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Pontoon boats may still be the ultimate “party barge,” but these versatile craft have grown far beyond the slow-moving vessel you may remember from Grandpa’s cocktail cruise. Yes, the core remains very much the same — stable pontoons below, topped by an abundance of seating above. Today’s craft, however, increasingly feature plusher seats and lounges, entertainment centers and wet bars, and the latest sound and lighting systems. They also perform increasingly like boats with a deeper v-shaped bottom, or “hull”, and include with triple-tube models that carve on a dime and an abundance of horsepower.

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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?

• 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.

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Bargain Pontoon Boat Wraps Not Always A Bargain

Does taking shortcuts for winter storage pay off?

By: Dan Armitage

As many of my fellow pontoon boat club members readied their craft for the off-season, I grew intrigued by the DIY, alternative and after-market solutions some came up with for protecting their boats and related gear. Some of these non-traditional apps are put into use by my resourceful fellow boaters during the boating season as well, and are of value for those lucky pontoon boaters south of the Mason-Dixon Line who don’t know the meaning of “off” season and may enjoy their craft year-round.

For example, you will find covers intended for back yard use on chaise lounges and Adirondack chairs protecting the furniture of some members’ boats. The patio furniture covers are less expensive than semi-custom covers designed for the job, wear well under typical conditions, and the fact that the generic one-size-fits-all covers don’t fit all that tight allows air to circulate and the upholstery to breathe a bit, which can help prevent mildew in the damp environs the boats are subject to. And when conditions aren’t typical, and a loose-fitting captain’s (aka: Adirondack) chair cover goes gone with the wind, it’s less expensive to replace.

If you’ve run across any non-traditional uses for items aboard a pontoon —or any other watercraft – we’d like to see ‘em. Meanwhile, here are a few I stumbled across during a recent late-season walk around the local pontoon boat club – and one photo I snapped last winter that reminded me that going with cost cutting alternatives may not be the bargain you, well, bargained on…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PONTOON BOATS

By: yhwatersports.com

Picture a sleepy summer day, a warm sunshiny breeze and the smooth sheen of a clear blue lake. The only thing missing is you in this scene on a protective Pontoon boat. Pontoon boats have been a favorite way to enjoy the mixture of sun and water since the fifties. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, pontoon boat sales were up by 48% in 2016. Here are some more facts on this fun-in-the-sun sporting vessel that you should know.

A Little Bit of History

In 1951 the first commercially manufactured pontoon boat is credited to a farmer named Ambrose Weeres from Minnesota. He visioned a craft that was stable in the water and large enough for the whole family. By the late 1960s, pontoons, as we know them today, were a part of every lake across the country.

 Types of Pontoons

• Fiberglass – Used as a construction material for the hulls, it is a lightweight and fairly durable material. Fiberglass pontoons perform well on the water, not subject to rust, and many people prefer its visual appeal. However if damaged repairs can be quite expensive.
• Foam filled – Foam filled pontoons boats are not hollow so they can’t leak and typically cheaper to manufacture. They usually have a plastic exterior and don’t require a thick shell to protect a hollow interior. They typically need to be narrow because the wider they get the lower they sit in the water. This leads to more drag, slower speeds, and poor fuel economy.
• Steel – The main disadvantage of a steel pontoon boat is that steel is a corrosive material, and will rust over time when exposed to moisture and air. Without regular maintenance a steel pontoon can develop leaks and cracks, which may require extensive repairs.
• Aluminum – The most common type of pontoon boat on the market. Unlike steel, aluminum is non-corrosive and wont rust over time just from being exposed to moisture. It’s very durable and repairs are usually easy and relatively inexpensive. Aluminum pontoon boats may be more expensive than other pontoon boats but low maintenance, and knowing that it will last for many years, makes aluminum pontoon boats a top choice for buyers.

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