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Frogwatch[_2_] Frogwatch[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Nov 2008
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Default Getting a pontoon boat to plane

On Nov 1, 12:47*pm, Jack wrote:
On Nov 1, 12:42*pm, I am Tosk wrote:



In article 684491dd-d398-4420-9784-
,
says...


On Nov 1, 11:15*am, Frogwatch wrote:
A friend of mine built a custom pontoon boat roughly 34' long with
beautiful woodwork. *It is powered with a 90 hp and he claims he had
the prop pitched by an expert. *He attains 18 mph so he is planing
some but gets very bad fuel economy, I'd estimate 1 mpg. *Underway,
most people sit on the foredeck so she probably is bow heavy. *Is
there some way to get her to plane better? *He does have one of those
Dol-Fin things on the motor but I think he needs more planing surface
along the pontoons.


Maybe one of these would be the ticket?


http://www.pontoonwaterglide.com/index.asp


Factory "performance" pontoons typically have lifting strakes which
help the toon plane. *In their most basic form, think of taking angle
iron (a piece of L shaped metal) and welding it to each side of the
toons maybe a quarter of the way up the side, giving them some flat
sutface area on each side, thereby increasing the lift. *That would be
tough to add to an existing toon.


I like the setup someone (forget which poster) has on that fast toon...
Down at the same lake as Tom iirc. Anyway, the strake is only on the
inside of the outboard toons so it can get lift on takeoff and plane,
but still corner like a round chine hull with no strake on the outboard
edges of the toon...


That's my Premier you're thinking about. *It's not the fastest in a
straight line, but I believe it's the most maneuverable pontoon. *I
can sling a kid off a tube in a heartbeat! *:-


This is in Florida. The boat seems to be almost completely level at
speed. She does have "lifting strakes" but I think she needs more.
She does sit too low in the water I think. I re-calced the MPG and
got 1.7 mpg. I do not know the pontoon shape underwater.