Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

One of my neighbors just got a new Forest River Excursion 23-F tritoon. I knew Forest River (Berkshire-Hathaway) was in the RV business but did not know they had a marine division. It is a really nice looking boat. If I had seen one of these before getting my Sylvan, I would certainly have considered it.

He put a 115 Honda on it (I think I would have sprung for a 150). What I really like is the metal framework on the outside of the skin on the fences. It not only offers protection for the skin, but the metal work is really nice. The welding on the boat looks very neat.

The underskin job is very neat and covers every inch of the underside. It is welded on which I thought was odd, especially if you had to remove any of it to access anything between the skin and the deck. The trim piece on the outside that covers the gap between the top of the outer tubes and the bottom of the deck was also welded on. While this makes a very neat look, I also wonder how you would gain access to wiring, etc, under the helm, etc. if ever needed.

Another thing I noticed was two lifting strakes, one each on the inside of the two outer tubes...no strake on the outer surface. That also seems odd but I guess it works fine.

I did notice the transom was bolted on to the underside and did not seem to be integrated with the center tube like the set up on the Sylvan. The motor is not set back as far as many tri toons I see, including mine. The center tube sticks out ahead of the outer tubes at the front but seems to terminate somewhere ahead of the transom.

Based on what I now see on their website, this is their entry-level pontoon but, from what I saw, it is a very nice boat.

Forest River also makes another line as well. The Berkshire as you mentioned, and the South Bay line which is more on the higher end for the brands. We went for a tour of the facility when ours was being built and they built both in the same factory.

They also have the Xcursion line. The boat your neighbor purchased has what Berkshire calls the BP1 package. It's basically a pontoon with a short center tube and under skin. They do offer the full tri-toon package with 4 strakes on most boats also. This would be the full tube option you mentioned. The South Bay units tend to be a little nicer with more standard features. I guess having them in my back yard I might be biased, but I'm still floored when people mention they haven't heard of Forest River pontoons. The Odyssey twin motor made the "Tri-Fecta" package a house hold name around here when it went 80.8 MPH all the way back in 1999.

ToonGuy wrote:...The Odyssey twin motor made the "Tri-Fecta" package a house hold name around here when it went 80.8 MPH all the way back in 1999.

And now buddy has that South Bay with triple Merc 300s (yes, 900 hp) that does 107 mph. I would imagine Forest River had no hand in that rat rod.

I've got an Odyssey, which according to the South Bay catalogues was an entry-level 200 Series that didn't earn the "South Bay" badging. Shucks..



LC.