Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

New record for single outboard pontoon- 76mph. It was a 25' Playcraft Hampton Tritoon with full interior powered by a stock 300hp Mercury Verado. The boat had a newly designed step hull. This is 10mph faster than last years record of 66mph with a 21' Manitou Tritoon fishing model powered by a non stock 250hp Etec 250HO.
Pontoon Step Hulls seem to be the new big advance in pontoon performance for straight line speed.

They can have the speed, most of the fun of a toon can be had at a full stop

Awesome, that's some serious speed from a single!!!

Herb, any speed you don't want I'll take. I like the fact that toons are finally getting peformance increase. Doing 12 mph all day on a older toon sucks in my book.

HandymanHerb wrote:They can have the speed, most of the fun of a toon can be had at a full stop

It's all according to what you want. About 10 years ago my wife and I got caught in a severe thunderstorm in our old 20' Harris Pontoon with a top speed of 20mph. It was the first time I felt we might be in trouble boating. We saw the storm coming and we were in the middle of a large lake and couldn't run for cover. It was a bad experience.
Since that time I have had many pontoons,all were able to run at least 40mph and I have not been caught out in the open water. I do like putting around but I'm not going to get myself in that position again. Here in Florida if you worried about a thunderstorm coming you wouldn't boat so you have to have a boat to outrun a storm and get you to safe harbor.

That's one reason I added a third log and bigger motor. if you wanna get up and go you can.

Slow is good until you need it and that's all you have. I'm happy with my 32+ and on step but if you want more and have the gas money more power to ya!

When your tuning for high speed, your going to be affecting the ride some way, step tubes, does that mean more drag at slow speed, there is always trade offs.

As for getting off the lake, I think something hitting close to 30 should be good, and I don't want to see the first story of a high speed, heavy ass toon running over a boat load of people, with all the double 300's they are selling and now this boat, it won't be long till someone dies, or a whole family at once.

We already have trouble with go fast boats running over pontoons at night, I just don't want to read a family died when their pontoon was run over by a high speed race pontoon, then we become part of the problem

Herb, I understand your thinking, and it does make sence, but. I dont blame the go fast boat. I blame the meathead driving it. If someone is going to do something stupid, not much is going to stop them. Like Ron White says, " you cant fix stupid"

I don't think the record is "Official" til the video is posted here;-)

Pictures of the stepped hull? How much faster was the 27 with the steps?

HandymanHerb wrote:When your tuning for high speed, your going to be affecting the ride some way, step tubes, does that mean more drag at slow speed, there is always trade offs.

As for getting off the lake, I think something hitting close to 30 should be good, and I don't want to see the first story of a high speed, heavy ass toon running over a boat load of people, with all the double 300's they are selling and now this boat, it won't be long till someone dies, or a whole family at once.

We already have trouble with go fast boats running over pontoons at night, I just don't want to read a family died when their pontoon was run over by a high speed race pontoon, then we become part of the problem

So I guess you want to limit the speed of boats to 30mph?
It's the boats fault that a boat load of people are run over? Somewhat like it's the guns fault that some one gets shot?
Somehow the logic evades me. We don't have trouble with go fast boats we have trouble with people that make bad decisions.

Photo of the boat. This was not at it's LOTO run.

PQ29 wrote:Pictures of the stepped hull? How much faster was the 27 with the steps?

There are at least three different step hulls being used now-all different designs. The boat was a 25' boat and is a new model.

Any pictures of the 3 different steps offered? What are the +/-of each step? Do you know when more information will be released about the steps and this new 25ft model?

Thanks

PQ29 wrote:Any pictures of the 3 different steps offered? What are the +/-of each step? Do you know when more information will be released about the steps and this new 25ft model?

Thanks

Don't have photos of the Playcraft Hampton bottom. In about a month the new model will be released I'm told. The other bottoms are on the Xtremes. Should know more soon.

Who wants to wear a helmet all day on a fast toon?