Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I've completed five seasons on my boat. About to start season 6.

It seems to me that I have seen two very different groups of boaters over the years:

1. Casual Boaters: These boaters put about 50 hours on their boats every season.
2. My kind of Boaters. In 5 seasons, I have over 1,200 hours on my boat. That doesn't seem odd to me.

Not sure I agree Bob. I made my living on boats for 40 years. I enjoy my pontoon these days for fishing and family sports. I spend any free time aboard but now that I have ten grandchildren it is not always as much as I would like. What with "T" ball, Football, dance recitals, baseball and Doctors appointments Etc. Etc. I may not spend as much time boating as you but my time on the water over the years would surely make up for it. Suffice to say when I do I enjoy it and that is how I measure my boating time.

I fall into #1 but with retirement looming and moving a lot closer to the water, hope to be more like #2.

[quote="illinoid"]I fall into #1 but with retirement looming and moving a lot closer to the water, hope to be more like #2.[/quote]

21 more months and I'll be #2 (end of 2018)

[quote="BobG"]I've completed five seasons on my boat. About to start season 6.

It seems to me that I have seen two very different groups of boaters over the years:

1. Casual Boaters: These boaters put about 50 hours on their boats every season.
2. My kind of Boaters. In 5 seasons, I have over 1,200 hours on my boat. That doesn't seem odd to me.[/quote]

Have to agree with you Bob... I have owned my boat since the 2010 season... only took it out on weekends and even at that usually only on saturday. Wife didn't want to go out on Sunday because she said she had too much to do to get ready for work monday ( she was a teacher, lesson plans, etc etc. )... Even then there were saturdays where we didn't go out because the weather was bad or we had a prior committment, so I'd bet we didn't even average 50 hours a season... hopefully that all changes this summer since we are both now retired... plan on taking the toon out at least twice a week, probably 3 times a week when everything else falls in place..

i got my boat just after i retired, the wife is scared of being on the water, so as a compromise we slip on a 9.9 lake, she likes the slow pace and enjoys it, i log around 75 to 100 hr of me fishing,she likes day or two early morning fishing and the rest is DIL and GS so yearly its 100 to 150 so year i am in the number 1 and i like it just fine

Roland,
We retired 4 summers ago.

We're out on the boat at least once a week and sometimes twice a week together and I frequently get 2-3 days a week in addition to that.

The really fun thing is that we mostly go during the week.

It's quieter.

Before school gets out and after it starts back up, we're frequently one of half a dozen or less boats on the entire lake.

It's quieter. It's more enjoyable, and then people we know who are free on the weekend are when we get together with them.

So as soon as you're able to put your boat in, take your wife and go cruising and fishing.

You'll be surprised at how relaxing it is when there's not ten tons of people mucking up the place.

My Admiral swears it knocks twenty points off her blood pressure when we go out.

And hey, who knows? If it's quiet and peaceful enough, you might be able to "Initiate" the boat with YOUR "Admiral".

Mine doesn't always say no when I ask if she wants to drop my anchor and ride my dinghy.

we also get mid week time, we stop and pick up a McD breakfast and cruse out to a spot and have it while doing some pan fishing my wife's fav way to start a day

I would submit to you that there are as many kinds of boaters as there are boaters. Everyone has different things they enjoy with the common thread being that we all enjoy being out on the water.

[quote="Eddy from Arkansas"]I would submit to you that there are as many kinds of boaters as there are boaters. Everyone has different things they enjoy with the common thread being that we all enjoy being out on the water.[/quote]




There ya go

The issue is comparing hours to hours. If I go out every day fishing, that may only take 30 minutes RT to my fav tie-up or anchoring spot. I could spend 25+ hrs. on the water that week, but only 3.5 hours "on the motor".

[quote="Bilboinsa"]The issue is comparing hours to hours. If I go out every day fishing, that may only take 30 minutes RT to my fav tie-up or anchoring spot. I could spend 25+ hrs. on the water that week, but only 3.5 hours "on the motor".[/quote]

exactly right,,, and on a "normal" fishing day that's us... about 20 minutes to our secret spot... anchored and fishing for 4 hours or so and then just 20 minutes back to the launch... so we may have actually been on the lake for 4 hrs 40 minutes, but the engine was only fired up for 40 minutes... easy to see why we don't put 50 hours a sesson on her.

Agreed! Last summer I was out so much I felt guilty. I should have been doing other things... Oh bull shit, I enjoyed every second of it! I think. Ya, I did. I guess... Hell I don't know! I can say it's feeling kinda strange having an empty boat shop! Grand daughter asked me where the boat was last night, I said we no longer have one and her face just went blank. She had no idea how to respond that shocker.

I average just over 50 hours a year. However like most are saying I'd say you could at least triple or quadruple that number for total time spent on the water. We spend lots of time at our favorite beach. We may spend 10 hours at the lake, and only put 1/2 hour on the motor.

I'm glad all y'all are having fun with this!

Fishing style certainly matters! Going after Rainbows and Browns, we're trolling - sure, we could drop the canvas, stop, and fly fish, but we just don't generally get that ambitious. And if we ever go after the monster Lake Trout in our lake, it's a major investment in down-riggers, and all manner of different tackle. Those babies often stay down around 200 feet +. So, we spend most of the day tooling around under 5 mph, whether we're fishing, or just cruising.

Also, from May 1st through September 30th, we basically LIVE on the boat Thursday Night through Sunday Afternoon. We can work from the boat on Fridays, and the rest of the time, we sleep there, play there, eat there...the works. We have a nice camping tent - it just happens to float.