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Things to Do at Lake Powell This Winter

Things to Do at Lake Powell This Winter

By: Lake Powell House Boating

Cool breeze. Quiet surroundings. Calm waters. A Lake Powell vacation in the winter can be quite the serene experience. Unlike summer, the busiest season for the lake, winter on the water means better fishing conditions and more hiking opportunities. At Antelope Point Marina, we know that the fun doesn’t stop after Labor Day weekend. Here are a few of our favorite things to do at Lake Powell during the winter months. 

Rent a Houseboat

The best way to enjoy a Lake Powell vacation in the winter is by renting a houseboat. You and your family can spend quality time together away from the hustle and bustle of the busy holiday season. In fact, we have many families who prefer to spend their holidays on a houseboat. With a fully equipped kitchen and grill onboard, you can whip up an easy holiday feast in no time. Thinking about spending your Thanksgiving at Lake Powell? We talk about how to prepare your meal on a houseboat in this post.

Other fun wintertime activities while on a houseboat vacation include; a campfire on the beach, stargazing, fishing, hiking, sightseeing and more.

Fish

Houseboating and fishing go hand and hand. Both are great ways to relax and unwind while enjoying nature. Worried the fish won’t bite this time of year? Nonsense. Lake Powell is known to have great fishing all year long, no matter the temperature. Cast your reel off the back of your boat and you could catch various types of bass, walleyes and crappies. Make sure to obtain an Arizona fishing license and pack your tackle box before you head out.

Hike

Fall and winter are the best times to hike around Lake Powell. The weather has finally cooled off making the several-mile hikes much more tolerable. We encourage those adventurous spirits to go on at least one hike in the area, as there are many to choose from. Whether you’re headed to the lake to spend a few days on the water, or merely stopping by for a short day trip, you won’t find sights comparable to those of the canyons and monuments nearby.

To help you narrow down your “must-see” list, we recommend the following…

Destinations you can reach by boat:


Destinations you can reach by vehicle:


With so many things to do on and around Lake Powell this winter, why not make a couple-day vacation out of it? Antelope Point Marina offers houseboat, watercraft and pontoon boat rentals for your enjoyment. Give us a call at 1-800-255-5561 to begin your reservation today.

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

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ELUX Marine Announces Fiberglass Electric Pontoon

ELUX Marine Announces Fiberglass Electric Pontoon

By: ELUX MARINE

ELUX Marine Inc., a Minnesota-based boat manufacturer, will launch its revolutionary new ELUX electric luxury fiberglass pontoon at the Minneapolis Boat Show, Jan. 24-27, 2019, at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

ELUX Marine was started by medical device entrepreneur Howard Root and boat craftsman Bart Jones to bring a new concept to boating – one that’s fresh, quiet, trouble-free, electric.

The result of their collaboration is now available in the ELUX electric luxury pontoon – a 24-foot fiberglass pontoon powered by a 72-volt, 420-amp lithium battery pack propelling a direct drive inboard electric motor at speeds up to 14 mph. At cruising speed, the ELUX electric pontoon motors for over 10 hours on a single charge and recharges by plugging into a standard electrical outlet.

Initial limited 2019 production of the ELUX pontoon will be available for sale and delivery in May.

“We started ELUX Marine to redefine the pontoon experience by using the clean power of electricity to lead the next generation of enjoyment on the water,” said Howard Root, Chief Executive Officer of ELUX Marine. “Our ELUX electric luxury fiberglass pontoon combines the simplicity of an electric motor with the luxury of a fiberglass design to deliver the most pleasurable and trouble-free pontoon boating experience available.”

“When I started my design work five years ago, I asked myself a simple question: What if a pontoon didn’t look like a pontoon? Starting with a blank sheet of paper, I sought to create a pontoon that was tailored for lake cruising but was also sleek and stylish. The first step was to integrate the pontoons into the hull and the final result is the ELUX pontoon – a boat that meets the pontoon cruising needs for Minnesota lakes with a design that uses clean, simple lines to make a bold statement,” ELUX Marine Chief Design Officer Bart Jones said.

Beyond the benefits of electric power, the standard features of the ELUX include:

  • Integrated passenger seating for 12, with flip-up storage and multiple USB chargers;
  • Slide-out cabinets for full-sized cooler, trash and recycling storage;
  • Unobstructed 2-foot swim platform with under-mount telescoping ladder;
  • GPS with Simrad GO9 XSE 9-inch display and TotalScan transducer sonar;
  • Premium Infinity stereo by Harmon Kardan with eight speakers, subwoofer and Bluetooth;
  • LED bow and stern lighting;
  • Handheld electric portable vacuum;
  • Removable custom shade sail for protection from the sun and rain;
  • Removable transom gate and full-sized table;
  • Pull-up cleats and quick release customized flat boat fenders.

 The new ELUX electric luxury fiberglass pontoon will be on display in the ELUX Marine Booth at the Minneapolis Boat Show, to be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

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

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Boating in the Winter Months | Pontoon-Depot

Boating in the Winter Months | Pontoon-Depot

By: My Boat Life

If you are lucky enough to live in a warmer climate, boating in the winter is a common practice. But in more northern areas where boating is typically 6-8 months out of the year, there are few boaters that boat in the winter months. The ultimate boating die-hard is the boater that keeps their boat in the water year round – and may even be a live aboard!

Depending on your geographic area, boating in the winter months may not actually be “boating”. Keeping your boat in the water during the winter means docking at a marina that will provide protection from water freezing around your boat and will continue basic services for slip holders in the off season.

In northern areas, there are a lot of challenges associated with keeping your boat in the water during the winter. First, you’ll need to locate a marina that offers winter docking. Then you’ll want to make sure the marina offers bubblers and de-icers at the dock as well as snow removal on docks. Also make sure that they provide mobile pump-out and water tank refilling service throughout the winter (since you will likely not be able to cruise over to the pump-out facility and running water will likely be shut-off on the dock). Heating and cooling systems may need to be winterized so you’ll need to heat your boat with portable space heaters.

In other warmer climates, keeping your boat in the water year round has many advantages. Basically there is no off season for boating. You never feel obligated to go to the boat every weekend because you have many more weekends available to boat. When the weather is not so great, you can skip a weekend. And then when the weather is particularly nice you can head to the boat and enjoy a winter cruise.

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

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Average Pontoon Boat Speeds (With 15 Examples)

Average Pontoon Boat Speeds (With 15 Examples)

By: BetterBoat.com

When buying a pontoon boat, one of the major considerations is your top speed. Since pontoon boats are generally not built for speed, skiing and tubing behind one can be difficult unless you take care to select an engine, weight, and pontoon style that will be conducive to speeds required for skiing and tubing.

How Fast Do Pontoon Boats Go?

I scoured the internet for guys who have reported their speeds on forums around the web.  All speeds recorded with GPS, and except where listed, with a light to medium load.
  • G3 Suncatcher 22′ V22RF with a 115hp engine and medium load can go about 25 mph (39 kilometers)
    • 22mph (38 kilometers) with a 90hp engine and medium load
    • With 11 people in the boat (max capacity) and a 115hp engine, it gets about 22 mph (35 kilometers)
    • Under perfect, ideal conditions and only one person in the boat, it can hit 31 mph (48 kmph)
  • 21′ with lifting strakes and a 90hp engine and perfect conditions gets 36 mph (58 kilometers)
  • 18′ Bass Buggy with 60hp engine can go up to 18mph (29 kilometers)
  • Suntracker 22′ with a 70hp engine can get 21 mph with a light load (34 kilometers)
  • Gigantic 30′ Pontoon with a 115hp will only get around 15mph (24 kilometers)
  • 24′ Pontoon boat with a 115hp and a medium load got around 25mph (38 kilometers)
  • 18′ Party Barge with a 75hp engine can get around  24mph (38 kilometers)
  • 20′ Bass Buggy with a 60hp motor only gets around 13-17 mph (18 to 27 kilometers)
  • 20′ Starcraft with a 75hp engine and with no load can get 23 mph (36 kilometers)
  • 26′ Crest III with a 90hp engine and medium load can get around 28mph (45 kilometers)
  • 24′ 2006 Sweetwater with a 90hp engine can go around 18mph, or 20.5mph with a 115hp engine
  • 26′ Tritoon with a 175hp engine and a medium/heavy load can get up to 35mph (56 kilometers)
  • 21′ Tritoon with a 90hp engine and only two people on board can get up to 27mph (43 kilometers)

How Fast Do You Really Need to Go?

Your initial response is probably “the faster, the better” but in reality you likely don’t need to go as fast as you think.  While speeds certainly vary according to the tastes and abilities of your riders, consider the following as good average speeds for various water sport activities.

  • Waterskiing with two skis – 15 to 26mph is pretty normal (28 to 42 kilometers)
  • Tubing with very young kids – My kids really don’t want to go faster than 5 to 10 mph (16kph).  They are 4 and 6 years old.  Most of the time, they feel like idling is a wild ride, but will sometimes get brave enough to hit 11mph.
  • Tubing with kids 8 – 10 years old – Depends dramatically on the kid, but most wouldn’t want to go faster than 15 or 20 mph (24 to 32 kilometers).
  • Tubing with older teens and adults – Above 25 mph (40 kilometers) is dangerous unless you’re just going in a straight line.  At 20 (34 kilometers), you can get really nice air and have the ride of your life but even this speed can be dangerous with more than one rider.  21 mph is a pretty adventurous ride and will easily knock off riders if you make tight turns.
  • Wakeboarding – 13mph to 18mph (30 kilometers) is a pretty average ride. Wakeboarding requires less speed than many other water sports, and going too fast increases the danger dramatically.  The large, solid board strapped to both legs makes this water sport more dangerous at high speeds than some others.
  • Slalom skiing – 14mph (22.5 kilometers) is a little slow and 36mph is HAULING (and extremely dangerous)!  A good average speed is somewhere around 22mph (35 kilometers).
  • Kneeboarding – Somewhere around 13 to 20 mph (22 to 32 kilometers)
  • Barefoot – This blog gives a formula that is helpful for those in the U.S.  Take your weight in pounds and divide by 10.  Then add 20.  So if you’re 200 pounds, you go to 20mph, then add 20, which means 40mph.

If you are new to boating, that is probably a little eye-opening.  Before, you thought you needed as much speed as possible, but as you can see from this breakdown, the optimal speed for most watersports is only 22 mph (36 kilometers).  Just about ANY pontoon boat with a 90hp motor can do that as long as it isn’t loaded down with people.  With a 115, you should be hitting the optimal speed even if your boat is pretty well loaded down with people. For most pontoon boat captains, the real goal is to hit the golden 22 mph (36 kph) mark.  At that point, your fishing/cruising rig becomes a nice watersports rig as well.

How Weight (Load) Affects Speed

Prepare yourself for a horrible generalization.  This depends dramatically on the specific boat and the setup, but just as a guestimation aid, for every thousand pounds you add to your boat, you’ll lose about 15% of your speed.  So a 22′ boat with no load may get up to 29mph, but will likely slow down to 24.5mph with 1,000 pounds of people in the boat (5 or 6 adults).

How the bimini Affects Speed

  • One pontoon boat captain reported that folding down the bimini took  his speed from 32mph all the way up to 36mph (51kilometers to 58 kilometers).  In my experience, it’s usually much less of a difference than that unless it is an incredibly windy day.  I usually only see a 1 mph difference with top up vs down.

How the Prop Affects Speed

  • When you first get your boat, it will likely come with a “safe” prop that is meant to make the motor operate under nice and easy conditions.  Almost everyone will switch out that prop and go with something a little smaller (usually) to get the speed up and push up the RPMs to around 5000 or 6000 depending on your recommended range for your particular motor.

How Dirty Pontoons Affect Speed

  • It is not surprising to see a pontoon boat slow down 2 to 6mph if you have algae, barnacles, or other crud on your pontoons.  For those pontoon boat captains who don’t trailer but leave their boat in the water most of the season, this is an important consideration.

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

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