Actually, the aluminum in the pontoons holds up pretty well to sal****er
although I would never advocate permanently mooring one in sal****er, MUCH
better to trailer them.

Also, you can not use "normal" bottom paint on a pontoon boat (or any other
metal boat for that matter. Galvanic corrosion occurs between the aluminum
and the copper in the anti-fouling bottom paint unless there is an epoxy
barrier put between them. There are problems with epoxy barrier coats too,
but I won't go into that here.

Pontoon boats are some of the lowest maintenance boats I've ever used. I
helped a friend re-furbish his 'toon boat last year. It's 23 years old. All
of the leaks in the pontoons were a result of poor design, not corrosion
(pitting). The welder did have problems trying to weld the old aluminum and
there were a few pinholes in the welds. I did some research for my friend
and found a product called "Aluminox", it's a 2 part epoxy putty made just
for old aluminum. My friend used this epoxy to plug the pinholes in the
welds and the weak parts of the pontoons were re-enforced. We put a new
marine plywood deck on and modified a few things to customize it for his
needs/wants. He now has a very solid 'toon boat that should be good for
another 20 years.

As to your original question about why there aren't more ads for used ones.
Personally, I attribute it to this, seldom do I talk to a pontoon boat owner
where the pontoon boat was his first boat. The stories I hear are much like
my own. I started out at 16 with a 16' jon boat, moved to a 18' center
console, then to a 25' cuddy, now I have a 31' flybridge sportfishing boat.
This is not mentioning that I've owned up to 5 boats at a time. Now I'm to
the point where I'm getting to old to keep the sportfishing boat up. I just
want something for the wife and I to putter around the intercoastal in and
occasional drowned a few shrimp trying to catch fish. Pontoon boat are low
maintenance (certainly not maintenance free though), low cost to buy (most
are $20,000) and their cheap to operate. I can run my friends boat all day
on 6 gallons of fuel . . . a day out on my sportfishing boat uses ~90
gallons, that's why it pretty only leaves the slip when someone else is
paying for the fuel. BTW, if you haven't noticed, my charter boat is for
sale . . . willing to take pontoon boat in trade or partial trade. :-)

Later . . .
Capt. Dave Fortner


"Jay Chan" wrote in message
om...
Althought it is true will any boat, a pontoon boat can easily become
solid
waste/scrap aluminum if you don't take care of them. Perhaps a large
percentage end up in recycling yards when the furniture goes to hell
or the hulls start pitting. If you are using a pontoon in salt water
you need bottom (or whole pontoon) paint.

I see. This probably explains the reason why there are very few ads
for used pontoon boats (most of the small number of ads for pontoon
boats are for new boats). Thanks.

Then I have one question:
Does this also mean that rusty pontoons are very difficult to fix?
Therefore, people don't even bother to fix them. I am under the
impression that fiberglass boats have other sets of problem too, and
probably also be difficult to fix. I don't know. I am just very
puzzled.

Jay Chan