I love our pontoon boat (new member)

[Mel85CJ]

Hey there!

Im Melanie from Zelienople, PA. My family and I bought a 1985 Harris Flotebote Heritage 24' pontoon boat last year. I scoured craigslist and the local "horsetrader" papers before I found this one in one of the local papers.

It was kind of hard finding a pontoon boat that was still in nice shape, but still fairly economical.. seems like there was either the $1500-$2500 "needs some work" boats or the $10,000+ boats. This one was in between

We run our boat down on Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. We have a old cottage down there (surrounded by nice luxurious homes). We also have a runabout. We have had the cottage for 58 years, but, amazingly enough this is our first pontoon boat! After getting it last year, we were kicking ourselves for not getting one sooner! The runabout saw wayyyy less use last year, and this year I anticipate it will see even less use, as we are going to replace the 40hp Evinrude outboard that came with the boat with a higher (likely a 90) hp outboard to scoot around a little better.

Anyways, just introducing myself. I hope to post more.. here are some pix

Boat when I first went and got it:

My family enjoying a cruise (albeit it was kinda a crappy day)

 

[rrhodes]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Welcome, nothing like spending the day on a floating livingroom. we love our Toon

 

[EGlideRider]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Welcome to the forum. Lot's of great and knowledgeable guys here very willing to share their knowledge about these great boats.

 

[lncoop]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Welcome aboard Mel. Those old Flotebotes are good for many an hour on the water, which you already know. They can still be found for sale on dealer lots around here. Pipe up any time you have a question or comment and we'll do our bestest to help.

 

[Water logged]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Welcome aboard Mel. I know you will get a lot of good info and hours of fun reading on this forum.

Glenn

 

[5150abf]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

I had to double check the year of your boat, man that looks really nice for a 26 year old boat.

As others have said, this is the place for all things boating.

 

[Mr Crabbs]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Real nice looking boat, sounds like you got a good deal!

We spend a lot of time out on ours in the summer, I already have two pontoon vacations planned.

 

[tbagger]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Hey Mel, great looking boat. I have that same hard top on the 1988 riviera cruiser we bought last fall. We were wondering what a snap around cover would look like and how it would be configured and there you are with a great picture of yours, thanks. Did you add that or was it included and how do you like the hard top, I've never seen one around here.

 

[Mel85CJ]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Bagger,
It came with it, and it is a GREAT feature.. we love it! It keeps the interior in great shape... there are also matching front covers for the front seats, so we don't have to cover the entire boat, my nieces and nephew love to go on and off the boat when it is docked (we keep it docked at our family cottage at Deep Creek, MD lake all summer), it is like a little clubhouse for them. I love the hard top, I love the wrap around enclosure. If you go to HERE you can see closer pictures of the enclosure (from when I bought it)

here is a picture of it docked:

 

[lncoop]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Man, that thing is the cats! Can't believe how clean and nice it is. You've really got a gem there.

 

[MSGTRETIREDCSP]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

That's a sweeeet looking boat. It's hard finding a good used boat that clean. Got a name for it yet?

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Wow, that thing's in great shape. Your in for a lotta fun this season. Bring along a few extra towels to sit on. Those dark seats will get a bit warm in the sun.

 

[Jeff-in-PA]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

My wife and I got our pontoon (1993 Starcraft 240 Starfisher ) in Sept '08 and other than being slower than the inboard, it's great.

Hey Mel, great looking boat. I have that same hard top on the 1988 riviera cruiser we bought last fall. We were wondering what a snap around cover would look like and how it would be configured and there you are with a great picture of yours, thanks. Did you add that or was it included and how do you like the hard top, I've never seen one around here.

click for bigger pic

 

[joebob14]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Love your boat mel,I want to get a rain cover like that for mine. I wish my wife wanted a little more pep out of our boats.

 

[tbagger]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Thanks for the other pics, thats a great cover, showed my wife the pics and she loved them too. We have the same hard top and would like to do something like that, maybe not this year as work is slow and that enclosure must cost a pretty penny to have made up. Thanks again!

 

[Mel85CJ]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

Thanks everyone This will be our second season with it.

Jeep Man - yes, the seats get very hot in the summer we bring towels and have a little spray mister on board also.

MSG - I wanted to name it "April fools" because I fooled my family into thinking that I had bought a totally dissasembled pontoon boat (emailed pictures and everything) on april fools day last year.. they were much relieved when I showed them the "real" pictures. However, we never got the letters and my brother started calling it the "Hooptie Boat" last year because we are surrounded by many high end boats on the lake we are at and we look a little low-brow (though we all love the boat and are proud of our "hooptie boat").

Projects for this year- the 90hp motor, gonna put a new radio in it, refinish the wood parts, get a 12 gallon plastic fuel tank. I don't know if we are going to put the windshield back up, it doesn't really block the wind so much, and we have to take it off when we fold the roof forward (down) for transport (we haul it back up from MD to PA to go into storage near where we live in the wintertime)

We put our dock (and boat) in the lake on Mothers day. I can't wait!

Mel

 

[Bigbobdallas]

Re: I love our pontoon boat (new member)

That is one fine Toon and I especially love that top. I am going to rig me up one like that next year. Just got mine and haven't had it out yet, still working on it. Welcome to Forum this is a great forum. Need answers someone will answer help you. Welcome Again