How many of us like high performance vehicles? I grew up in the muscle car era. You know: big engines, wide tires, and loud exhaust. My family had all those things. Even our ski boat was a custom built project. It started with an aluminum V hull and we added a custom interior and a big horsepower inboard outboard. The boat was set up specifically for water skiing. Somewhere we have pictures of it pulling ten skiers behind it.
Even the auto book I did for Motorbooks International was about a Honda Civic customized for improved performance. I improved the suspension, the looks and added a Nitrous Oxide kit for a little added engine performance–not that it was needed. The speed limit on the interstate was still only 70.
T.A.P. FIN System / www.conradmarine.com
I always wanted a high-performance vehicle, but as I was discussing high performance with my spouse she informed me that she didn’t think I would ever have a high-performance car, boat, airplane or motorcycle.
Well, that was a blow to my ego. But you know what? She’s right. I looked back at all my “toys” and realized that I never really had a “high-performance” toy. At least what I was thinking of as high performance. I guess I was thinking high power, high speed.
My toys were good performing, well-balanced, safe, fun vehicles. I have a stock 1974 L-48 Corvette, a stock 1977 Harley Lowrider, and a stock Mercury 60hp pontoon. Stock this, stock that. Well, there is Nitrous, but that is just one thing. Performance is more of handling, reliability, and the fun factor.
Where’s this going? I looked at a number of pontoon manufacturers and tried to figure out what the “performance” packages included. Are they high-power, high-speed boats or a good balance of performance and reliability and safety? I tend to think it’s the latter.
As expected, most of the performance packages include a large engine or even two. More horsepower means more torque, weight, and speed. But a pontoon can only go so fast. It’s an inherent design flaw. Speed was not in the original design, but as they say, put enough horsepower on board and you can have a speed boat.
With the bigger engines usually comes the third pontoon. Three pontoons offer a smoother ride, better buoyancy, and handling. Not that two `toons aren’t okay, it’s just that three pontoons create a smoother boat ride.
Another add-on was a full under-skinning to reduce wave surges and noise. In my opinion, this might be one of the cheapest ways to improve your pontoon.
Another really nice performance enhancement is the addition of lifting strakes. A pontoon typically plows through the water instead of lifting the boat up and out of the water. Lifting strakes make perfect sense as a “performance” part. Of course, if you add horsepower, you should really have strakes.
Again, when I think of performance, I think of power and speed, such as a Cigarette-style offshore racing performance boat. But I guess the reality is my wife was right (hope she doesn’t read this issue). My interest isn’t really in high-speed type of performance, it’s in better handling, comfort, reliability, and safety. Old age seems to move safety up a little higher on my want list.
An old friend of mine used to say, “Memory makes history seem better than it was.” He was right. I think back to our custom ski boat. It had two seats, it was simple, hard to steer and really didn’t handle very well. It was built for straight lines with lots of torque to pull more than one slalom skier out of the water at once.
Old muscle cars had terrible suspensions, poor steering and usually no air conditioning. My old Harleys… What can I say? Leaks, hard to kick start, noisy, etc. And old pontoons are simple, low horsepower, floating patios. But now we have pontoons with performance that rivals conventional bow riders, cruisers, and deck boats. It is a great time to own a pontoon!
