Question:
I'm considering purchasing a 25' pontoon boat made by Sun Tracker (Tracker
Marine). It's the Party Barge 25, and it comes with a 3.0 Mercruiser I/O. List
price is $15,795.
This boat will be used on a large fingered lake, Lake Lanier, in Georgia.
Primary activity will be family & friends entertainment/cruising, beaching on
islands for the night, idle sunning on nice days, some fishing, some
skiing, etc.
I want a boat that will be reliable and safe, one that I won't outgrow, with
speed and control that won't frustrate me (within the limits of the pontoon
universe), good resale value, engine not too noisy/annoying, low maintenance.
Any comments? Anything better for the same or less money?
Answer:
We spent 3 days at the Dallas Boat Show & looked at probably 100 pontoons of
every brand you can name. Haven't had it out much yet due to weather, but am
happy with it so far. Voyager impressed us with their quality, but theTrackers
and Lowes looked good too. We got aluminum (rather than marine plywood)
decking & are convinced after talking to many people they are in fact superior
(they do cost more though). A lot of dealers who don't offer aluminum decking
will tell you lots of made up stories why they are no good - (noise, heat, etc)
- Bear in mind though that these dealers did not offer it! The bottom line is
that - over time plywood wood ROTS - I don't care what kind of plywood it is.
Our Voyager also has the U-shaped pontoons rather than round & they are filled
with marine grade flotation foam. Some other dealers offer this also. Watch
for the upholstery quality & the carpet weight (make sure it's marine grade)
and canopy quality. (This was another selling point for the voyager - the
canopy much larger than most others & covers more of the deck) . We got only
a 50 horse Merc outboard on it & it seems to be plenty to push it wherever we
want to go. After you get above about 50 or 60 horsepower, you do not gain
much in terms of speed with a pontoon boat because of the hull ( or lack
thereof) - We are convinced pontoon boats are not for water-skiing though some
people do it. We plan only to pull around inflatables with it (as well as lots
of fishing, swimming, etc.).
Feel free to E-mail me as I haven't seen too much on here regarding pontoon
boats & am new to them myself.
