Opinions wanted: High Speed Fiberglass pontoon Boats

[dskira]

Originally Posted by johnboat75

Working for a Fiberglass pontoon boat manufacturer on the west coast of Fl ,we have been building more and more ,What I call Hi performance Fiberglass pontoon boats(50+ mph single power),most of our boats range from 20'X8' to 30' X 10' some having 2 pontoons and others having 3,Our pontoons have a 10 degree V bottom ,no pad ,strakes or chines,they run good and will plane easy.Now we have built a HP bottom that we install over the bottom of our exsisting pontoons ,we added 5" wide chines that angle down 20 degree's ,this has increased our speeds as much as 12 mph on the same hull,we are considering building a new 35' pontoon mold that will incorporate a sharper V entry ,with a step to a Pad bottom with our already proven downward chines.My question to all is ,is there enough people out there that want or can use such a versatile boat ??? Please give me your input !! john

It sound more a propaganda for your product than an opinion.
Could you post on the right topic of this forum: Market and other stuff for sale.
Since you don't care about the DESIGN opinion, but the BUYER opinion and their money, I don't see the relevance with design.
Thank you
Daniel

That was last century Daniel, I guess they are not watching this thread any longer.

[dskira]

Yeap, you right, I never check the posted date!
Oh well, the pontoon business must not have been very good I suppose
Daniel

[johnboat75]

They don't build anything that even comes close to what we build ! Nor do our pontoons look or are not close to the same size or shape !Yes Lightning Power Boats Dose build alot of Splashes ,Sorry to say but Catamaran Coaches Has never came CLOSE to building a Splash or Copy of any one or any bodys boats !! We are happy to send any one that Can't afford one of our boats to A&M,there prices are much lower than ours,we tell any customer to look at everyones boats be for buying,judge everyone befor spending your Hard earned money,its the only smart thing to do !
One things the same about Lightning power Boats and Catamaran coaches,we have over 65% of our customers have bought 2 or more of our boats,Theres only one reason for that !

[claydog]

Originally Posted by johnboat75

Working for a Fiberglass pontoon boat manufacturer on the west coast of Fl ,we have been building more and more ,What I call Hi performance Fiberglass pontoon boats(50+ mph single power),most of our boats range from 20'X8' to 30' X 10' some having 2 pontoons and others having 3,Our pontoons have a 10 degree V bottom ,no pad ,strakes or chines,they run good and will plane easy.Now we have built a HP bottom that we install over the bottom of our exsisting pontoons ,we added 5" wide chines that angle down 20 degree's ,this has increased our speeds as much as 12 mph on the same hull,we are considering building a new 35' pontoon mold that will incorporate a sharper V entry ,with a step to a Pad bottom with our already proven downward chines.My question to all is ,is there enough people out there that want or can use such a versatile boat ??? Please give me your input !! john

As far as is there a market, pontoons are by far the most common boat on the inland lakes here in Michigan with top speeds and price tags climbing rapidly over the last 5-10 years, V8 I/Os are not uncommon any more. As they've become faster and able to run for cover with weather changes people are heading further out into the Great lakes fishing them than in the past also. You mentioned drawing less water than an aluminum pontoon with your boats, is this on plane or at rest? My assumption was that a F/G 2 tube pontoon would be significantly heavier than a 2 tube aluminum pontoon of similar dimensions and draw more water off plane. I ask this question as I’m early in the process of designing a high speed shallow draft pontoon to build for myself as a one off and shallow water performance (<18” total daft at 5 knots and moderate load is my target) at low speed is high on my wants list. Believing F/G is a lot heavier I’ve been thinking along the lines of an aluminum cat hull built using aircraft style construction and metal forming techniques to get a strong and light structure with decent aero above the water line. If your F/G is in the same ballpark weight wise, it would allow me much more styling flexibility than ALM towards my goals.