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Always wear a personal flotation device while boating and read your owner’s manual.
Executive Editor Brady L. Kay
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www.harrispublishing.com/pontoon-deck-boat
Publisher Brady L. Kay
Executive Editor Brady L. Kay
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Circulation Manager Chuck Harris
Controller Clayton Ward
Production Janet Chase
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Also publishers of Houseboat and Great Lakes Boating magazines.
For pontoon owners especially, there really hasn’t been a lot in recent memory to challenge the dominating presence of a well-performing four-stroke outboard. Sure, we’ve seen our share of I/O sterndrives over the years, but for the most part the pairing of outboard power with a pontoon hull has proved to be a winning combination.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that outboards are more efficient today than ever before, as manufacturers such as Honda, Mercury, Suzuki and Yamaha continue to raise the bar a little higher with each new engine release. So when I heard Indmar Marine Engines touting, “Experience the future of pontoon boats” at the Miami Boat Show, it caught my attention to say the least.
Zenon grew up in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago, Ill., after his parents emigrated from Ukraine to the United States in 1955. The family’s 15-foot Silver Line boat with an 85 horsepower Mercury got him into boating, but it was the Cypress Gardens water skiers, who did a ski show on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago in the late 70s, that inspired him to want to learn how to water ski one day.
“We were fishing and boating in Ontario, Canada, in June of 1974 and the cottage we rented came with a pair of water skis so I gave it a try,” recalls Zenon. “But I had no instruction and was not successful. However, the next summer we were boating on Round Lake near our home, where there was a Ukrainian sports and recreational club. My brother bought water skis, and a friend from the club got in the water with me to help me get in the right starting position.”
Photo by Steve Schnitzer
Zenon grew up in Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago, Ill., after his parents emigrated from Ukraine to the United States in 1955. The family’s 15-foot Silver Line boat with an 85 horsepower Mercury got him into boating, but it was the Cypress Gardens water skiers, who did a ski show on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago in the late 70s, that inspired him to want to learn how to water ski one day.
“We were fishing and boating in Ontario, Canada, in June of 1974 and the cottage we rented came with a pair of water skis so I gave it a try,” recalls Zenon. “But I had no instruction and was not successful. However, the next summer we were boating on Round Lake near our home, where there was a Ukrainian sports and recreational club. My brother bought water skis, and a friend from the club got in the water with me to help me get in the right starting position.”
Photo by Steve Schnitzer
NO WAKE ZONE | PLACES, FACES, VIEWS, NEWS, PRODUCTS & MORE
Where’s The Paddle?
A paddle is hiding inside each issue of PDB and the names of the first readers to find it are printed in an upcoming magazine! In our March issue the paddle is on page 22 (shown in the photo on the left) hidden on the right side of the windshield. Here are the readers who spotted it first:
John De La Franier, Portbay, N.Y.
Frank Gunther, Lawrenceville, Ga.
David Groner, Vacaville, Calif.
Marcus Rosehill, Kaneohe, Hawaii
Ken Braun, Hartford, Wis.
Kathy Smith, Lake Bruin, La.
Rich Christensen, Townville S.C.
Jim Greenwald, Little Rock, Ark.
Everywhere the Craigs go in their 2020 Amara pontoon, they turn heads. People comment on the vibrant fiberglass curves of the pontoon’s exterior. They also comment on the curves of the V8 Yamaha 425hp engine on the back of the boat, which can easily be spotted from a mile away.
The Craigs are happy with their pontoon and happy with their home overlooking the lake, both important additions to their life since retiring. They’ve found their yin yang formula for a life that pleases them both, but to get there, they had to search for a middle ground between two nearly opposite visions for the future.
Both the 23 Aurora LE RF and 25 LX RFXW blew us away with their elegance and performance. With these boats, days out on the lake will always be effortlessly fun. Let’s take a closer look.
There’s no doubt that Manitou builds an impressive lineup of boats, and often the lion’s share of attention goes to those beautiful twin-engine outboard models. However, the Aurora LE can easily be viewed as their bread and butter. It’s an incredibly popular model and it’s not hard to see why.
To call his Barletta the Swiss Army knife of pontoon fun might be a little exaggerated, but when LilliPad Marine’s Corey Schaub invited us aboard his Corsa 25UE it was hard not to bae impressed with all of the aftermarket innovations he’s added to it. In less than 10 years he’s taken the marine industry by storm by inventing much-needed improvements for boaters—with three National Marine Manufacturing Association Innovation Awards to validate his success—not that he needs it.
Corey and his wife Ann founded LilliPad Marine in 2013 after a makeshift diving board was created on a family boating trip in 2012. Corey designed a temporary pontoon diving board to keep the kids entertained for the week, but the couple was surprised to discover an aftermarket option didn’t exist after they saw how much fun it turned out to be.
“The kids had such a great time with the diving board so I pulled out my phone on the drive home to see if we could order one but there was nothing available,” recalls Ann, who is the president of LilliPad Marine. “We talked all the way home about designing our own board and that’s how it all started.”
There are plenty of factors that make the fifth month among the most productive for recreational anglers, including weather, sunlight angles and water temperatures. But the primary reason fish are so easy to fool this time of year has to do with the spawn. Perhaps not directly, but the annual reproductive activity that is sparked by temperature changes and the calendar each spring creates opportunities for both preyfish and predators to get active and perhaps a little foolish in their pursuit of food–words that make any angler smile.
The majority of the fish we pursue as anglers are spring spawners, which means that the females drop eggs and the males fertilize them, after which all manner of activities take place. After spawning, some gamefish share responsibility for protecting the nest, the male and the female trading places and attacking anything that represents a threat to their offspring. In most cases, however, the male is the one that stands guard.
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I held onto that guitar for years, but eventually sold it and gave up the dream. Years later a friend convinced me to play again so I could sing love songs to my wife so I ended up buying a few guitars. After all these years, it finally hit me. Buying is so much easier than practicing. Yes, I own several guitars today, but I will probably never be a great guitar player. I’m just a dabbler, strumming a few cords and dreaming the dream.
Then I found the ukulele. Depending on your age, you might know of the ukulele from the 20’s and the Jazz Age or maybe Arthur Godfrey in the 50’s. And I bet many of you have heard Tiny Tim sing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” in a falsetto voice while playing his ukulele in the late 60’s. Oh, and he actually lived in my area for a while.
