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5 Ways to Use a Pontoon Boat Pontoon-Depot

5 Ways to Use a Pontoon Boat Pontoon-Depot

By: 321 Boat Club

Pontoon boats are the most versatile boats available as they are a perfect for a wide variety of activities.  No matter what kind of activity you are interested in, a pontoon boat can most likely satisfy your needs. This is why these boats are so popular among groups and families. When going out on the water with multiple people, it is most likely that they are going to want to partake in a variety of activities. While other boats are limited in their functionality, pontoon boats allow you to take part in several different activities as if the boat was made for it. Here are five ways that you can use pontoon boats to have fun for your entire crew.

Have a Picnic for Lunch

One of the biggest advantages to being on a pontoon boat is the amount of space and storage available on the boat. There is more space and storage on a pontoon boat than just about any other boat on the market. This gives you plenty of storage space to store food and drinks while you enjoy your activities and plenty of space so that everyone has plenty of space to eat lunch. The Indian River Lagoon has 137 spoil islands that dot the stretch of water but you might rather relax on the padded seats of your pontoon boat rather than sit on the dirty ground. This boat gives you the opportunity.

Celebrate an Event with a Party

In addition to being a great boat to have a picnic on, the storage and space on a pontoon boat also makes it a great place to throw a party. Whether you are looking to celebrate a birthday or just get friends together for the day, you can store all the items you need on the boat and have plenty of room for up to 13 people, plenty for your gathering. The boat features enough room for all the celebratory items you will need, all the people in your party to fit comfortably on the boat, and offer a wide variety of activities that your guests can take part in.

A Pontoon Boat Has a Built-in Platform

If you have a young family, there may be certain activities that your children may not be old enough to take part in yet. Maybe they are not quite old enough to take part in water skiing or maybe they have yet to acquire the swimming skills necessary to venture off on their own in the water. But, especially with kids, they do want to take part in fun activities. The platform on the back of the boat will allow your kids to jump into the water safely where an adult can be waiting to safely get them back to the boat.

Another way to use the platform is for relaxed fishing. While a fishing boat may be better equipped for the activity, the pontoon boat’s platform allows you to dangle your feet in the water as you fish. Just like if you were fishing off a dock. So if you are not looking for a serious fishing expedition but just to relax, a pontoon boat may be perfect for you.

Take Part in Water Sports

One of the most popular ways to have fun on the water is through water sports. Whether you want to go water skiing, tubing, wakeboarding, or some other activity, a pontoon boat has you covered. Water skiing and wakeboarding are extreme sports that are very popular. However, if you have younger kids or people that are not comfortable with the more extreme sports, tubing might be a better option. With tubing, people of any age and any level can take part and have fun.

If you are looking to take a boat out on the water, no boat offers more variety than a pontoon boat. No matter where your interest lies, a pontoon boat will allow you take part in those activities you enjoy most. Whether you are looking for a good picnic, a place to celebrate, or want to take part in a variety of activities, a pontoon boat features the storage, space, and amenities to accommodate. If a trip out on a pontoon boat seems right for you, join 321 Boat Club

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The Best Beverages To Bring Boating | Pontoon-Depot

The Best Beverages To Bring Boating | Pontoon-Depot

By: 844 Lets Boat

Summers in Georgia are hot, there are no two ways about it. So don’t you want to stay cool with beverages that will leave you feeling sated and chilled? Whether you’re boating or laying out next to the kiddie pool in your backyard to try to stay cool this summer, these beverages will ensure that you don’t overheat as the weather heats up. Keep in mind to check out the Georgia drinking laws to ensure everyone on the boat stays safe. We also encourage you to read Common Misconceptions About Drinking And Boating to ensure that you know more about BUIs.

At Freedom Boat Club, we want to make sure that everyone stays safe and out of trouble. While every person who comes boating on Lake Lanier wants to have a good time, we also want to ensure that you, your family, friends, and even your dog, Fluffy, abide by the Georgia boating laws. Additionally, no matter what you may be inclined to drink, it’s important that you continue to drink water to stay hydrated. One of the biggest issues that can happen when boating is dehydration and exhaustion, even to people who aren’t drinking. Make sure that you bring plenty of water when you visit us on Lake Lanier.

Drinks To Try This Summer

Keep in mind that we do not encourage you to drink and boat, but we do want you to have a good time as long as the rules and regulations are followed. In addition to packing snacks galore, try out some of these beverages to enjoy a cool drink as you swim, boat, and stay cool in the Georgian summer. From sangria to non-alcoholic drinks, you’ll find a little something for everyone on this list.

Sangria

However sangria is made, it’s delicious. The fruity freshness such a treat for the tastebuds and is perfect to sip on as you lay back on a pontoon boat and get some sun. Sangria can be made in a variety of ways that involve alcohol and ones that are completely non-alcoholic, so that your children can enjoy the deliciousness of this unique beverage as well. While you can browse the internet for recipes aplenty, we have a few that we enjoy and want to share. There’s one that has star fruit and kiwi to really enhance the summer tastebuds and then there’s the Tropical Sangria that has all of your favorite fruits with a hint of Malibu rum.

Beach Side Punch

While you’re not laying out on the beach in the Bahamas, this Beach Side Punch is a summer classic. Punch is always a refreshing drink, from the days when you’d sip it at school dances to when you need a pick me up while boating. The Beach Side Punch has ripe cherries, grapefruit, soda with a dash of lime, and some vodka. If you’d like to add a little something extra, then rim the glass with some salt. This punch isn’t too sweet and overpowering, but just right to relax on a boat for an extended period of time.

Margarita

A summer’s not complete without trying a new type of margarita. While you may like sticking to the traditional margarita, it’s always fun to play it up a bit and experiment with some new flavors. You can try a light strawberry, grapefruit, tropical, skinny, and the sparkling blood orange margarita. Keep in mind that none of these have to have alcohol and you can always create your own margarita that you think people may enjoy.

Sparkling Summer Limeade

One of our non-alcoholic drinks that we are most excited to share with you is the Sparkling Summer Limeade. Living in Georgia, it’s always delicious to have a sparkling drink that’s delicious and chilled to cool you down on a hot summer afternoon. The limeade is a delicious combination of five different fruits. You’ll add blackberries, kiwi, pineapple, mango, and strawberries. If you’re a fan of blueberries, then we encourage that as well. You’ll add limeade concentrate that’s thawed and either ginger ale or lemon lime soda. It’s a truly delicious non-alcoholic beverage to enjoy while boating.

Pineapple Ginger Sparkler

Ginger sparklers are a great way to spice up spring and summer with some refreshments. The Pineapple Ginger Sparkler has everything you need to have a great boating day and it’s without alcohol. To get the perfect summer drink, all you need are a few ingredients and it’ll serve everyone on the boat. You’ll need ginger ale, pineapple juice, fresh ginger, sliced oranges, and fresh basil. This sparkler is not only delicious, but it’s nutritious too with the ginger, which helps to settle stomachs.

You can always try a variety of Georgian beer that’s native to the Buford or Cumming area. With so many breweries in the area, you’ll be hard pressed to find more delicious beer. Remember to be safe this summer while you go boating on Lake Lanier! We look forward to starting the boating season with you!

Whether you are in Georgia or Arkansas please drink and boat responsibility and have fun & be safe from www.Pontoon-Depot.com

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How To Protect Pontoon Boat From The Summer Heat

How To Protect Pontoon Boat From The Summer Heat

By: The Ocean Sailing Guide

I am excited about the summer of 2018. This summer brings new memories, adventures, and time spent on the pontoon with family. Now, with the arrival of summer, comes the staunching summer heat, which if you didn’t know, can be dangerous to a pontoon boat. Therefore it is important to know how to protect your pontoon boat from the summer heat.

While owning a pontoon boat is incredibly rewarding and fun, it’s important that you take the time to care and protect your boat, especially in the summer heat. We can all agree that the last thing you want to happen this summer is to find out that some part of your pontoon boat was damaged by lack of protection.

Today, I want to share with you my ideas and thoughts on how to protect your pontoon boat from the summer heat this year. As always, if you have any ideas to share with the crowd, feel free to add your comment below.

Shall we begin?

The Four Step Protection Plan To Help With Summer Heat

It’s important that, before the summer heat gets here, you develop a game plan for how you plan to protect your pontoon boat.

Once the snow has passed and the White Walkers went back home, I know that it’s time to begin getting my Pontoon Boat ready for the ocean blue.

I have developed what I like to call my pontoon protection plan. It’s an incredibly easy process that starts the moment the warm rays come out.

  1. Full-Scale Cleaning

pontoon seating in the sun

Like many other things in life, before you can apply any form of protector to a surface, it needs to be clean. So, what I like to do is take the boat out in the backyard and prepare it for a full-scale cleaning.

In the industry today, there are dozens upon dozens of different pontoon boat soaps, which can be found at your local boat stores, marinas, or even Amazon. The best products, in my opinion, are the ones that care for the gel coat and the surface of the material.

When it comes to the interior of your pontoon, treat and clean it based on the type of material on the inside. For me, I use a high-quality vinyl cleaner and polish from a local boating store. This helps protect the interior material from cracking or flaking.

  1. Apply A Protectant

Once the pontoon is spiffy clean, what I do is apply a protectant to help protect the gel coat and material of the boat from deteriorating or oxidizing, due to the Sun.

Again, there are so many different products on the market today that can do the job. I recommend purchasing a product that is heavy-duty. What you are looking for is something known as polymers.

This is the secret to protecting your pontoon boat, it’s your personal defense mechanism against the Sun. It’s the sunscreen for a pontoon boat.

Do keep in mind, the more you sail, the more you need to clean and reapply a protectant. Remember, this is your baby!

  1. Daily Maintenance

Now, I understand that this process can be time-consuming, and sometimes undesirable. To make it easier for myself, I take the extra step and perform daily maintenance on my pontoon.

So, what I typically do is use some daily maintenance products, also known as pontoon boat guards. These products act as the first line of defense to protect the boat and the original protectant.

My favorite part about using these cleaning products is that they have polymers in the formula. This helps reinforce the protectant, helping to clean the boat from harmful chemicals, and effectively protecting it from the Sun.

Since most of these products come in the form of a spray, it’s easy to use.

  1. Cover Your Pontoon When Not In Use

covered pontoon boatI have talked a lot about the importance of pontoon boat covers and the best ones out there. I can’t stress it enough. You do not want your pontoon boat exposed to constant heat. Otherwise, the sun’s powers and UV rays will expedite the oxidation process.

To protect your pontoon boat from the summer heat, purchase a quality cover that you can use year-round.

Try to get into the habit of covering your pontoon if you are not using it. Every time I come back from the water I take a few minutes to clean off the grime and bacteria, or salt if I was in the ocean. Once dry, I cover the entire pontoon until it’s next use or cleaning.

Most Common Mistakes Boaters Make

If you are want to avoid any damage or expensive repairs, avoid making any of these common mistakes that boaters make:

  • Dish Soap

Unless you intend to clean the dishes on your boat put the dish soap back where it belongs, the kitchen. Why would you use that product on your boat? Don’t be cheap, buy the right product!

  • Laundry Soap

Like that of dish soap, using laundry soap or detergent with water to clean a pontoon boat is a mistake. If you are seriously considering cleaning your boat, use the proper products.

  • Wrong Surface, Wrong Product

It’s important to know all of the materials in and on your pontoon boat. When it comes to cleaning, you need to know what types of materials you are dealing with.

You should also know the environment that your boat is around. For example, if you live close to the ocean, chances are, with the ocean and salt water, there’s salt in the area that can reach your boat.

Summer Pontoon Protection Checklist For 2018

With the anticipation of summer, I have prepared a little checklist for you all in case you need some help or are just looking for some helpful ideas. I’m going to call it Summer Pontoon Protection Checklist for 2018.

If you can follow the 4-Step process listed above and follow this checklist, your pontoon boat will be in great shape.

  • General Cleaning – Perform a general cleaning of the inside and outside of the pontoon boat.
  • Make sure all electrical outlets and batteries are functioning and working.
  • Inspect all gauges to ensure maximum operability.
  • Review oil and filters to make sure the pontoon is ready for maximum performance.
  • Check all essentials
    • Transmission Fluid, belts, cooling system, etc.
  • Make sure trailer is up-to-date on registration
  • Make sure pontoon is up-to-date on registration
  • Test all lights.
  • Inspect exterior and interior of pontoon for minor or major oxidation.
  • Reseal and add polymer protectant.
  • Purchase daily spray pontoon guard for each use.
  • Purchase quality boat cover designed to protect from UV damage.
  • Have fun!

Enjoy Your Pontoon This Season!

Overall, as a pontoon boat owners, it’s our responsibility to keep track and protect our baby. Your pontoon boat needs protection, like sunscreen, to play and function longer. If you don’t protect it, you risk things breaking down, resulting in a messy situation.

Trust me, this summer, that’s the last thing you want to deal with when you can be enjoying the summer rays on the ocean blue.

Overall, my hope is that with all the information and tips I shared with you in the article, you are properly prepared to protect your pontoon boat from the summer heat.

If you have any methods or ideas that I did not discuss above, feel free to drop a comment below and share with us! After all, we are a community of pontoon boaters!

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Patriotic Pontooning | Pontoon Depot July 4th, 2018

Patriotic Pontooning | Pontoon Depot July 4th, 2018

By: Boating Magazine

Image By: Hlwa.org

Some thoughts on pontoon boating over the Fourth of July.

If there is a category of boaters who are more patriotic than ‘tooners, I have yet to meet them.

At least “patriotic’ based on their displays of Old Glory and related red, white and blue hues.

I learned that the hard way, when my bride and I bought our first pontoon boat. The mid-winter purchase included the balance of the coming season’s membership in the local pontoon-only boat owners’ club where we found the FloteBote for sale. At that time, it was apparent that my wife and I were the youngest members of the modest, senior-dominated club, and the only couple with a toddler in tow, so we weren’t sure how we’d fit in. But we needed a place to dock the boat, since it didn’t have a trailer, and we decided to join – at least for the short term.

After spending the spring rebuilding the ‘toon from the deck up, we learned that the club’s summer social season kicked off each year with a gala July Fourth celebration on the club’s lakefront grounds. The festivities started with a parade of members’ boats, which were decorated and judged in several categories. As new members, we decide the best way to endear ourselves with our new friends, and show off our DIY rehab of the old Harris, was to enter the boat decorating contest.

We had recently organized a Hawaiian-themed party at home, and had lots of tacky Tiki decorations on hand, including bamboo torches, strings of colorful plastic leis, fake palm trees, grass table skirting, and grass skirt skirts. We figured our “Tiki ‘Toon” would steal the “most original” category – if not accolades for best decorated pontoon overall, and got to the docks early that July fourth to get the boat rigged for the occasion.

WHERE TO VIEW 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS BY BOAT

Other than the questionable decision to mount open-flamed Tiki torches at each corner of a boat surrounded with dry grass skirting and plastic hibiscus flowers enveloping the Bimini top, the craft looked dandy and definitely South Pacific. In fact, we had a cassette of that musical’s tunes set to play as we paraded our boat past the judge’s dock. We were so busy with the preparations that we didn’t notice the themes fellow competitors in nearby slips were adopting for decorating their craft – nor the quizzical glances we were receiving from same.

We motored out and took our place in the formation line of two dozen pontoon boats and noticed that more than one had decided to adopt the patriotic theme of the day. Ahead and behind us were pontoons festooned in all many of red, white and blue, including one that looked like a giant Old Glory, another sprouting more than a hundred little stars & stripes in full flutter, and yet another flying patriotic banners streaming in the morning breeze. But we saw nothing that led us to believe we would win anything but ‘most original’ honors for our dandily decorated craft. We fired up the torches and cued the “Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy Talk” tune on the speakers and had little Ethan do a little belly dance on the bow, wearing a grass diaper with ukulele in hand. We figured the blank looks from the elderly judges was sheer awe of our unique Kon-tiki display, and as we returned to the dock we were sure we had the competition wrapped up and had won entry into the club’s inner circle of senior members.

As we walked to the clubhouse where members and their families and friends were gathering to hear the announcements of the parade winners and get the day’s festivities underway, one of the judges met us with a bewildered look on his face.

20 BEST PONTOON BOATS

“What was THAT all about!?,” he asked. “You guys looked like a flaming duck blind out there! Where are the flags? The banners? There wasn’t one patriotic thing about your boat, not one bit of red, white or blue. Didn’t you read the rules!?”

No we had not. Otherwise, we would have noted that the club’s annual theme – the ONLY acceptable theme – for decorating the boats for the Fourth of July Parade was a patriotic one. There were prize categories for Most Flags, Biggest Flag, Most Use of Red, White and Blue and Most Patriotic boat of all. No “Most Original” and certainly no accolades for anyone who would dare decorate their craft for the day in anything but red, white and blue.

We received a token “Honorable Mention” award some sympathetic soul created at the last minute and were given after the major awards were doled out, which we humbly accepted before slinking back to our boat.

Those events took place more than a decade ago, and despite the initial social setback we endured, we have re-upped our membership annually ever since. In that time, we have learned that many of our more senior fellow club members served in World War II and the Korean War and are proud members of the Greatest Generation. We are equally proud to join them and respect the patriotic theme of “our” boat club’s annual celebration.

 

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