a traditional mono-hull or small cat. With the same sort of sea-keeping capabilities.
yelling coming back to the docks? Sorry guys, but as a MERCHANT MARIBE SAILOR, i HAVE SEEN A LOT OF PONTOON BOAT PEOPLE tibk they are driving a car. Do not have any idea how boats react on the water. But worse they had this one guy,who was a Geeky guy and he was worse than a old woman.
Braided dock lines?! Seriously?? Dock lines MUST be 3 strand to stretch and minimize shock loading and resistance to breaking. Danforth?! Seriously?! Horrible all-round anchor. Works only in sand or mud, which can be difficult to get free. Add any rocks, gravel or weeds and they are useless. Bruce as primary with a fortress secondary. I hope no one listens to you.
@@BoatBuyersSecretWeapon I run near everything. Either you are prepared or you are not. I apologize for getting involved with your world where your people use clothes line and cinder blocks. I avoid your hazards to navigation.
