Oh crap, another boat…..

[Hatchdog]

Gorgeous boat, and that third pontoon makes a huge difference.
My parents had a Harris Flote-Bote back when I was in my late teens and early 20s. This was late 70s, early 80s. It had the smaller diameter pontoons, and when there were a lot of people on the boat, and a few people stood on one corner, that corner would submerge a bit. That said, it was a fantastic way to take a bunch of people out on the lake for a day. We'd fish all along the docks with it at night too. It's a lot easier to position when there's no wind. Like you found out, wind pushes them around a lot. The fiberglass canopy would sway like crazy when a wake hit the boat sideways, one pontoon on a crest and another in a trough made for some excitement. Ours was a big boat, at least 24 feet, and had an Evinrude 115. We'd ski off it, but tighter turns would have the propeller track into the trough from outboard pontoon and start to cavitate. You could hear that happening, and feel the boat slow down, and if you were skiing, you'd start to sink, especially on one ski. It was a sad day when they sold that.
And I'm another Yamaha fan, I'm still running the 15 horse 2-stroke I bought in 1987. Just can't fault those Yamahas, I also have two Yamaha motorcycles, equally as reliable.
You've got plenty of good times ahead on that beauty.
Have you decided to name it???

This will be my first experience with Yamaha outboards. I’ve had Mercs in the past and a few Mercruiser I/O’s. I was happy to read Big Al’s report on how easy the Yamahas are to service. That’s a funny story about submerging a corner of the Flote-Bote with the crowd. I’ve seen some videos of folks submerging the bow of a pontoon boat due to too many people and too rough of water.

We’re just about ready to go on our first cruise just in time for Memorial Day weekend. No thanks! We’ll wait until next Tuesday when things calm down.

[BigAl52]

Ive own both outboards and I/O. And after the last I/O and the winter time prep details I dont think I would ever own another I/O as the outboards are just much easier.

[Hatchdog]

Ive own both outboards and I/O. And after the last I/O and the winter time prep details I dont think I would ever own another I/O as the outboards are just much easier.

I hear that. I hope I’m done with bending over an inboard removing drain plugs, oil filters and other back stretching tasks.

[daytime dave]

Thank you for those great interior photographs. I like that rear fishing station. It looks well thought out.
I like how the whole thing is laid out. Those seats look very comfortable. My Mary would be doing the same thing as your wife, lying down out of the wind as I rip across the bay or head down the lake. Sometimes she likes the wind in her hair, but that looks pretty comfortable.

[BigAl52]

You may have already looked Hatch but there is a tutorial at Youtube University of servicing that outboard. Boat interior looks brand new. I bet you will really enjoy that pontoon

[Hatchdog]

You may have already looked Hatch but there is a tutorial at Youtube University of servicing that outboard. Boat interior looks brand new. I bet you will really enjoy that pontoon

Thanks Al, I’ll check out the video. I found my Merc 115 was very simple to service other than the lowest spark plug was impossible to get to. The engineers even put an oil drain outlet for attaching a piece of tubing to get the oil into a drain pan without making a mess.

[Hatchdog]

We took the boat out yesterday for is’t shake down cruise and I’m happy to report everything was great and worked as it should. Love the ability to both adjust speed and steer the kicker motor from the helm. Got 28 mph top speed from the main motor which is good for a pontoon boat. The third pontoon made for a solid ride without any lean in corners. We didn’t fish but ran the live well which tested out fine.

Beached it so the dogs could take a romp which they really enjoyed.

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[BigAl52]

I like you have driven both the pontoon and the tritoon. The tritoon handles alot better than the pontoon does. Like you mentioned they turn quicker and are alot more stable in the corners. Glad its all workin out. You will really like that Toon.

[daytime dave]

I'm glad to hear it's going well.