Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I see there's a lot of mixed feelings on this subject so.....
1. Pro's with them
2. Cons with them

I have a 21 foot pontoon withe a 75hp Mercury and was wondering if I Would benifit with one.

Do you have a ventilation problem? Thats the only thing I know on a pontoon one will help.

lakerunner wrote:Do you have a ventilation problem? Thats the only thing I know on a pontoon one will help.

What I got going on is.... My motor is mounted as low as it will go, while cruising down the river the water line is about 1-2 inches above the cavitation plate. So in theory my moter should be raised a bit correct?.. Now while also underway I will try to trim up to see if I can get the cavitation plate closer to the waterline but then I loose speed and maybe grabbing some air as well from what I can hear and feel. This is my first no planing hull and I don't expect to but I do feel and see a litte differance when I trim up with speed and bow rise. My prop is a 14 x 11 pitch.

So in theory if I raise the motor and keep in trimmed down i May still have the same effect as if I was trimming up how it is mounted now correct?

Raise it up 2 holes and try it. Will only take a few minutes. If it doesn't work, drop 1 hole and run it again. I wouldn't spend any money on anything, before I tried the free stuff, first.

The only thing a Doel-Fin will really help is in planing out quicker. Not really an issue with pontoons, which are essentially displacement hulls.

[quote="Bryden24shp"]Raise it up 2 holes and try it. Will only take a few minutes. If it doesn't work, drop 1 hole and run it again. I wouldn't spend any money on anything, before I tried the free stuff, first

I know the cavitation plate needs to be at surface level, so should I raise the motor to where it's at that level with the trim all the down or raise it to that level to where the motor is level ( by level I mean straight up and down) seems like when it's trimmed all the way down its past being level.

What you really need is 150-200 HP and lifting strakes.

That's my $0.000002 worth.