Welcome to my blog and, yes, I love my pontoon boat!
My earliest memories as a child are of fishing with my dad on his old 16 ft. River Ox on the James River in Virginia. As a teen I spent many a summer’s day riding around the El Rio and Hillsboro canals in a 10 foot inflatable with 5 H.P. Gamer Fisher outboard fishing and exploring. When I turned 17 I took my savings that I earned working as a cashier at Publix and I bought my first boat. A 23 foot Wellcraft Nova with an I/O Merc-Cruiser. God I took that thing all over the place. I even crossed over to the Islands a few times and went as far south as the Dry Tortugas. It was a great boat! I owned it for over 10 years!
Shortly after I bought the Nova I turned 18 and joined the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary where I received extensive training in seamanship, search and rescue, costal navigation skills,
ATON repair, and I even spent time with the Navy mapping the sea floor (read article from the Navigator cover, 1, 2, and 3 ) using side scan sonar. I am also a NAUI certified open water diver and have logged well over 100 dives in the last 14 years. I most recently completed the University of Florida’s Wetland’s Master Naturalist course but I digress…
Now that I have a family the Nova just wasn’t the right boat for our needs. I needed something that would accommodate two young boys and offered more amenities. We rented several different classes of pleasure boats from a larger cabin cruiser to a 24 ft. open fisherman but quickly realized that a pontoon boat was for us. So after we shopped around for about 6 months we settled on a 2005 2022 Sweetwater. It’s power by a 50 H.P. Yamaha Eco Series outdoor and is awesome on the fuel. A typical day on the water will run me $10 to $15 dollars. The Nova had
and 80 gallon tank and required high test gas. Granted it’s not the fastest thing a float and my off-shore days are done for now but it is a stable, reliable, platform with a shallow draft. It has two live wells and plenty of rod holders and is one Snook and Red Fish hunting machine! It can cross over and be used on the many fresh water lakes in Florida something the Nova couldn’t do due to it’s almost three foot draft.
My pontoon is a great boat and I love it!
(Photo: sunset on the Lake Worth Lagoon)
I hope you come back and visit this blog regularly as I plan to address some of the unique features that a pontoon boat offers, seamanship tips that well help you understand some of the unique handling characteristics, trip ideas, fishing spots, and more!
My earliest memories as a child are of fishing with my dad on his old 16 ft. River Ox on the James River in Virginia. As a teen I spent many a summer’s day riding around the El Rio and Hillsboro canals in a 10 foot inflatable with 5 H.P. Gamer Fisher outboard fishing and exploring. When I turned 17 I took my savings that I earned working as a cashier at Publix and I bought my first boat. A 23 foot Wellcraft Nova with an I/O Merc-Cruiser. God I took that thing all over the place. I even crossed over to the Islands a few times and went as far south as the Dry Tortugas. It was a great boat! I owned it for over 10 years!Shortly after I bought the Nova I turned 18 and joined the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary where I received extensive training in seamanship, search and rescue, costal navigation skills,
ATON repair, and I even spent time with the Navy mapping the sea floor (read article from the Navigator cover, 1, 2, and 3 ) using side scan sonar. I am also a NAUI certified open water diver and have logged well over 100 dives in the last 14 years. I most recently completed the University of Florida’s Wetland’s Master Naturalist course but I digress…Now that I have a family the Nova just wasn’t the right boat for our needs. I needed something that would accommodate two young boys and offered more amenities. We rented several different classes of pleasure boats from a larger cabin cruiser to a 24 ft. open fisherman but quickly realized that a pontoon boat was for us. So after we shopped around for about 6 months we settled on a 2005 2022 Sweetwater. It’s power by a 50 H.P. Yamaha Eco Series outdoor and is awesome on the fuel. A typical day on the water will run me $10 to $15 dollars. The Nova had
and 80 gallon tank and required high test gas. Granted it’s not the fastest thing a float and my off-shore days are done for now but it is a stable, reliable, platform with a shallow draft. It has two live wells and plenty of rod holders and is one Snook and Red Fish hunting machine! It can cross over and be used on the many fresh water lakes in Florida something the Nova couldn’t do due to it’s almost three foot draft.My pontoon is a great boat and I love it!
(Photo: sunset on the Lake Worth Lagoon)
I hope you come back and visit this blog regularly as I plan to address some of the unique features that a pontoon boat offers, seamanship tips that well help you understand some of the unique handling characteristics, trip ideas, fishing spots, and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment