Pontoon Vs Deckboat handling

[JBO]

Our first boat was picked up about 9months ago from a friend: a 22ft 2003 Voyager Pontoon fish n cruise w/ 90hp 2stroke. It starts and runs fine but on windy days it can be a beach to control. We have installed a nice 80lb 24V Terrova I Pilot Link Trolling Motor & Humminbird 999 which make fishing enjoyable and the boat pretty versatile for a pontoon.

We love the size and floorplan but when its windy it seems to suck worse 99% of boats. The boat seems pretty hard to control and has a lot of feedback in the steering wheel. I don't know jack about boats, but it seems the newer boats typically have hydraulic steering? The deckboat in question states, "4:1 anti-feedback steering with equidistance, soft-grip steering wheel". The higher top speed compared to our boat would be nice, and I understand the deckboat will be a bit "rough" when the waves are taller. Since we won't be traveling a long distance on water I don't think the deckboat's rougher ride in wind would affect anything.

Primarily, we want a nice open floor boat for fishing. We take our two large breed dogs fishing (70 & 110lbs) along with 2-3 adults. The larger floorplan of our current boat is great as long as the wind isn't coming up. I've only ridden on a handful of boats a handful of times so have limited overall experience to judge boat types against either.

Does anyone here have much experience with the Lowe Tahiti 224 deckboats? They seem like they have a similar floorplan/weight but ride quite a bit lower in the water and thus seem like they "shouldn't" be affected by the wind so badly. I haven't owned my first boat for a year now but we have enjoyed boating quite a bit.

We don't fish on any "big" bodies of water, so speed and handling big water isn't a big deal. Most of the bodies of water we fish would be 3,000 to 10,000 acre freshwater lakes.

Thoughts? We love the size and floorpan of our pontoon but the height on the water seems to kill our trolling motor efficiency, water handling, and loading is a beach when its windy out. We are currently looking at used ones in the ~$20k range with a 115-150hp motor. We can afford to buy new but for something like a boat I'd rather buy used in good shape if possible. I feel guilty spending a lot of money on depreciating assets I can't use year-round .

[Bamaman]

Pontoon boats are not at all aerodynamic, and with little hull in the water they can be a handful to fish from on a windy day. But I would have thought your I Pilot trolling motor would hold you in one place--off GPS.

We've seen some owners switch to deck boats, only to see them return to pontoons/tritoons later. The deck boats just don't have the ride and the room that a pontoon boat provides. They're faster, but speed is often trumped by the ride.

You could certainly put a SeaStar steering system on your boat for around $700 plus labor. Sounds as if your current steering system may not be working up to par--and might need lubrication. You might also need the trim tab on the bottom of your anticavitation plate adjusted to get it to steer easier.

You could switchover to a deck boat, but you're essentially getting an almost flat bottom boat with the furniture mounted on top of the hull--rather than down in the hull. I'm afraid you'd be wanting to get back into a pontoon boat promptly.

[JBO]

Pontoon boats are not at all aerodynamic, and with little hull in the water they can be a handful to fish from on a windy day. But I would have thought your I Pilot trolling motor would hold you in one place--off GPS.

Thanks for the insights. I'm not "sold" on one, but I wish wind wasn't always the deciding factor.

The I pilot trolling motor works great for a straight line, however, strong wind gusts will throw it off course a bit as it can't compensate for the wind until it moves the boat off track. By strong wind gusts I'm talking 15-25mph wind gusts. Typically under 15MPH the winds are negligible and not a big factor.

The I pilot trolling motor's Anchor Lock doesn't "hold" very well unless you are back in coves. The large "sail boat" side profile seems to catch quite a bit of wind and pushes it a bit off target. Perhaps throwing out a drift sock would help, but I've seen my boat on Anchor Lock move many times further on each wind gust than V hull boats w/ Anchor Lock. The Anchor Lock works pretty good, but its not for high wind situations or open water with a pontoon boat, in my experience.

For some reason I assumed upgraded steering setups would be more expensive than that. Do you have experience with the hydraulic or electrical ones? Any preference?

[Gonefishing]

I had a pontoon boat and traded it for a deck boat. That was a mistake I traded the deck boat and got another pontoon. Deck boat was nice like you thought it had as much room as the toon. Looks like it but they don't. Ride is better because they are made like a regular boat and wind didn't effect it like a toon. But because it is lower to the water the waves will be a problem in the wind. With water coming over the bow and if you have larger boats in the area their wake will be a problem also. Can't say I didn't like the deck boat cause I did. But I loved the pontoon and so did the wife. So I now have another pontoon and everyone is happy. But to each there own and everyone has to make there own decisions. On the water with a deck boat or toon is great cause it is on the water.

[tuned]

The only two deck boats I was ever on-both rode 'hard'. Way nastier than either a pontoon or a standard vee-hull. Although faster, they pounded the crap out of my old, crooked back. I would take ride over wind-handling and speed any day.

[JBO]

The only two deck boats I was ever on-both rode 'hard'. Way nastier than either a pontoon or a standard vee-hull. Although faster, they pounded the crap out of my old, crooked back. I would take ride over wind-handling and speed any day.

I assumed the deckboat would be much rougher of a ride at speed. Currently our pontoon tops out at around ~21MPH without maxing out the RPM and that's plenty fast for the majority of our water/conditions. Over the last few months our average speed on the water was probably close to 2MPH so handling at faster speeds isn't a "major" issue, although stability when walking around is important.

Have you ever ridden on a boat such as the Yellowfin bay boats?

http://www.yellowfin.com/is24.html

We rode on a Yellowfin boat in Key West and it had a very rough "jarring" ride when hitting rough waves. I assume a Lowe deckboat would be similar-ish? It definitely wasn't a smooth ride and not a boat I would want to ride on for hours. However, it was versatile being able to fish well on reefs, 2ft deep shallows, etc.

[tuned]

The only two deck boats I was ever on-both rode 'hard'. Way nastier than either a pontoon or a standard vee-hull. Although faster, they pounded the crap out of my old, crooked back. I would take ride over wind-handling and speed any day.

I assumed the deckboat would be much rougher of a ride at speed. Currently our pontoon tops out at around ~21MPH without maxing out the RPM and that's plenty fast for the majority of our water/conditions. Over the last few months our average speed on the water was probably close to 2MPH so handling at faster speeds isn't a "major" issue, although stability when walking around is important.

Have you ever ridden on a boat such as the Yellowfin bay boats?

http://www.yellowfin.com/is24.html

We rode on a Yellowfin boat in Key West and it had a very rough "jarring" ride when hitting rough waves. I assume a Lowe deckboat would be similar-ish? It definitely wasn't a smooth ride and not a boat I would want to ride on for hours. However, it was versatile being able to fish well on reefs, 2ft deep shallows, etc.

I can't say that I have extensive experience in any of these areas. Even the deck boats, we just didn't spend too much time sitting around. It was VERY noticeable at speed tho, both in light chop and heavier seas. It makes sense to me. They don't have quite the same deep V as most boats. The bottom is 'flatter' and almost has to slap down more rather than cut. Even my toon with strakes still has a tendency of 'cutting' waves and rides smooooth.