As some of you may well rememeber me asking questions about a 28 ft.
pontoon boat.

Well, instead of owning and all the hassle that goes with towing ,
launching and messing around with it, for probably no more than it will
actually be used.

My wife and I were looking at trenting one (actually a tri-toon
semi-houseboat) for a river cruise on a long weekend on the Ohio river.
90 horse Nissan, and actually a pretty nice rig.

I've tooled around on small craft on small rivers but nothing like the
ILLINOIS, OHIO, or the MISSISSIPPI. But it seems like a fun thing to
do.

Anyhow, afte reading some old threads like this:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.b...35aca19e?hl=en

It made me think to ask questions on how to handle large wakes from
"wake Cruisers" to large Barge-pushing Tugs..

I have no fear of keeping out of their way, it's out of their wake or
at least how to handle aproaching their wake, that concernes me.

I know of people who have capsized, or swamped because they got int he
*trough* or heading into the wake and *torpedoing* their boat .

Anybody have any advice?

Thanks!

On 30 Apr 2006 19:19:53 -0700, wrote:

As some of you may well rememeber me asking questions about a 28 ft.
pontoon boat.

Well, instead of owning and all the hassle that goes with towing ,
launching and messing around with it, for probably no more than it will
actually be used.

My wife and I were looking at trenting one (actually a tri-toon
semi-houseboat) for a river cruise on a long weekend on the Ohio river.
90 horse Nissan, and actually a pretty nice rig.

I've tooled around on small craft on small rivers but nothing like the
ILLINOIS, OHIO, or the MISSISSIPPI. But it seems like a fun thing to
do.

Anyhow, afte reading some old threads like this:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.b...35aca19e?hl=en

It made me think to ask questions on how to handle large wakes from
"wake Cruisers" to large Barge-pushing Tugs..

I have no fear of keeping out of their way, it's out of their wake or
at least how to handle aproaching their wake, that concernes me.

I know of people who have capsized, or swamped because they got int he
*trough* or heading into the wake and *torpedoing* their boat .

Anybody have any advice?

Thanks!


I am on the inter coastal waterway and see some very big wakes from
large cruisers that aren't planing and are at full displacement. I
never understand why they do it as they are at the most inefficient
point they can be running at and it makes a mess of anything they are
passing. I have no idea how your boat would handle that kind of wake.
In fact I'm not sure you could. I have a 25' Pursuit that has a very
long bow and high gunwales and some of those waves have been all I
want to handle.
But if you want to try it head into the approaching wave at a 45
degree angle. Keep enough speed to prevent you from being knocked off
course into the trough.

If you, somehow, get caught overtaking a big wake use enough throttle
to climb the wave and then bury the throttle going down the wave so
you don't get wash over the stern. You have to outrun the wake.
Again, it's not going to be fun in a converted mobile home!


--This space available for a really clever sig

Hi,

I boat on the Ohio (around Parkersburg, WV & Marietta, OH). I wouldn't
worry about barges. They really don't put out that much wake and it
mostly is a rolling wake directly behind the towboat. The big cruisers
going at plow speed do put out a fairly large standard V-wake, but if
you don't try to hit them dead on at high speed your boat should roll
over them. The worst that I run up against are from stern wheelers
that don't use wake deflectors. These create fairly large rolling
wakes behind them (much larger and closer together than barges). These
can make the ride a little rough, but they tend to level out not too
far behind the stern wheeler and your boat would then roll with the
wakes.

The above is my experience over 40 years on the Ohio, the early years
riding with my parents and the last 15 with my jetskis and the last
couple with my own boat. Dad had a smallish pontoon for 5 or 6 of
those years. Since mom & dad's house is on the river, he was out daily
from May to October.

Dave Hall

On 30 Apr 2006 19:19:53 -0700, wrote:

As some of you may well rememeber me asking questions about a 28 ft.
pontoon boat.

Well, instead of owning and all the hassle that goes with towing ,
launching and messing around with it, for probably no more than it will
actually be used.

My wife and I were looking at trenting one (actually a tri-toon
semi-houseboat) for a river cruise on a long weekend on the Ohio river.
90 horse Nissan, and actually a pretty nice rig.

I've tooled around on small craft on small rivers but nothing like the
ILLINOIS, OHIO, or the MISSISSIPPI. But it seems like a fun thing to
do.

Anyhow, afte reading some old threads like this:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.b...35aca19e?hl=en

It made me think to ask questions on how to handle large wakes from
"wake Cruisers" to large Barge-pushing Tugs..

I have no fear of keeping out of their way, it's out of their wake or
at least how to handle aproaching their wake, that concernes me.

I know of people who have capsized, or swamped because they got int he
*trough* or heading into the wake and *torpedoing* their boat .

Anybody have any advice?

Thanks!

Dave Hall wrote:
.. The big cruisers
going at plow speed do put out a fairly large standard V-wake, Dave Hall


I never could understand that. do they think it's impressive to have
the hull doing a ''wheelie'? or is it an action to make up for
impotence?