thanks for your comments. Maybe I will rent one next time we are at Lake
George and see how it handles on the rougher lake waters. The 23' pontoon
boat we had on Candlewood Lake had 2 pontoons but I know some have 3. It
had a 75HP motor and the marina said it could only tube, not wakeboat. We
didn't try any fast turns with the kids in tow. It had no problem getting
up to 20MPH quickly according to our GPS. We didn't take the tube over
15MPH.

I can only tow a total weight of 4500lbs (boat and trailer) with my Honda
Pilot, so that is a consideration too. I was a littlle spoiled with my
F150 - tow limit was 7700lbs.
Rocky

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 07:19:31 -0400, "Rocky"
wrote:

I rented a pontoon boat this week on a lake. The family really enjoyed
the
wide open floor and seating compared to the confined cuddy on the Bayliner
we used to own. How would a pontoon boat ride and handling compare to my
old bayliner on long island sound with 1 to 3 foot waves and strong
current?
We've been on Lake George, NY with wave crashing over our bow and
windshield - can pantoon safely handle that kind of condition or are they
prone to capsize? I haven't seen many articles on them in the boating
magazines. How much HP would I need to pull a wake boarder?

I can't answer this directly as I have about zero experience with
pontoon boats, but I have noticed a lot more pontoon boats in the over
24' class out and about around Fisher's Island than I ever have
before. They seem to handle the bigger wakes and waves ok, but I'm
not convinced that 1 to 3 would be a good idea in a high windage boat
for a sustained period of time. That space between the pontoons is a
wind tunnel and on LIS, well.... :)

As to hp, there is a Sylvan up on Webster Lake with a 150 Honda on it
and it screams in terms of speed - I've seen it pull three skiers very
well getting them up and out of the water quickly. I don't think it
maneuvers very well because at the end of the run, he had to slow down
considerably to make a turn and the skier's lost plane.

Sorry I can't give you more on that.