First weekend out with the rebuilt, resto-mod, Haley's Comet

[rancherlee]

Well after 100's of hours of work I finally finished my resto-mod on my Old Kennedy Octagon tubed pontoon. I modified alot of the railing, added stringers to extend the deck from 16' to 19', added extra tube supports, redid the 3rd tube that I installed 3 years ago to set the motor back another foot/strakes, all new carpet, 22 gallon fuel tank, new console, 55# Minnkota PD/AP, yada yada yada. Took a lot longer than I had planned, but then again everything does that's done right! I figured I've added about 400# to the boat after adding in the strakes, air ride pedestals, 3' more deck, another battery, engine/fuel tank cover, ect.

So with the Bimini up and 22 gallons of the cheap stuff I headed out for a test run.


Played around a bit and tried to see if I could beat me previous best of barely 30mph (would flicker between 29-30 on my gps) but the 3" strakes on the center tube could not counter act the extra 400# of heft I added, they DID how ever lower my empty plane speed from 19mph to 15mph. Also with 8 people on the boat I managed to plane still @ 19mph but It takes WOT and VERY careful trimming to get it up on top where then climbs to 22-23mph and I can back off the throttle a touch. Before anything more than 4 adults would cause me to plow along at 20-21mph.

Here is me on a solid 28mph pass, I think she carries the tubes nicely with a light load, I had just came out of a pretty tight turn for WOT.




My empty/loaded speed range went from 21-30mph to 23-28mph after the rebuild and I can now take turns ALOT faster then I use to. My 70hp is just barely enough to get it to perform, and after taking careful measurements and doing a worksheet I found for the calculation of pontoon capacities I've come up with a 113hp (which can be rounded up to 115hp) and 10.8 people (which can be rounded up to 11). So I think in a year or two I will be stepping up to the recently announced Suzuki DF100a or DF115a leanburn thats due out this fall which gets bumped up to the current 140 block, gets lean burn, and most importantly the troll control over the previous DF115/DF100. I think I could tickle 40mph out her empty with a 115 on the back.

BTW, Pictures were taken on the Cook end of Lake Vermilion in Northern Minnesota from my grandparents house. Awesome lake for pontoons and there are quite a few "go fast" pontoons on this lake, I seen a monster 10' wide Premier with TWIN 300hp suzuki's on the back scream by @ 60+ MPH on a 1' chop across the bay.

[ronb]

that thing is looking good on the water, did the strakes help a lot? With your octagonal tubes, I wasn't sure that they would have that much of a noticable difference. My jealousy streak comes out a little, with my 90hp Merc I get a top speed of 20mph (with 2 adults and 2 kids) but there is no way that I am getting anywhere near planing.. All the pictures of triple toons I see on here is starting to make me wonder where I can get another 24" tube and what is the process for getting a pontoon re-rated for more HP? (sure, capacity is nice, but we all know its really about how big your motor is )

I was looking at the pictures and noticed you have a tow hook out the backend..looks like an interesting addition.

-ron

[rancherlee]

ya, the tow hook is the redneck in me. Stainless steel tow points for pulling tubes are pretty expensive, I was at the local farm supply store and seen the chrome "10,000 lb" rated tow hook for $5.99 and figured it was MORE than capable of pulling a 4 person tube. Works great and is supper smooth so it doesn't chaff the tow ropes. The tow bar is made from 2x2x.095 steel tube and is secured to 2 cross member directly linked to the transom stringers and also works as a cradle for my 22 gallon gas tank. As far as plane surface I already had a flat 10" wide, 17' long surface on each of the 3 tubes but I wanted more lift in the middle to see if I could make it handle better. My 2 options were to either find another beat up Kennedy/National pontoon with the big tubes and put one of those in the middle, space my center tube down 2-4", or add strakes. The strakes worked and helped me keep my REALLY skinny water ability to sneak into shallow bays and rivers. I didn't get the banking ability I expected but it does bank some and now allows me to crank the wheel 1/2 a turn either direction without scrubbing more than 1-2mph off, before it just went fast straight and didn't like to turn much at all on plane without loosing 5-6mph. Didn't get a chance to pull a tube but I think I may be able to toss the riders around a bit now.

As far as re-rate, I'm not sure. Mono-hull Boats UNDER 20'-0" are required to have capacity plates according to the Coast Guard. Minnesota law says water craft 20'-0" and under are required to have a capacity plate to be sold in the state. My pontoon didn't have a capacity plate when I bought it, but the parts pontoon with identical tubes and cross members that was a few years older was only rated for a 50hp/6 people and another parts one I look, same year,tubes, cross members as mine, BUT with a beefier transom was rated for 80hp and 8 people. The running surface of my boat is now 20' 4" long so according to state and federal law I don't need a plate. My Insurance company ran my HIN number but no HP capacity came back and they were fine with my 70hp on the back, I'm going to bring the worksheet I filled out from the boat safety standards website I found and see if they are OK with me running a 100 or 115hp on the back.

[ronb]

I gotcha on the redneck ability.. my towbar is made from 1.5" CREW .120 wall round stock that I picked up over at the local metal dealer (West Side Steel in West Fargo, ND), bolted through the 2 rear braces (main transom braces) and my stainless tow hook came from Mac's, they had it in their 'random assorment of sh*t' bin for $5. They have another one there that is about 8" wide and 1.75" tall for $15, but I only need 1 otherwise I would have probably done something similar to you or Curtis' home made unit.

The dealership I bought my 922 from got in an 822 (4.3L I/O) about 2 weeks after I bought mine (of course $10k/more) with triple tubes and underskinning.. that really kicked in the factor... it looked so nice and shiny. It had strakes on the insides of the outer tubes and both sides of the center tube. On Pelican Lake, MN there is a guy with a South Bay 925 (3 ft longer than mine) TT 115Merc Opti that says he can get up on a plane about 18mph and can cruise all day at 30mph no problems.. (makes me sad a little bit) I know if I bolt on a 115 I still won't be up on a plane.. gotta find a way to get a 3rd tube! From the factory mine is rated for up to 115hp but the capacity plate near the helm says 90hp..

Did you weld the strakes yourself or find a local welder to take care of it for you? Was it just some aluminum angle iron (or flat plate bent) and then welded in place? According to Forest River my tubes are .090 and I have been thinking about at minimum adding some strakes to the inner side of them, not sure it would help much, probably more psychological than actual performance, but we've got some sheets of .080 here at work and some big brakes/benders that could make them into the right shape for a very reasonable cost. My main concern is finding a qualified welder at a decent price.

Have you underskinned it? Or are you going to?

I had 12 people (7 adults and 5 children) on my pontoon Saturday, boy did she sit low, and we lost about 300RPM from WOT.. I still managed to do some tube pulling though, but I think my 11yr old neice was a little bored. Her Dad usually pulls her behind a 18ft Crownline 4.3 I/O...

get that thing in the water as much as you can, Summer around here isn't long enough...
-ron

[rancherlee]

Strakes were a DIY thing, local welders either didn't want to tackle the job, or wanted WAY too much money and didn't want to guarantee there work..... Even with the pontoon off the boat and easy to work on. Gave me the perfect opportunity to finagle me a new welding machine, I'm pretty good for a non-certified welder so I took advantage of a sale at Northern Tool an picked up a Hobart Handler 190 with spoolgun and started welding the 3x2x.125" 6061 aluminum angle on it. Well, didn't start right way, spend a few hours and wasted a spool of aluminum practicing on parts from the parts toon until I felt comfortable enough to take on the job. I had a few hiccups on the way as there were a few small dents in the tube that made it a PITA. I did end up with about a dozen pinholes that I had to touch up after I pressure tested. I welded them completely, I've seen it done both ways on pontoons as some have a 2-3" weld every foot other weld it solid. Once I had it holding air I slathered on a coat of Goop "coat-it" marine epoxy to make sure that they were sealed, I coated the bottoms of the other pontoons also since I've been known to scrap over rocks in the shallows and this stuff has held up very well on my Canoe and 12' beater boats.

As far as under skinning, The back 8' is under skinned so far. Another cheap out, used I free truck bedliner. After the 5 day stretch, including a day of 1-2' chop, Its held up great so now I'm hunting for another free/cheap bed liner or two so I can finish the job. On the 1-2' chop I could feel the waves/spray catching the cross members that were not skinned.

[gramps]

Looks cool. nice job.

[curtiscapk]

Nice work rancher!

Looks great and damn ur speed!

Ron thanks for the props on the tow bar....but it was already on when I got it.