News — Boating

Excellence In Customer Satisfaction For Forest River Marine!

By: South Bay Pontoon

Forest River Marine is proud to be recognized by the NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) for consecutive years as a recipient of the Marine Industry CSI Award. 

Forest River Marine has achieved and maintained an independently measured standard of excellence in customer satisfaction.

This award demonstrates that Forest River Marine builds the highest quality products, and is focused on the needs and satisfaction of the customer by providing them with exceptional customer service and the best warranty in the industry.

For all your accessories and/or vinyl flooring visit Pontoon Depot's shop site.

Family-Owned & Operated Self Creek Lodge & Marina...

By: Self Creek

Pic By: Southern Fishing Boats

...on Lake Greeson is proud of its heritage of offering the most dedicated staff at one of the finest of Arkansas lake resorts. If you’re looking for a vacation in Arkansas, our Lodge & Resort is your answer.

Everything is in place for Self Creek Lodge and Marina to offer our guests a wonderful family vacation in Arkansas at Lake Greeson. We offer year-round events and activities to make your lakeside vacation memorable, fun, and carefree. Our marinastore offers over 2,400 square feet of display and retail area – there’s even a cozy dining area where guests can look out onto the lake and enjoy a plump juicy hot dog fresh off the grill, a delicious pizza, or other great lake snacks. Fishing supplies, lake necessities, sportswear, marine and boating supplies are offered as well as fuel, bait and ice. Friendly and helpful staff greet guests at the fueling tee or behind the spacious oak counter. Outside, a cool, shady patio beckons with comfortable, lake-side seating – the perfect perch for enjoying ice cream!

The resort offers a wide range of covered and uncovered slips for boat storage of every size in a clean, well-maintained marina basin. A full rental fleet includes late model party barges and ski boats.

From across the water, cozy, Arkansas lakeside cabins offer lakers a peek at casual, rustic luxury. The cabins feature spacious rooms, a stone fireplace, fully equipped kitchen and beautiful furnishings in an eclectic blend of antiques and comfortable, contemporary pieces. From the beautiful area rugs and unique accessories and artwork in each unit to the bubbling hot tubs on the back decks, these Arkansas lakeside cabins have been designed to offer every comfort and delight for visitors to the lake.

Jim and the Self Creek staff are eager to welcome you to their home on Lake Greeson! Jim, Lori and family live on the grounds to offer visitors the kind of warm, personal service that makes Self Creek one of the most popular of all Arkansas lake resorts, and one of  the top choices by families across the South.

Self Creek Lodge and Marina is part of the Tri-Pennant Family of Resorts, spanning two other Arkansas wilderness lakes and offering more of the premier luxury that you’re used to at Self Creek. Visit Iron Mountain Lodge and Marina on nearby DeGray Lake, and don’t miss Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa on nearby Lake Ouachita. All three resorts within the Tri-Pennant Family offer the same excellent customer service and memorable destination vacation experience that you deserve in a vacation. The families of the Tri-Pennant Families love to serve yours – and treat you like their own.

For all your accessories and/or vinyl flooring visit Pontoon Depot's shop site.

Mercury Makes News In Miami With The Loaded Harris!

By: Great Lakes Boating

The demo ride on the Grand Mariner began by uttering the common phrase, “Hey Siri,” and after asking the voice-controlled personal assistant to start the engines, the twin 300 V8s began to purr. How’s that for an advancement in technology! The simplified one integrated system made this Harris a popular choice for journalists during our weekend of testing. Technologies such as CZone digital control and monitoring truly simplify the operation of your pontoon. It gives you complete control of all electrical functions with the touch of a button. We were able to control the lights, stereo and other functions with ease. Plus CZone has a proven reputation for reliability with over 10 years of experience in marine installations.

Other key features on this Harris included Mercury’s VesselView, a multi-function display that has more information and data on boat and engine functions than you’re going to find anywhere else including rpm, speed, fuel flow and efficiency, temperature, trim and more. With direct integration into Mercury’s propulsion systems, VesselView has the ability to control the engine. Features such as trolling for fish, pulling tubers, adjusting skyhook, setting cruise control and others can be easily controlled from the VesselView screens. And if you’re not an expert, don’t worry. VesselView will make you feel like you’re one. And if that’s not enough, VesselView Mobile brings all that power to your mobile device as well as even more ways to stay connected.

MOB

Another new technology we were able to experiment with on this pontoon came from a partnership with FELL Marine, a leader in marine wireless technology. Mercury Marine co-develops exclusive wireless and IOT connected products that seamlessly integrate with Mercury’s SmartCraft suite of digital technology and CZone digital switching, to make boating easier, safer and more enjoyable than ever before.

Utilizing a wearable FOB, in the event of a Man-Over-Board (MOB) situation, the engines turn off and an alarm sounds. Emergency contacts can also be programmed to be contacted after a specific time that you set, and another safety feature we like is the lights on the boat start blinking “SOS” as an added precaution. If it was a passenger who fell over, the engines can be started immediately to return to the location that was automatically marked on the screen.



Assisted Docking

The assisted docking system that is based on aerospace control systems and autonomous-car artificial intelligence, was another exciting announcement Mercury announced prior to the Miami Boat Show. At Lake X, the system was demonstrated on a Boston Whaler 330 Outrage with twin Mercury Verados and Joystick Piloting for Outboards.

Mercury collaborated with Raymarine to incorporate Raymarine’s DockSense system, which uses vision technology to sense and identify potential obstacles on the boat’s course, providing feedback to the Mercury autonomous system to allow the JPO system to respond.

“We’re able to provide a product that makes it simple and easy to dock a boat without hitting anything,” added Pfeifer. “This will ultimately turn into an automatic-docking product.”

It’s the industry’s first intelligent object recognition and motion sensing assisted docking solution, and with DockSense, it continuously monitors the vessel’s surroundings, keeping the autonomous system updated with real-time detection of objects like pilings or another vessel.

As journalists, we each took a turn attempting to run into a nearby dock or seawall, and the system simply overrides you and won’t allow you to do it. As we were just idling and talking, we got within the preset radius of a dock, and the engines automatically revved up and kept us at a safe distance. When we were ready to dock, we simply pressed a button to turn off the sensor on one side and then used the Joystick to perfectly line us up.

The DockSense system includes multiple FLIR machine vision cameras, a central processing module and the DockSense app running on Raymarine’s Axiom navigation display. It’s still being developed, but it does bring some excitement to what we can expect in the future.

For all your accessories and/or vinyl flooring visit Pontoon Depot's shop site.

If You’re Wondering What The Benefits of Owning a Pontoon Are...

By: Pontoon-Depot, Amy Cabanas

...look no further!

Here are the top five reasons: 

1. PLENTY OF STORAGE

Pontoon boats are more spacious than speed boats or other motorized boats, so there’s more places for storage. Typically, pontoon boats have plenty of space under seats and floors for extra blankets, food, water, life jackets and water toys. In addition, pontoon boats usually seat more people than a traditional boat, typically big enough to fit more than 10 people comfortably. 

2. EASY FOR BEGINNERS AND FAMILIES

In addition to having more space for families, pontoons are perfect for beginning boaters. They’re easy to drive and simple to dock because of the shape and speed of the boat. Because of their size, pontoon boats are also safe, because they are difficult to flip or tip. 

3. LONGER LIFESPAN

Pontoon boats have a longer lifespan than motorized boats for a couple reasons. In addition to being easier to maintain, pontoon boats generally don’t change much over time. This means, there’s not a reason to update every few years. They are also typically less expensive to insure, because they are considered a very safe style of boat. 

4. PLENTY OF CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS

There may not be a reason to update to a new pontoon boat over time, but there are still plenty of ways to customize your boat to make it your own. You can add LED lights, speakers, additional seating and even toys such as inflatable water slides or tubes! The possibilities are endless. 

5. PERFECT FOR EVERYTHING

Regardless if you’re planning to use your new boat for fishing or entertaining, pontoon boats are very versatile. The right kind of pontoon boat can even be used to pull inner tubes or other floaties! 

Are you ready to start researching DIY projects on your pre-owned Pontoon boat? Contact our Pontoon-Depot team today for your flooring and boating accessories options to get started!

For all your accessories and/or vinyl flooring visit Pontoon Depot's shop site.